The Pipeline, june 6, 2014

     Before long, the world’s golfers may have even more reasons to head for the Hills. Borrowing an idea from Augusta National Golf Club, New Zealand’s most exclusive private club plans to add a nine-hole, par-3 layout that would add some fun to its championship events. In addition, five of the course’s holes will be redesigned, to improve a track that already ranks among the nation’s best. “We’ve just got to keep pushing and make this course better and better,” the course’s owner, Sir Michael Hill, told the Otago Daily Times. “We’re on the tip of doing something great here. We want to make this a 100 percent world-class course.” Since its existing 18-hole layout opened, in 2007, the Hills has hosted the New Zealand Open several times, and these days it also hosts the nation’s PGA championship. Sir Bob Charles, New Zealand’s most enduring golf star, thinks it’s the nation’s top course, and Top 100 Golf Courses of the World ranks it #6. The track occupies part of a largely untamed 500-acre spread outside Queenstown, on the South Island, and earned its reputation in part because Hill decorated it with more than a dozen museum-quality sculptures.

     A group of Saudi investors is funding the development of a master-planned community that’s said to be “the single largest development ever proposed” in Lake County, Florida. The investors aim to build the community, called Villa City, on roughly 2,500 acres in Groveland. At build-out, in 2035, Villa City would reportedly have 3,054 houses for seniors, 1,610 other houses, 900 apartments, a shopping center, an industrial park, more than 200,000 square feet of office space, and an 18-hole golf course. “This could be a great starting point for our city," Groveland’s city manager told the Orlando Sentinel. The Saudi group, which has owned the property for more than a decade, is said to include members of the royal family.

     A top official of the Asian Tour is going to put his “signature” on a championship-caliber golf course outside Myanmar’s last royal capital. Kyi Hia Han’s course will be among the attractions at Mandalay Myotha, a mini city that’s emerging on more than 10,000 acres roughly 30 miles southwest of Mandalay. Han, the Asian Tour’s executive director, will co-design the 18-hole track with Lee Schmidt, a principal of Scottsdale, Arizona-based Schmidt-Curley Design. The partners aim to create an “innovative” 8,000-yard layout that Schmidt believes will offer “a stern test for today’s best players.” The city is being developed by Mandalay Myotha Industrial Development Public Company, Ltd., an entity controlled by Royal Hi-Tech Group. MMID expects Mandalay Myotha to offer “the country’s best living, working, enjoyment, and investment opportunities” and to become “a model for modernization in other developing nations.” It plans to break ground on the golf course this summer and to open it by the end of 2015.

     The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the March 2014 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.

     Sometime this fall, the premier golf venue in Poland hopes to take the wraps off what it calls a “championship course in miniature.” The track, called Orli Las, will complement the 18-hole, Gary Player-designed layout at Modry Las Golf Club, the property regarded by Golf Digest as the nation’s best. “We know we cannot sit on our laurels,” the club’s marketing director said in a press release. “That is why we are continuing with our investment program, in order to make Modry Las a luxurious, thriving, and sustainable community.” Orli Las, which can reportedly be played in less than an hour, is said to be “big on challenge.” Modry Las, which is located outside Choszczno, opened Player’s course in 2009. The track is said to be especially popular among Scandinavian golfers.

     With inspiration from Alister MacKenzie, a French touring pro has embarked on a career as a course architect. Nicolas Joakimides, who made his professional debut in 1993, has designed a 27-hole golf complex in Navarrenx, a village in southwestern France. The complex is taking shape on 325 acres surrounding Nitot de Sus, a chateau that dates from the 18th century. Jean-François Cabarrouy, the chateau’s owner, believes the site is ideal for golf. “When I found this property, in 2004,” he explained to La Republic des Pyrenees, “I immediately saw a golf course.” Originally, Cabarrouy wanted Joakimides to produce a course like MacKenzie’s at Augusta National Golf Club, but he settled for something less ambitious: A track that Joakimides says will serve as “a tribute to Mackenzie’s work and ideas.” Cabarrouy broke ground on the 18-hole layout last year. He hopes to open it in the summer of next year, with the nine-hole track to be unveiled in 2016.

     The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the February 2014 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.

     Gary Player has been enlisted to transform a 27-hole complex near Beijing’s international airport into a venue capable of hosting professional tournaments. To complete the mission, Player’s design firm will completely redesign Tianzhu Golf & Country Club, a facility whose original layout was created by Tim Kent of Strategic Golf Design. When all is said and done, Tianzhu will be marketed as a Gary Player “signature” design. Tianzhu’s owners, a group led by Yafei Yuan, expect Player’s firm to complete one nine-hole loop this year and the remaining holes in 2015. “I am confident that the end result will be a fantastic addition to further grow the game in Beijing,” Player said in a press release. Yuan is the chairman of Sanpower Group, a Nanjing-based conglomerate that owns one of China’s major department stores, Nanjing Xinjinkou. Sanpower has ranked as one of China’s Top 500 Enterprises for a decade, and Yuan expects it to become a Fortune Global 500 Company as soon as next year.

     One of Joe Lee’s former apprentices may design the first public course in northern Colombia. Joe Jemsek, an architect based in Chicago, Illinois, is working with an unnamed group that hopes to build a “short” course and a driving range in the Atlantico region, a densely populated area (population: almost 2.3 million) that includes the cities of Barranquilla, Malambo, and Soledad. If the course is a success, it could become a regulation-length layout. “These types of feeder facilities are critical for new player development,” Jemsek told Golf Course Architecture. What’s more, he said, Atlantico is “a great tourist destination” that’s “safe for foreign tourists.” While he waits for the developers to make some headway, Jemsek is overseeing a complete overhaul of Club Lagos de Caujaral (Caujaral Club), a tony private club in suburban Barranquilla that features an 18-hole course designed by Lee in the late 1960s.

     The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the February 2014 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.

     The new nine-hole golf course outside Rwamagana, the capital of Rwanda’s Eastern Province, may be just a hint of things to come. Falcon Golf & Country Club, which officially opened in August 2013, is among the attractions at Eagle on the Lake, a resort community located along Lake Muhazi, in the Kayonza District. At build-out, Eagle on the Lake will feature houses, a hotel, meeting space, and an 18-hole golf “championship” course that its owners believe will be “the ideal place for regional and international golfing events.” Falcon Properties Rwanda, Ltd. hasn’t announced when the 18-hole track will be built, but it probably won’t happen until the community loses its self-described reputation as “one of East Africa’s best-kept secrets.”