The Week That Was, august 10, 2014

     Just months after a pair of so-called illegal golf courses in Beijing were unceremoniously razed, China Daily reports that the city intends to “intensify its crackdown on illegal golf course construction.” No details have been provided. The campaign against golf is part of a larger initiative that aims to limit the construction of hotels, office buildings, exhibition centers, and other structures that consume excessive amounts of water and energy. According to the newspaper, metropolitan Beijing has more than 200 illegal golf properties.

     Though he continues to tilt at Scottish windmills, Donald Trump has revived at least part of the master plan for his golf resort in Aberdeenshire. A little more than a year ago, Trump vowed that he wouldn’t invest another penny in his highly regarded golf course as long as a proposed wind farm in Aberdeen Bay remained a viable possibility. Nothing has changed on the government’s end, but last week Trump nonetheless filed a proposal to add an essential amenity: the resort’s long-awaited clubhouse. “I felt it was only fair to this great course that I build a beautiful new clubhouse,” he told the Aberdeen Press & Journal. “It would be disrespectful not to have done so.” Disrespect aside, Trump is angling to bring the Scottish Open to Trump International Golf Links Scotland, and he knows that he doesn’t have a chance to succeed without a first-class building.

     At Big Cedar Lodge in Missouri, the senior celebrity architects just keep on coming. The latest to arrive is Gary Player, who’s agreed to design a 12-hole golf course especially for juniors and beginners. The layout will use “creative, unique, and untraditional concepts to help all members of the family enjoy the game,” says a press release. Big Cedar, which this year hosted an event on the Champion’s Tour, already features a Jack Nicklaus-designed par-3 track, an Arnold Palmer-designed practice center, and a Tom Watson-designed putting course. Player believes that his course, which is scheduled to open next year, will be “something truly spectacular and innovative.”

     Jack Nicklaus’ design firm will produce the first golf course in Vietnam’s Thanh Hóa Province. FLC Samson Golf Links will be the centerpiece of a 230-acre resort community in Sầm Sơn that will feature villas and bungalows and a high-end hotel. Its developer, FLC Group JSC, expects it to be “one of the most beautiful golf courses in not only Vietnam but also in the region and the world.” Sầm Sơn, which is roughly 90 miles south of Hanoi, has been a vacation getaway since 1906, when French colonists began flocking there. It’s located directly west of China’s Hainan Island. The Nicklaus Design layout is scheduled to open sometime next year.

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

     Escalante Golf has purchased its 18th golf property, this one a 36-hole complex in Sanford, North Carolina. Carolina Trace Country Club, which had been owned by its members, features a pair of Robert Trent Jones-designed golf courses that date from the 1970s. “The golf courses are terrific,” a spokesman for Escalante told the Sanford Herald. “The clubhouse is great. The community is world class.” Carolina Trace anchors a community with 1,600 houses, but it only a quarter of the property owners are club members. According to the newspaper, Escalante hopes the club can “reconnect” with the local community. Carolina Trace is Escalante’s first acquisition in North Carolina. The company now owns golf properties in eight states.

     A homeowners’ group in Dublin, California has hired KemperSports to manage its 18-hole, Robert Trent Jones, Jr.-designed golf course. The par-63, 5,079-yard layout is the centerpiece of Dublin Ranch, a community that’s been around since 2004. It appears that KemperSports’ marketers will target time-pressed golfers, for a press release notes that the track’s “intimate and walkable routing lends itself to rounds under four hours.” As it does at its other facilities, including well over a dozen in California, KemperSports promises to provide “the best experience possible for guests.”