The Week That Was, november 25, 2018

   A Texas-based investor hopes to build a resort, including what will supposedly be “a really good golf course,” on Pašman Island in Croatia. Jeff Blackard, who’s said to be “a passionate fan of Croatia,” will reportedly build Pašman Riviera on 650 waterfront acres, and it’s expected to include villas, apartments, a hotel, a water park, a medical center, and other attractions. Promotional materials say the place will be “everything the guests of a state-of-the-art resort may dream of.” Well, perhaps not quite everything. Blackard has acknowledged that a golf course isn’t officially in Pašman Riviera’s master plan, but he told a Croatian news service that he wants to build one because golf courses “create value for the surrounding land.” If he can find enough land for the track, it’ll be built “in the future.”

     Pipeline Overflow – Jack Nicklaus and Greg “the Living Brand” Norman may be grabbing all the headlines, but they aren’t the only U.S. designers who are capitalizing on opportunities in Vietnam. The Lansing State Journal reports that Paul Albanese, who’s been commissioned to produce two 18-hole tracks at at Yên Dũng Golf Resort in metropolitan Hà Nội (the first one is already open), also has “a current project in Hồ Chí Minh City.” . . . Graham Marsh may be known for designing “long, difficult, ‘tournament-standard’ golf courses,” but the former touring pro will be creating something different for a proposed seniors-only community outside Gladstone, Queensland. Marsh Marsh told the Gladstone Observer that his “unique” course at Station Creek Lifestyle Village will be tailored for people who “just want to go out and enjoy themselves.” . . . Pontos Oy, a Finnish company led by Ilpo Kokkila, hopes to build an 18-hole, Jorge Santana da Silva-designed golf course at the Ombria resort outside Faro, in the Algarve region of southern Portugal. The course, which the developers say will offer “a truly memorable round of golf,” will be flanked by a boutique hotel as well as villas and apartments.

     Pipeline Overflow Overflow – Come the spring, Big Cedar Lodge will debut Ozarks National, a much-anticipated Coore & Crenshaw layout. The resort, near Table Rock Lake in Missouri, believes that the 18-hole course will “showcase golf in the manner in which it was intended” and cement its place as “America’s next great golf destination.” . . . Greg Coffey, the wealthy, London-based hedge-fund manager nicknamed “the Wizard of Oz,” expects to debut his much-anticipated, Bob Harrison-designed golf course in the spring. It’s hard to believe, but news accounts indicate that Coffey, who’s reportedly relocating his firm to New York City, still hasn’t decided whether the 18-hole layout, on Scotland’s Jura Island, will be the centerpiece of a private “destination” club or simply serve as his “personal” track. . . . Also in the spring of next year, and more than a decade after it was formally announced, the golf course at what aims to be “the most opulent and stylish resort in Morocco” will be unveiled. The 18-hole track, co-designed by Graham Marsh and Vijay Singh, will be the centerpiece of Qatari Diar’s Al Houara oceanside resort community outside Tangier.

     Duly Noted – Two of Australia’s premier golf venues, the National Golf Club and Huntingdale Golf Club, are engaged in “preliminary discussions” that are expected to create what Golf Australia calls “an unprecedented ‘Super Club.’” If the proposal is approved by members, the merged properties would boast five world-class golf courses at three locations and be “by far the biggest club in Australia.” . . . Of the 15 million international travelers who visited Vietnam last year, says the nation’s tourism ministry, 500,000 came to play golf. Through October of this year, the socialist republic had attracted 12.8 million international travelers, so it’s well on its way to getting or exceeding 15 million again this year. . . . Profits continued to elude Donald “the Deceiver” Trump’s golf resort in Doonbeg, Ireland last year, but the owners have promised “the return of operating profits” in 2018. FYI, this is a promise they’ve made previously.