The Week That Was, september 30, 2012

mauritius TPL’s Next Confection

A sugar company in Mauritius has inked Thomson Perrett & Lobb to what may eventually be a sweet design commission.

Andrew Goosen, who works out of TPL’s office in Cape Town, South Africa, is drawing plans for an 18-hole, daily-fee course in Rivière du Rempart, a town in the northeastern part of the island nation. After a site visit in May, Goosen posted an online report saying that the course will likely be flanked by houses, a shopping village, and a golf academy.

The property, a former dairy farm, has an air strip that serves as a base of operations for Skydive Austral, a skydiving center that will continue to operate while the community takes shape. The site is just a short drive from Belle Mare Plage Golf Club, one of more than a dozen golf properties in Mauritius.

TPL hasn’t yet identified its client, but I believe it’s Mon Loisir Sugar.

Sugar production once represented as much as 25 percent of Mauritius’ gross national product, but the business is declining and many sugar companies are trying to diversify.

The original version of this post first appeared in the July 2012 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.

wales Enjoying the Ryder

The Ryder Cup isn’t just boffo box office and an eyeball-grabber in Televisionland. It can also give a shot in the arm to a nation’s tourism business.

Take Wales, which hosted the Ryder Cup matches in 2010. According to a tourism group, in 2002 Wales attracted 30,000 foreign golfers who opened their wallets to the tune of $8.97 million. Last year, however, Wales attracted 200,000 foreign golfers who pumped almost $51.3 million into its economy.

Wales may not be a foreign golfer’s first choice in golf destinations -- in the United Kingdom alone, Scotland and Ireland rank higher -- but the Ryder Cup has clearly paid welcome dividends.

Here’s the curious part: While golf tourism in Wales may be up, the nation’s overall tourism is down. Earlier this year, tourism officials reported that the number of nights spent in Wales by international travelers fell from 989,000 in 2009 to 878,000 in 2011.

When it comes to tourism, at least, the Ryder Cup’s impact is limited.

canada Tsawwassen Springs: Locked & Loaded

Ted Locke’s makeover of Tsawwassen Springs Golf Club is complete, and a reviewer in British Columbia has deemed it “light years ahead of its predecessor in both length and course condition.”

Ron Toigo's Shato Holdings bought the 46-year-old course three years ago, with an eye toward making it the centerpiece of a community in suburban Vancouver called Tsawwassen Springs. The original, 4,276-yard track, says Mark Hood of the North Shore News, was “short, mosquito-infested, and fairly easy.” Locke has stretched the course to 5,439 yards, and Hood believes it’s “a vast improvement over what existed before and has some serious game.”

Toigo is a celebrity in Vancouver, and not just because he owns a chain of donut shops. He owns the Vancouver Giants, the city’s most prominent junior hockey team, in partnership with hockey legend Gordie Howe, long-time NHL coach Pat Quinn, and crooner Michael Bublé, who was born in British Columbia. Bublé and Quinn are also minority partners in the Tsawwassen Springs venture, along with Ross Clouston, the president of the home-building group that’s putting 496 houses and condos next to the course.

Locke, who apprenticed with Graham Cooke, has designed several golf courses in British Columbia (including Redwoods Golf Course in Langley) and in the United States (Willows Run Golf Course in Redmond, Washington). Hood says that he “has a knack for updating existing courses and bringing them in line with playing experiences demanded by today's golfers.”

The developers have broken ground on a 32,000-square-foot clubhouse that could open next year. My guess is that it’ll likewise be a far cry from the 1,500-square-foot building it replaces.

Some information in the preceding post originally appeared in the September 2010 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.

talking points Jack Nicklaus: Where’s the Fun?

Do you know why Jack Nicklaus has time to campaign for change in the White House? Because nowadays he hardly plays the game that made him rich and famous.

“I play it once a month, if I have to,” Nicklaus told an audience in Southern Pines, North Carolina. “I stopped climbing the mountain. I love the game of golf, but golf was my vehicle to competition. When I lost my vehicle to competition and lost my golf game and my ability to play, I didn’t really miss golf.”

I can’t decide what’s worse, Nicklaus acknowledging that he doesn’t “miss” golf or the gratuitous “if I have to.” How are we supposed to grow the game if our biggest stars aren’t willing to play purely for the fun of it?

wild card click Lately I've been looking for a reason to move to Baltimore. This may be it.