Shameless Self-Promotion, december 2011

Life, it’s sometimes said, is a beach. And golf development, I’ll tell you right now, is evolving into the search for a perfect beach -– or at least a perfect beachfront property.

Expanses of sandy soil, dunes sprinkled with native grasses, unpredictable ocean breezes -– this is the stuff of minimalist dreams, and minimalists, be they designers or developers, are about the only people working in golf these days. On foot or on Google Earth, they tirelessly search the coasts of our planet for tracts ideally suited for golf. Day after day, night after night, they beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

Okay, I stole most of that last sentence from F. Scott Fitzgerald. My bad.

And while there’s no Great Gatsby in December’s World Edition of the Golf Course Report, we did provide our faithful readers with news about the current activities of golf’s foremost beachcombers. In particular, we revealed which developer has dispatched Tom Doak to size up a coastal site in Argentina, and where in Tasmania the next world-class minimalist golf course is expected to emerge.

Need more sand and water? Well, we also reported on two California-based architects who’ll be spending time next year on sunny beaches in Panama and Puerto Rico.

Of course, sometimes the search for ideal property takes golf development way off the beaten track and far from the madding crowd. (Thomas Hardy, I apologize.) That’s why we also reported on the future of the most historic course on the Isle of Man, on the new life that awaits a course on Pulau Langkawi, on a planned new course at a resort in a dusty, remote part of Australia, and on new courses in Kenya and Nigeria.

We’ve also got stories about golf projects in less sandy, more conventional places, namely the course in Vietnam designed by the world’s premier “signature” architect, the course in England designed by the self-described “purist” architect, and other up-and-coming ventures in China, Tunisia, and other places.

Let’s hope they all get built.

If you'd like your own copy of December’s World Edition, give me a call at 301/680-9460 or send an e-mail to me at WorldEdition@aol.com.