The Pipeline, july 10, 2015

     Heber City, Utah. Jack Nicklaus, who evangelizes for 12-hole layouts every chance he gets, has designed one that’s being built outside Park City. The track, consisting exclusively of par-3 holes and what are said to be “forgiving greens,” will complement the 18-hole Nicklaus “signature” track that opened at the Red Legends resort community in 2009. “We wanted to bring fun back to the game of golf,” one of the community’s developers said in a press release, “and we believe this course will open up the game to more players, whether they are beginnings, family groups, or the scratch player getting in a fast round after work.” The course, which will play to a maximum of 1,717 yards, is expected to open in the spring of next year.

     Ocala, Florida. Talk about options: Shea Homes’ first Trilogy-branded community in Florida will feature an 18-hole, 48-acre golf course that can be played 12 different ways. The $3 million track, consisting entirely of par-3 holes, has been co-designed by Tom Lehman and Tripp Davis, who were, according to Golf Advisor, told to “come up with something unique.” Their layout, indisputably a break with tradition, is a risky proposition for both Shea, which has set out to sell nearly 1,700 houses, and for the golf industry itself, which has come to believe that participation rates will increase when rounds become cheaper and less time-consuming. In effect, then, the course is an experiment whose results deserve close scrutiny. It’s scheduled to open this fall.

     Quảng Nam Province, Vietnam. A Vietnamese investment banking group has enlisted two partners, one of them a Hong Kong-based multi-billionaire, to help build a stalled, casino-focused resort south of Đà Nẵng. The to-be-named resort will take shape outside Tam Ky City, and VinaCapital hopes to open it in late 2018 or early 2019. VinaCapital, which manages three investment funds that trade on the AIM Market of the London Stock Exchange, is working with entities controlled by Cheng Yu Tang, one of the world’s richest people (Forbes says he’s worth $13 billion), and Alvin Chau, the CEO of Suncity Group, a firm that organizes gambling junkets to Macau. The resort’s master plan includes a casino, vacation villas, several hotels, and a 36-hole golf complex. Tam Ky City is a 50-mile drive down the South China Sea coast from the Đà Nẵng Beach Resort, which was developed by two of VinaCapital’s investment funds. Đà Nẵng Beach features an 18-hole, Greg Norman-designed golf course, and in the future it’s supposed to add another Norman-designed, 18-hole layout.

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

     Minot, North Dakota. Three years after a near-Biblical flood transformed life in northern North Dakota, the Minot Park Board has grown weary of making almost annual repairs to Souris Valley Golf Course. The board is negotiating to buy a 240-acre parcel that could serve as the home of a new golf course that isn’t routinely damaged by floods. “It’s very expensive to repair the golf course when it floods,” the city’s parks director told the Minot Daily News. “We would be better off spending that kind of money building a course that won’t have that kind of issue.” The board hasn’t yet determined what it wants to build on the property that’s available for purchase. It could build a nine-hole addition and close the holes on Souris Valley that are most prone to flooding, or it could build an entirely new 18-hole layout.

     Noida, India. A forthcoming “sports city” outside Delhi will include a 50,000-seat cricket stadium and a nine-hole golf course. The Noida Authority, the entity that controls development in the area, is searching for a private-sector company willing to develop the 125-acre sports city, which will also feature, among other things, houses, entertainment venues, a medical center, a gymnasium, and a small commercial area. Since it was established, in 1976, the authority has developed some 15,000 acres with houses, office and commercial space, schools, hotels, shopping areas, and recreational amenities, including the 18-hole, Peter Thomson-designed Noida Golf Course. It controls an additional 8,500 acres, some of which are destined to become an amusement park, a water park, and possibly another golf course.

     Kipipiri, Kenya. A three-member development entity has secured permission to build the first golf resort in Nyandarua County, Kenya. Government officials have wholeheartedly endorsed Mount Kipipiri Golf Resort, which will take shape on a 1,400-acre farm in the town of Kipipiri, at the foot of the Aberdare Mountains. “We need tourists to visit Nyandarua County in large numbers,” the county’s governor told the Star. Mount Kipipiri will feature 600 vacation houses, a hotel, and an 18-hole golf course, and the developers intend to put the farm’s crumbling air strip back into use. A government press release calls the developers “Chinese investors,” but it identifies them as a Korean (Young Moon Choi, the group’s CEO) and two Kenyans, Harish Ramji Patel and Robert Njoroge. The partners are eager to capitalize on the growing demand for vacation spots in Kenya, a nation with an increasingly wealthy middle class and a growing jones for golf.

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

     Brisbane, Australia. Later this year, after more than a decade’s worth of debate and legal wrangling, a Manly-based developer expects to break ground on the city of Brisbane’s third golf course. BMD Group will cover the cost of building Cannon Hill Community Links, an 18-hole, Phil Ryan-designed track that will take shape on part of a 310-acre parcel in the southern part of Queensland’s capital city. In exchange, BMD has secured the right to build roughly 125 houses adjacent to the course. Brisbane’s existing golf properties, Victoria Park Golf Course and St. Lucia Golf Links, are both more than 70 years old, and the city has been hoping to put a course in the Cannon Hill area since the late 1990s. Infrastructure construction at the site was expected to begin in the late spring, and the city hopes to open the course in 2018. Ryan, who’s based in Sandringham, Victoria, aims to create a layout that offers “a challenge as well as [an] enjoyable experience for golfers of all levels.”

     Trujillo, Honduras. A Canadian enclave along the northern coast of Honduras may soon sprout a golf course. The nine-hole, par-3 track will be among the featured attractions of Njoi Santa Fe Beach Residences, a gated community that will occupy 150 acres outside Trujillo, the capital city of Colón. The course will be public, and it’ll be the first in the area. Gino Santarossa, a principal of Toronto-based Los Suenos Development, hopes to break ground on it next year. “It’s going to be a great thing for the area,” he says, “and it’s going to enhance real estate values in our community.” Los Suenos is one of three Canadian development groups who’ve acquired properties along the northern Honduran coast and are luring their countrymen with affordable, resort-style communities. In fact, people who live in and around Trujillo, the nation’s oldest port city, have begun to call their part of the world “Little Canada.”

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

     Marfa, Texas. Can a non-descript nine-hole golf course in West Texas be transformed into a destination-worthy track, like those at Bandon Dunes in Oregon? Such is the future that Larry Lunsford of Pro Tour Events has outlined for Marfa Municipal Golf Course, which probably deservedly doesn’t get nearly as much ink as the town’s art galleries, film festival, and celestial lights. An online reviewer describes the 55-year-old course as “perfectly flat” and “not one of our favorite courses,” but Lunsford thinks it can be something special with nine new holes, a new clubhouse, a practice center, and a lodge. The venture is still in “the very early infant stages,” according to Big Bend Now, and it isn’t going anywhere unless Presidio County gives Lunsford a 99-year lease on the property.