The Week That Was, july 24, 2011

brazil An Australian Makes His Pitch

Regarding the 2016 Olympics in Brazil: The dog and pony show has begun.

Ross Perrett, the lead designer and managing partner of an Australian firm that's been designing golf courses for something like 40 years, was in Rio de Janeiro last week, pitching his firm's ability to design the golf course that will host the games.

“Yes, we're putting our oar in for the construction of the course,” said Peter Thomson, the founder of Melbourne-based Thomson Perrett, in a press release.

Thomson, a legendary professional golfer (he's a five-time winner of the British Open), reported that his partner went to Rio “to begin discussions with Brazilian Olympic officials” and was accompanied by a trade delegation from Victoria.

As I reported last Sunday, the venue for the Olympics competition will be built on a site called Riserva Uno, in an upscale neighborhood of southwestern Rio known as Barra da Tijuca. About half of the games' venues -- not to mention the Olympic village and the athletes' private beach -- will be located in Barra.

Thomson Perrett isn't a household name in the United States, but the company has designed a slew of courses -- at least 100 new tracks -- in Australia, New Zealand, China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Japan, and other nations. It's also designed courses in the United Kingdom, via a subsidiary (Thomson Perrett & Lobb) that's based in suburban London, England.

It's impossible for me to determine whether Thomson Perrett is a serious contender for the coveted design commission. But I know this: If the selection were up to Darius Oliver, the firm wouldn't have a chance.

Thomson Perrett don’t build bad golf courses, writes Oliver, who blogs at Planet Golf, but Australia is a sophisticated market, and Aussie golfers tend to demand more than just nice-looking holes. The company would need to reinvent itself to repair some of the damage done by a decade of what could be viewed as substandard work, the sins of poor design compounded by the fact that some of their projects were on such fine golf land.

The Olympic organizers are also expected to hear from both individuals (Arnold Palmer and Gary Player, among others) as well as teams (Jack Nicklaus and Annika Sorenstam, Greg Norman and Lorena Ochoa, and Robert Trent Jones, Jr. and Mario Gonzalez).

The powers that be will select a winner soon, probably within weeks.

england Gaunt Goes Live at Leeds

Jonathan Gaunt has been tapped to oversee a renovation of the course where Colin Montgomerie learned to play golf.

It's the 6,262-yard track at Ilkley Golf Club, which is located along the River Wharfe in a northwestern suburb of Leeds. The course opened in 1898. Though I can't determine the original designer, a British website says the current layout is “mainly a tribute to the combined architectural skills of Alister MacKenzie and Harry Colt,” who apparently became involved with the club in about 1909.

These days Gaunt, a British architect, has a new course under construction in Morocco. He's also been hired to design a second course in Morocco, along with other new courses in Argentina and England.

As it turns out, Gaunt also learned to play golf at Ilkley. His master plan for the renovation calls for upgrades to the layout's tees, greens, and bunkers, all of which will be restored to the MacKenzie style. Phase one of the work began in April.

Incidentally, Montgomerie reportedly holds the course record, a 64.

scotland At the Angus, Not Cowed

Darren Clarke's victory at the Open Championship was worth nearly $1.5 million, along with a $3.2 million bonus from one of his sponsors. And it sure won't mess up his plans to become a brand-name golf designer.

On that score, the golf pro from Northern Ireland has unveiled the design of his latest course, a “signature” track at the Angus, a resort community that's to be built on farmland just west of Carnoustie.


“When you first glimpse the landscape where the Angus will take shape, you can't help but feel you're somewhere Mother Nature intended for golf,” Clarke said in a press statement.

He added: “I can't wait to play it myself.”

Mike Forbes, the developer of the Angus, has allotted 200 acres for Clarke's course, which will stretch to 7,000 yards. As I noted in a post in March, on his remaining property Forbes plans to build 160 houses, a hotel, a spa, and a youth-oriented golf academy operated by Rudy Duran, one of Tiger Woods' childhood instructors.

Clarke's “ghost designer” is Graeme Webster of Niblick Golf Design in Moss, Norway. Webster and his associates, Clarke says, “have laid the foundations for the course by blending the classic traditions of golf with their innovative and exciting approach to course design.”

Webster has already designed one course for Forbes, a nine-hole track at the Forbes of Kingennie country resort in nearby Dundee.