The Week That Was: June 5, 2011

kenya Nairobi’s Coffee Fix

A coffee farm in suburban Nairobi is being transformed into a golf community that will feature an 18-hole course.

The course is taking shape on the Migaa Coffee Estate, which occupies 775 acres in Kiambu, a township just north of the capital. At build-out, the community –- it’s said to be the largest gated enclave in metropolitan Nairobi –- is expected to have what’s been described as “decent” and “affordable” houses for up to 4,000 people, office space, two schools, and a sports center.

Although coffee farming was once big business in Nairobi, in recent years many of the area’s farms have been lost to various forms of development. What makes Migaa unique is that coffee will remain one of its main attractions, the way grape-growing and wine-making take place at some golf communities in South America.

Home Afrika Communities, the Nairobi-based home builder that’s developing Migaa, plans to maintain almost half of its property as open space, with 100 acres devoted to coffee farming. In addition, the company plans to convert the farm’s production facility into a coffee museum

According to a widely distributed story, work recently began on one of the holes at Migaa’s 18-hole, 190-acre course. The track has been designed by David Jones, a British architect who’s probably better known in North America as a golfer on the European and Senior tours. Jones has designed several golf properties on his own, including Castlereagh Hills Golf Club in suburban Belfast, Northern Ireland, and he co-designed (with architects from European Golf Design) two courses at Antalya Golf Club in the Belek region of Turkey.

southeast asia Tony the Tiger

Following the money, Tony Jacklin has hired an agent to drum up some design work in India and Southeast Asia.

Jacklin’s eyes and ears in those places will be Sylvan Braberry, the former CEO of Singapore Island Country Club. Earlier this year Braberry established Club Advantage, Inc., a group that offers various management-related services to golf and country clubs.

Once upon a time -– 40 years ago, unfortunately -– Jackson was among the biggest stars in golf. He began his professional career in 1962, won the British Open in 1969 and the U.S. Open in 1970, served four times a Ryder Cup captain in the 1980s, and was eventually elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame.

None of those accolades guarantee design contracts, however.

Since he went into the design business (his office is in Bradenton, Florida), Jacklin has been able to put his name on four courses, including co-designs with Jack Nicklaus at the Concession in Sarasota, Florida and with Dave Thomas at San Roque Golf Club in Sotogrande, Spain. Jacklin has also been contracted to design two courses on the island of Cyprus for Dolphin Capital Investors, and his website lists pending work in China, Inner Mongolia, Morocco, Venezuela, and other countries.

“Passion, dedication, and respect were the driving forces that made me one of the greatest professional golfers, and these are the same qualities that I bring to my golf course design activities today,” Jacklin said in a press release announcing his contract with Braberry.

“The qualities of passion, dedication, and respect are also the cornerstones of Club Advantage’s business beliefs, and we feel that we have excellent synergies between the two organizations,” said Braberry.

Braberry will stump for Jacklin in 17 countries, among them the usual suspects (Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia) as well as some decidedly out-of-the-way places (Bhutan, Bangladesh, Brunei, Nepal).

In related news, Jacklin will be making a trip to Thailand later this year, when he appears as a guest speaker at the upcoming 2011 Asia Pacific Golf Summit.

portugal Mother Nature and Human Nature

Next week Robert Trent Jones, Jr. officially opens his second golf property in Portugal, at Onyria Palmares Beach & Golf Resort in the Algarve.

Jones has redesigned the resort's existing 18 and designed a new nine. The three nine-hole tracks -- the Alvor, Lagos, and Beach courses -- now serve as drawing cards for a 500-acre resort community in Palmares that will eventually include some villas, a 172-room hotel, the obligatory spa, a beach club, meeting space, and a NASA-fabricated rocket launch pad.

Just kidding about the launch pad, folks. When you write about by-the-numbers development as often as I do, you sometimes can't resist the urge to add some spice.

Here's all you need to know about the golf complex, and this time I'm going to let Jones do the talking: “We studied the land at great length, in order that the golf course would have the minimum impact upon it. In fact, Mother Nature is the best master and the best architect, so we follow her. Never fight with Mother Nature. We follow the land, and let the land evoke a response to us.”

I won't pretend to understand every nuance of that comment, which I suspect is more calculated than it appears to be and just a little disingenuous. After all, the land may start the conversation, but the designer always gets the last word.