india Player Gets Commission Number Two

It didn’t take long for Gary Player’s design firm to turn its first Indian commission into a second.

While construction continues at DLF Golf & Country Club in suburban New Delhi, Player’s design crew has begun to draw plans for an eco-friendly nine-hole course in suburban Ahmedabad, one of India’s fastest-growing cities. The Player Design track -- this designation means it won’t carry Gary Player’s “signature” -- will serve as a drawing card for Glade One, a community that will consist of 350 villas, a boutique hotel, and a spa.

Glade One is the first golf development venture for bSafal, an Ahmedabad-based company that’s also known as Safal Constructions Pvt. Ltd. bSafal, which is led by Rajesh and Rupesh Brahmbhatt (they’re brothers), says that its mission is “to establish a new standard of resort living in India.”

bSafal expects to break ground on the golf course in the spring of next year.

Scott Farrell, the president of Player’s Travelers Rest, South Carolina-based design firm, tells me that the layout will take shape on “a pretty flat site” and “will require creativity.” The track will almost certainly include multiple tees (and possibly multiple greens) for a varied 18-hole experience.

Naturally, Farrell would have preferred to produce an 18-hole course, but bSafal didn’t have enough property.

“Getting land in India is a big obstacle to growth,” he explains. “That’s why you see so many nine-hole courses and golf academies being developed.”

Jeff Lawrence, Player’s senior designer, is overseeing the design process for the course at Glade One and the construction of the nine-hole course at DLF. When the construction at the latter is completed, probably sometime next year, the firm will redesign DLF’s existing course to create a “signature” layout.

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