The Pipeline, january 10, 2014

     Is the National Golf Foundation still wearing rose-colored glasses, or is it viewing the world of golf development clearly? The trade group counts roughly 170 golf projects currently in planning or under construction in the United States, enough to conclude that there is “meaningful development activity in the pipeline.” What’s more, the trade group has determined that the total amount of development activity in the Americas and the Caribbean -- an additional 150 projects -- “outstrips any other region of the world, including Asia.” If the NGF’s numbers are accurate, China may very well be yesterday’s development news.

     One of the premier “lifestyle” developers in the United States is looking to build a high-end golf community on Long Island. An affiliate of Scottsdale, Arizona-based Discovery Land Company is eyeing 436 acres in East Quogue, New York for an enclave that would feature a Tom Fazio-designed course surrounded by 82 luxury houses. The community, called the Hills at East Quogue, was initiated several years ago by a local development group whose pockets weren’t nearly as deep as DLC’s. Fazio has long been one of DLC’s most effective collaborators. The company has developed 14 U.S. golf properties, and Fazio has created courses for a half-dozen of them, including the Madison Club in La Quinta, California; Gozzer Ranch in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; Iron Horse in Whitefish, Montana; and Mirabel in North Scottsdale, Arizona. The venture in New York is no sure thing -- the East End Beacon reports that the area’s residents have “mixed views” about it, and DLC hasn’t yet secured the rezoning it needs to proceed with construction -- but it suggests that top-of-the-market residential developers still believe that celebrity-designed courses can help to sell houses.

     Kerala, a state in southwestern India, has set out to build its fourth international airport, and it’ll be accompanied by an aerotropolis featuring at least one golf course. Kannur International Airport, a single-runway facility to be located on 2,500 acres just west of Mattannur, is scheduled to open in late 2015. Its creation is being overseen by a government-led consortium, Kannur International Airport, Ltd., although most of its planned development ventures will be carried out by private-sector groups. KIAL has master-planned the aerotropolis to include a convention center, hotels, business parks, warehouses, and an unspecified number of golf courses. The initial construction projects, most of them related to the airport itself, will likely be awarded in the spring of next year.

     The preceding post originally appeared in the November 2013 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.

     Now that the world’s coldest capital city has opened its first all-grass golf course, how long before it opens its second? Odjargal Jambaljamts, the Oxford-educated leader of the group that owns Mount Bogd Golf Club in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, hasn’t yet answered that question, but his decision will likely involve more than mere dollars and cents. Mount Bogd officially opened in June 2013, and Jambaljamts certainly didn’t build it to satisfy local demand. Instead, he’s looking to create an internationally recognized golf community, a goal that will require him to give golf writers more than one good reason to visit a nation so far off the beaten track. That being said, Jambaljamts didn’t become Mongolia’s richest person by losing sight of the big picture. He expects Mount Bogd to attract the international businessmen who’ve begun to invest in the nation, and his MCS Group is helping his countrymen develop a taste for the Western lifestyle by brewing Genghis Khan Beer, bottling Coca-Cola, and distributing products manufactured by Procter & Gamble.

     The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the October 2013 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.

     A dumping ground southeast of Dubai’s international airport could become the home of the emirate’s next golf course. The course will be among the attractions at a wildlife-focused theme park that’s taking shape on up to 1,000 acres of municipally controlled land in the Al Warqa neighborhood, just down Al Awir Road from the Dubai Design Centre. “If it is not the best park in the world, it will be one of the best in the world,” the executive director of Dubai Municipality told local newspapers. The municipality aims to open the park in 2014. It hasn’t said whether it plans to build the course on its own or whether it plans to enlist a private group to do it.

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

     Rwanda’s third golf course is expected to meet “championship standards” and serve as the centerpiece of what Global Travel Industry News calls “a major golf resort.” The course has been master-planned to emerge along the shores of Lake Kivu, in the western part of the nation, as part of a community that will surround a planned marina. Rwanda currently has an 18-hole course in Kigali, the nation’s capital, and a nine-hole track, Falcon Golf & Country Club, in Rwamagana, in the Eastern Province. Additional golf ventures may be in the works, however, for the news service says that the sport is “growing in popularity” in Rwanda and that more courses are needed “to meet the growing demand.”

     The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the October 2013 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.

     Last fall, the head of Thomson Perrett & Lobb’s architectural practice in Cape Town, South Africa hung out his own shingle. “Africa is a huge potential market for golf and will give rise to some amazing courses in the future,” believes Andrew Goosen, who now operates as Morris Golf Company. Goosen will complete projects he was working on while at TPL, among them an unnamed course in Calabar, Nigeria; Plaine des Roches Golf Course on Mauritius; and Ponta Majumbo Golf Course in Maputo, Mozambique. He’s also designing a new course of his own, Kingfisher Hill Golf Course outside Hoedspruit, South Africa, and overseeing a renovation of Mananga Golf Course in Mananga, Swaziland. Goosen cites Harry Colt, Alister MacKenzie, and Old Tom Morris as inspirations and says that “classical principles of golf design” will serve as the foundation for his work.

     Last fall, it was reported that professional golfer and “signature” architect Ernie Els had been contracted to design courses in Shenzhen, China and in Vietnam, and that staffers from his Jupiter, Florida-based design firm were also evaluating opportunities in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and other nations. But there’s apparently a bit more work in Els’ personal pipeline. In a story published by the Irish Times, one of Els’ caddies says that his boss recently flew “to sign a deal for a course” near Kunming, China and that he also has a design agreement in Croatia. “With business commitments like these,” Colin Byrne wrote, “it’s important to have your own plane as an office when you are still competing with the best in your day job.”