The Pipeline, august 14, 2015

     Dickinson, North Dakota. Jim Engh has been tabbed to design a golf course in the city where he was born and raised. “I’m a Dickinson boy, and I want to do something right for my home town,” he told the Dickinson Press. Now the Castle Rock, Colorado-based architect has to figure out who he’s working for, because two home builders -- Meyer Real Estate Group of Dickinson and Roers of Fargo -- have proposed to develop communities featuring 18-hole courses with his name on them. Dickinson is, thanks to the oil boom, one of the nation’s fastest-growing cities, but local elected officials don’t expect to approve any golf-related development for several years. Still, Engh knows what he aims to create. “I think golf courses have become somewhat one-dimensional,” he said, “and they don’t always touch the emotions of people. But that’s what we’re trying to do. We want to make it interesting and fun.” Dickinson currently has one course, an 18-hole layout at Heart River Golf Club.

     Tozeur, Morocco. Graham Marsh and Vijay Singh have been commissioned to co-design a “signature” golf course for what’s been described as “the most opulent and stylish resort in Morocco.” The 18-hole track will be the centerpiece of Al Houara Tangier, a resort community that Qatari Diar, the development arm of Qatar’s government, is building on 580 acres southwest of Tunisia. The community will occupy nearly two miles’ worth of beachfront along the Atlantic Ocean and will feature “ultra-luxurious” single-family houses, villas, and townhouses, several hotels, a convention center, retail and commercial areas, a spa, a wellness center, an equestrian center, “a variety of fantastic restaurants,” and a golf practice center with a nine-hole pitch-’n’-putt layout. A website dedicated to Middle Eastern real estate says that Qatari Diar aims to show the world “what Qatar can do” and will “spare no expense to ensure this happens.”

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

     Doncaster, England. Some hoteliers in South Yorkshire plan to create the second European Tour-branded community in England. The community will take shape on roughly 500 acres surrounding Rossington Hall in Doncaster, and it’ll reportedly become one of the European Tour’s “destination” communities, a group of maybe a dozen high-prestige spreads in Austria, Dubai, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain. A course designer hasn’t been identified, but it would be a shock if a company other than European Golf Design is given the commission. EGD is co-owned by the European Tour and IMG, which has a stable of internationally known golf stars who are eager to show off their design chops. EGD’s work isn’t universally admired -- Darius Oliver of Planet Golf describes the company as a “factory” that typically produces “unremarkable” work -- but it’s nonetheless created more than 50 courses on four continents, among them the Twenty Ten Course at Celtic Manor Resort in Wales, Antalya Golf Club in Turkey, Kittitian Hill Golf Club on St. Kitts, and PGA National Golf Club in Russia. Gary and Michelle Gee, the owners of Rossington Hall, believe that the tour’s involvement will help them create a golf venue “of national repute” and the type of high-priced housing “not previously seen in Doncaster.” 

     Tappahannock, Virginia. A Miami, Florida-based company has won a rezoning for a controversial golf community that may eventually take shape in a small town along the Rappahannock River. Diatomite Corporation of America’s to-be-named community will feature more than 700 houses, a lodge with more than 100 rooms for overnight guests, and an 18-hole, championship-caliber golf course. But the company may have trouble securing final approvals, for its property is a nesting area for eagles and its proposal has sparked protests from an assortment of environmental and conservationist groups.

     Greater Havana, Cuba. It took Cuba many years to officially ink its first two golf-development contracts, but the next one could be right around the corner. Last year, according to the Wall Street Journal, the nation’s tourism ministry “quietly established a joint venture” to create a resort, including an 18-hole golf course, with London & Regional Properties, Ltd., a British development group. The newspaper didn’t publish a complete profile of L&R’s to-be-named venture, but it said that the resort will take shape on a site “less than two hour’s drive east of Havana” and include up to 1,000 villas, townhouses, and apartments, a boutique hotel, and a tennis academy. Like other international companies that wish to do business in Cuba, L&R is working with Grupo Extrahotelero Palmares SA, the government-controlled entity that oversees development in the nation. Palmares doesn’t always complete negotiations with private-sector groups successfully -- Cuba’s golf landscape is littered with failed projects -- but over the past two years it’s completed agreements for two golf resorts, Carbonera Club in Varadero and Bellomonte Golf & Country Club in Guanabo.

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

     Vladivostok, Russia. A big Japanese home builder aims to build a four-season resort, including a golf course, on an island along the coast of southeastern Russia. Iida Group Holdings’ to-be-named, 75-acre resort will feature houses, an entertainment venue, a ski area, and what will likely be a nine-hole golf course. It’ll emerge on Russky Island, the largest of a cluster of small islands in the waters off Vladivostok, the largest city in Primorsky Krai. Iida hasn’t explained what attracted it to Russky Island, but it was drawn to the krai because it also wants to buy a pair of wood-processing plants there. Wood is important to Iida’s business back home, because it reportedly builds one-quarter of Japan’s houses.

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

     Bhiwadi, India. One of India’s industrial centers may soon sprout a golf course. The Rajasthan Industrial Development & Investment Corporation has identified a site for a golf course in Bhiwadi, a southwestern suburb of Gurgaon. Bhiwadi is reportedly home to several thousand Indian and international corporations, including a trio of the world’s top auto manufacturers -- Honda, Jaguar, and General Motors -- and, as would be expected, its factories and manufacturing centers have sparked the construction of housing, office space, shopping areas, and entertainment venues. RIICO hasn’t set a construction schedule for the golf course, but at least one home builder is already using it in its marketing campaign.

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

     Shellharbour, Australia. Can a substantive makeover reverse the financial fortunes of a deeply troubled golf course on the South Coast of New South Wales? Elected officials in Shellharbour sure hope so, because their 18-hole track, the Links Shell Cove, has cost the city’s residents $7 million over the past decade. Its prospects are so bleak that no private-sector operator is willing to take on the challenge of running it. “The only way the Links has value is if the land is to be sold and used for a purpose other than golfing,” a councilmember groused to the Illawarra Mercury last year. Nonetheless, the city is making an effort to put its biggest recreational asset on a path toward profitability. It plans to sell part of the course to a residential developer, and with the proceeds it’ll redesign as many as seven holes and overhaul the venue’s clubhouse. Richard Chamberlain, an architect based in Robina, Queensland, will oversee the makeover.

     Omaha, Nebraska. After lying low for several years, a group of turn-back-the-clock golfers are again trying to drum up support for their dream venture: A destination-worthy course for aficionados of hickory golf. “In a sense, Omaha right now is a little bit like what St. Andrews was in the 1860s or 1870s,” said Randy Jensen, who’s been trying to get the project off the drawing board since 2010. “It’s kind of a hot spot for hickory golf.” The group’s proposed Riverfront Golf Center will feature an 18-hole, Tom Doak-designed course and a museum that displays vintage equipment and memorabilia. Not surprisingly, the center has been a hard sell. These days, it’s hard enough to find investors willing to build conventional courses.