The Week That Was, september 4, 2011

japan The Fallout

I'm sure it won't surprise anyone to learn that the golf business in Fukushima Prefecture is hurting as a result of the devastating earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan in March.

The Daily Yomiuri reports that 12 of the prefecture's 63 courses are closed until further notice due to radioactive contamination. Of those courses, three are in the prefecture's dead zone and one is in the half-dead zone just outside it.

Note: My use of the phrases dead zone and half-dead zone hasn't been approved by the Japanese government.

The eight other shuttered courses in Fukushima, located in supposedly safe areas, are free to open if they want to but haven't done so and may not anytime soon -- or perhaps ever. It costs a bundle to decontaminate a course, and there's little reason to believe that educated golfers are ever going to feel comfortable playing on radioactive grass.

The prefecture's still-operating courses are also suffering, as they're having a hard time attracting players and holding on to their members. This is to be expected in an area where golfers have more pressing things to do, like maybe rebuilding their shattered lives. To wit: The number of players at the 40 golf properties affiliated with the Fukushima Prefectural Golf Association was down by 49 percent in May 2011 as compared to May 2010.

What's worse, the newspaper says, is that “future prospects remain dim.”

china More at Mission Hills?

Will more golf courses soon emerge at Mission Hills Hainan? And if so, how many?

As most everyone knows, golf construction at Mission Hills Hainan has been taking place on an epic scale. David and Ken Chu, the principals of Mission Hills Group, opened the resort's first three courses in April 2010, added another trio in September 2010, and then delivered four more tracks earlier this year.

But 10 courses are not apparently enough.

Ron Gluckman of the Wall Street Journal reports that “work on more courses at the site,” which occupies 19,800 acres on Hainan Island, “is continuing.”

Gluckman doesn't say how much work is continuing, but he issued some details about a goofy-sounding course -- “outlandish,” he calls it -- that the Chus apparently allowed him to write about. According to his report, the 18-hole, Brian Curley-designed layout will feature “a replica of the Great Wall, a hole inside a giant bowl of noodles, a small-scale version of the Bird's Nest Stadium from the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and a tee tucked behind a waterfall.”

Curley, who's designed all of the existing courses at Mission Hills Hainan, likens this “fantasy” course to miniature golf, “but on a grandiose scale.”

“Purists might not like [the course], but I think it's exactly what golf needs,” he says. “Golf has been stagnant for way too long.”

Exactly what golf needs? Seriously?

The Chus are extremely tight-lipped about their golf activities, so much so that Mission Hills Hainan was once known only by its code name: Project 791. For a while, in fact, they even denied its existence, despite the fact that construction updates were regularly making their way out of the People's Republic.

The question now is, How many more courses do the Chus plan to build at Mission Hills Hainan? Before you answer, consider this: An early master plan for the resort showed 18 courses, and some reporters were led to believe that as many as 22 were in the works.

denmark Makeover for a Great Dane

A Danish design team has broken ground on what they describe as “the biggest reconstruction project ever to take place in Denmark.”

The venue is the New course at Himmerland Golf & Country Club in Gatten, an American- and Scottish-influenced track that was designed by Jan Sederholm. The club aims to give the course a major overhaul, in the hope of landing an event on the European PGA Tour in 2014.

Philip Spogárd and Michiel VanderVaart have been commissioned to oversee the renovation. The course will be lengthened with a set of so-called tournament tees (when all is said and done, it'll be the nation's longest layout), its greens will be rebuilt to USGA specifications, and its bunkers will be relocated and rebuilt. A new par-3 hole will be created, some fairways will be recontoured to eliminate blind shots, and a new irrigation system will be installed.

The construction is being done by David Nelson, a Scottish builder.

Himmerland is said to be one of the top resorts in Scandinavia. It has a second 18-hole course, the Old course, as well as a nine-hole, par-3 track. Spogárd and VanderVaart also expect to upgrade the latter.

The golf upgrades are part of a larger-scale rejuvenation taking place at the club. The property's clubhouse is being enlarged, and its hotel is adding meeting space and a spa.

“We will be able to offer something pretty unique when both the golf course and our other facilities are ready,” the club’s chief executive said in a press release.

The redesigned course is scheduled to debut in August 2012.