italy Gary Player’s Double Play

If the economic and political chips fall the right way, Gary Player’s firm is going to break ground on two golf courses in Italy this year.

One will be built on Sardinia, as part of an established golf resort called Is Molas. The other will be the centerpiece of the Manzano Golf Resort in Tuscany, one of the nation’s premier vacation destinations.

It behooves me to note, however, that when it comes to development in Italy, there are no sure things.

“There’s a fairly cumbersome approval process the projects have to go through,” says Scott Ferrell, the president of Gary Player Design. “And of course, the recent economic news hasn’t helped any.”

Then again, Player has been through this before. His firm has already designed two courses in Italy, a nine-hole layout at Arzaga Golf Club in Brescia and an 18-hole course at Donnafugata Golf Resort & Spa on the island of Sicily.

So, fingers crossed, Player hopes to break ground on its new courses by the end of 2012.

The first is likely to emerge at Is Molas, the first resort on Sardinia to offer golf and the only one with a 27-hole complex. Its 18-hole Old course, designed by Ken Cotton and Frank Pennink with assistance from Piero Mancinelli, is a Mediterranean favorite, as it’s hosted numerous professional and amateur championships since it opened in 1975. It’s complemented by a nine-hole executive-length track that was designed Franco Piras, Player’s representative in Italy.

Unlike the Old course at Is Molas, Player’s 7,100-yard track will be tailored primarily for vacationers, and it’ll take shape on flat, mostly featureless property. “The course will have to be manufactured,” notes Jeff Lawrence, the firm’s staff architect in Travelers Rest, South Carolina.

Player’s other Italian job, an 18-hole championship-length layout at Manzano, will be part of what’s being billed as “the first-ever golf resort in Cortona.” At build-out, the 200-acre property will feature 36 “fractional” villas, a 40-room hotel, meeting space, a wellness center, restaurants, and other attractions.

Farrell tells me that his firm is pursuing several other opportunities in Italy these days, including another prospective course on Sardinia.

A slightly different version of this post originally appeared in the March 2012 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.