The Pipeline, may 22, 2015

     Belek, Turkey. The Turkish Golf Federation has set out to build a $50 million, links-style track that would be designed specifically to host the Ryder Cup and other major international events. The course will take shape on an inland site in Belek, the nation’s most popular vacation area and already the home of several high-profile golf properties. A designer hasn’t yet been selected, but the federation would be crazy not to work with European Golf Design, a British firm that’s co-owned by the European Tour, the group that sponsors the Ryder Cup. Though it has fewer than two dozen golf properties, Turkey aims to become one of the world’s favorite golf destinations, a title that will be easier to secure if it can host an event on the scale of the Ryder Cup. It’s not aiming to host the games of 2022, but it’ll almost certainly pull out all the stops to secure the competition of 2026.

     Steamboat Springs, Colorado. The chairman of Augusta National Golf Club is looking to create an exclusive golf venue in the Rocky Mountains. Billy Payne and a fellow member of Augusta National, Dirk Ziff, have petitioned to build a nine-hole, Tom Fazio-designed layout at Windwalker Ranch, their ultra-private, 514-acre vacation spot outside Steamboat Springs. Access to the course will be limited to the ranch’s eight owners, along with family members and guests. According to Steamboat Today, Payne, Ziff, and their partners paid $17.65 million for the property in 2012. Their course will be compact, as it’ll feature three fairways and five greens, and so far nobody is talking about how impeccably it’ll be maintained.

     Nowra, Australia. The Buddhist monks who’ve commercialized kung-fu fighting have closed on property in rural New South Wales that will eventually become a resort community with a 27-hole golf complex. Early this year, Shaolin Temple Foundation Australia completed its purchase of a 3,120-acre spread that will be the future home of Shaolin Village, which is to include a Buddhist temple, a kung-fu academy, housing for martial-arts students, meeting space, an amphitheater, office space, and other attractions. The monks have also reserved a site for a small farm, and in the future they hope to add 300 houses and a hotel. The foundation believes that the village will attract as many as 300,000 international visitors a year, plus an even greater number of domestic visitors.

     The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the March 2015 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.

     Tinian, Northern Mariana Islands. The owner of Tinian Island’s only casino is looking to hedge its bets by building a multifaceted vacation spot with a 36-hole golf complex. Hong Kong-based Chinese Strategic Holdings Limited aims to make Tinian a gaming destination for high rollers from China, Singapore, Hong Kong, and other Asian locales, and it intends to build a to-be-named, 1,200-acre resort community on Puntan Kastiyu, a cape near the island’s airport. The community will feature 20 or 30 villas, a 1,000-room hotel, a bunch of restaurants and eateries, a shopping area, an equestrian center, and two “world-class” golf courses. The community will be located just a short drive from the Tinian Dynasty Hotel & Casino, which CSH purchased in 2013. CSH isn’t alone in believing that Tinian is capable of becoming a popular vacation destination. At least three other groups hope to build resort communities on the island, and one of them includes an 18-hole golf course in its plans.

     The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the February 2015 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.

     Eros Park, Namibia. Outside Namibia’s capital city, a community geared to high-income home buyers will feature what a local newspaper calls “a top-class” golf course. Eros Valley will take shape on 590 acres in a suburb of Windhoek. It’s been in the works for nearly a decade -- in 2012, the Namibian Sun said it was being delayed by “bureaucratic and tedious town planning processes” -- but it was approved by local elected officials last year. In addition to the golf course, Eros Valley has been master-planned to include 466 houses, a hotel, and a boutique shopping area. Golf has been played in Namibia since the early 1940s, if not before. The nation currently has 15 golf properties, according to Golf Digest, and two of its highest-ranked venues -- Windhoek Golf & Country Club and Omeya Golf Club -- are in Windhoek.

     Halong Bay, Vietnam. Government officials in Quang Ninh Province, Vietnam are trying to spark the construction of a golf complex in one of the world’s most photogenic vacation destinations. The 27-hole complex will be among the recreational amenities at Halong Star, a 367-acre resort community that will take shape on a bluff that rises 650 feet above the scenic, almost mystical waters of Halong Bay. Halong Star is to be developed by an entity controlled by Sovico Holdings, a Russian-Vietnamese company, and Limitless, a firm controlled by the government of Dubai. Limitless is the sister company of Nakheel, the company that was supposed to build the first Tiger Woods-designed golf course in Dubai. Limitless signed a development agreement with Quang Ninh in 2013, and provincial officials met with the company in Dubai last year, apparently in an attempt to jump-start construction. The province is trying to persuade various private-sector groups to build golf courses in the vicinity of Halong Bay, was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994.

     Asopia, Greece. A local development group has set out to build a “holiday village,” complete with a 27-hole golf complex, in the Parnassos region of Greece. Sportsland SA’s community will take shape on 1,750 acres roughly 50 miles northwest of Athens, the nation’s capital. Along with a handful of similar resort ventures, it’s been “fast-tracked” by the national government, as part of an effort to expedite the approvals process for projects that might spark the moribund Greek economy. The community, appropriately dubbed Sportsland, has been master-planned to include houses, hotels and other overnight accommodations, a conference center, a spa, a “country village” with stores and eateries, an equestrian center, a recreation center, a regulation-length 18-hole golf course, and a nine-hole par-3 track.

     The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the March 2015 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.

     Lokoja, Nigeria. A Nigerian governor who believes that golf is “a key ingredient for economic tourism” aims to prove it by building an 18-hole track in a prime location in his state’s capital city. Idris Wada, the governor of Kogi State, plans to build the course near Mount Patti in Lokoja, a city that was established by British merchants in the late 1850s and remains one of Nigeria’s chief centers of commerce. The way Wada sees it, a “world-class golf resort,” along with first-class hotels and other tourist-friendly attractions, can help to elevate Lokoja “to the status of cities that can host world-class events.” Unfortunately, Wada originally announced plans for the golf course in 2012 and doesn’t appear to have made much progress. If the layout is ever built, it’ll be Lokoja’s first.