The Pipeline, august 8, 2014

     It appears that Rolling Hills Country Club, on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in Southern California, is finally ready to break ground on its new golf course. For years, Rolling Hill had been planning to give up its Ted Robinson-designed track and build an Arnold Palmer “signature” layout on what remains of an adjacent sand-and-gravel quarry. Now the nearly 50-year-old club is working with David McLay Kidd, who intends to create what he calls “a firm, fast golf course that’s incredibly natural.” In publicity materials, Kidd admitted that building the new track “will require some fairly major engineering” but said that, when he’s done, “you’ll think it’s natural.” The club hopes to break ground on the new course early next year. Eventually, more than 100 single-family houses will be tucked inside it.

     A developer in Edmonton, Alberta is trying to secure approvals for an “ecological village” that will feature a 12-hole golf course designed by Rod Whitman. Todd Oeming wants to build his Wild Splendor Resort & Wildlife Sanctuary on an 867-acre tract where his family once operated a zoo. In addition to the golf course, Oeming believes the property can accommodate 510 cabins, condos, and apartments, a hotel, a competition-quality equestrian center, an outdoor theater, an RV park, and a spa. Whitman, an Alberta-based architect, has designed or co-designed a trio of highly ranked Canadian tracks: Blackhawk Golf Club in Edmonton, Sagebrush Golf Club outside Merritt, British Columbia, and Cabot Links in Inverness, Nova Scotia.

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

     Mike Keiser, who made a name for himself by creating a sublime golf resort in Bandon, Oregon, is considering an attractive opportunity in Mexico. In an interview with Global Golf Post, the Chicago, Illinois-based developer acknowledged that he may develop a third golf course at Diamante Cabo San Lucas, a 1,500-acre resort community on Baja California Sur. “I’d call that a one-in-50 chance,” he said, “but it is out there.” Diamante has an acclaimed Davis Love III-designed golf course, and this year it’s expected to debut the world’s first Tiger Woods-designed layout. With a Keiser-produced track, it would immediately become Mexico’s premier golf destination.

     A big Japanese home builder has hired Greg Norman to direct a pair of projects at its first master-planned community in Australia. Norman will be the architect of record for forthcoming courses at the Hermitage, a golf community that Sekisui House is developing in a southwestern suburb of Sydney, New South Wales. The West Palm Beach, Florida-based architect has agreed to create a new nine-hole course for the 760-acre spread, and he’ll give the existing 18-hole track at the adjacent Camden Lakeside Golf Course a fresh look and feel, so it better reflects Sekisui House’s motto: “Love of Humanity.” In a press statement, Norman promised that the courses would offer “a wonderfully unique golfing experience in a growth corridor of NSW.”

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

     The Dutch owners of Thailand’s ritziest resort are laying plans to build a second golf course. The addition will complement the existing 18-hole layout at the Banyan Resort, an upscale getaway outside Hua Hin. The golf club is the centerpiece of the Banyan Resort, which likes to brag that its existing course, a Pirapon Namatra design that opened in 2008, is “one of the best layouts in the country.” Namatra, a Thai architect who’s also known as Khun Ope, has also been commissioned to design the second course. He cites C. B. MacDonald, Harry Colt, George Thomas, and Bill Coore as inspirations and says his aim is to create courses that are “full of character and fun,” with “diversity” and “even quirkiness.”

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

     Young Tom Morris, Old Tom Morris, Willie Fernie, James Braid, and Henry Cotton -- that’s been the architectural progression thus far at Stirling Golf Club. The next in line: Howard and William Swan, who’ve been appointed to refresh the ancient track in Stirling, Scotland. Golf has been played at Stirling since 1869, and maybe for a century or more before that. The Swans, a father-and-son team, intend to retain the course’s historic features but add the up-to-date character that today’s golfers expect. The club’s general manager expects them to “point us in the best direction” for “long-term sustainability.”

     Sometime this fall, a nine-hole, executive-length layout is expected to debut at Woodland Hills Golf Course, in Des Moines, Iowa. Its target market: Baby Boomers, a generation that’s so far golfed in disappointing numbers. Nonetheless, an official of Hubbell Realty, the course’s owner, told the Des Moines Register, “I see demand growing in the next five years, as this current generation starts to retire and plays more golf.” Of course, Hubbell is covering its bases by selling 130 single-family houses around the new nine.