The Week That Was, october 6, 2019

     He may serve as Vietnam’s tourism ambassador, but Greg Norman also wants to turn Saudi Arabia into a bustling vacation destination. Turning a blind eye to the country’s human-rights abuses and government-sanctioned murder, and following in the footsteps of the European Tour, “the Living Brand” has agreed to design a 27-hole complex for a golf community that’s expected to take shape outside Riyadh. Norman’s Wadi Safar Golf Course will be the centerpiece of Diriyah Gate, an historic area (it’s been described as “the birthplace of the Saudi nation”) that aims to become the “pillar of Saudi Arabia's new era of openness,” “the Arabian peninsula’s must-visit destination,” and, perhaps most importantly, the “Beverly Hills of Riyadh.” A construction schedule hasn’t been announced, but Saudi Arabia is intent on legitimizing itself as fast as humanly possible.

     Pipeline Overflow – Details are scarce, but Kris Spence reports via Twitter that he and Jack Nicklaus II will re-do Sunset Country Club, a venue in Sumter, South Carolina that dates from the early 1920s. A “motivated” new owner is, says Spence, giving the designers the “latitude to create something truly special.” Sunset’s existing 18-hole layout was designed by Donald Ross. . . . The city of Chaska, Minnesota and a partner have hired Benjamin Warren, a graduate of Tom Doak’s finishing school, to design a short course that a local newspaper says “will be welcoming to just about anyone,” including players with disabilities. The course, which will take shape on the site of a struggling, Robert Trent Jones-created muni, is scheduled to open in the summer of 2021. . . . After a delay, Dana Fry and Jason Straka have broken ground on the first nine holes of their first golf course in the Middle East, a track that the Dublin, Ohio-based partners say will have “memorable golf holes.” It’s the Yas Acres layout in Abu Dhabi, which is planned to eventually grow to 18 holes and serve as a complement to Kyle Phillips’s Yas Links, the top layout in the emirate.

     Pipeline Overflow Overflow – The Ladies Professional Golf Association has unveiled its first international property, a branded, 27-hole venue in Busan, South Korea. The new complex, a re-do of the Perry Dye/Joe Jemsek-designed tracks at Asiad Country Club, was created by Rees Jones and Bryce Swanson, and Busan’s mayor expects it to become “a landmark for culture and tourism beyond just golf.” . . . Henrik Stenson has taken the wraps off his first “signature” layout, a re-do of the Sven Tumba-designed Österled layout at Österåkers Golfklubb in suburban Stockholm, Sweden. Golf Course Architecture reports that Stenson and Christian Lundin have turned Österled into “a stadium-like layout,” in part by importing more than 600,000 cubic meters of fill to create “a rolling landscape on the previously flat area.” Next year, the architects will begin to overhaul Österåkers’ Västerled track. . . . Vermilion Country Club, a venue in Abbeville, Louisiana that opened in 1929 and went belly up in 2017, is about to be reborn. Rhett Hebert has leased the property, which will henceforth operate as Southern Oaks Country Club, his aim being to establish “an atmosphere that is family-friendly and fun.”

     Duly Noted – The PGA of America is about to put its stamp on the golf business in Vietnam. The Florida-based institution has struck a deal to establish branded practice facilities at venues created by Novaland Group, with the first one to come at Novaland’s forthcoming resort community in Bình Thuận Province. The PGA has a similar partnership in South Korea, and it hopes to ink others elsewhere in Asia and Southeast Asia. . . . Vietnam attracted 15.6 million international visitors last year, a record number, and believes it’s on pace to meet its tourism goals, which are to attract 32 million by 2025 and 47 million by 2030. Only a fraction of the world travelers are golfers, of course, but a mere 3 percent of last year’s number translates to 468,000 golfers. . . . In a week that saw the president’s pending impeachment warm to a slow boil and his nuclear talks with North Korea distintegrate, the Trump Organization announced that its resort in Aberdeenshire, Scotland has lost money for the seventh consecutive year. The property hasn’t turned a profit even once since it opened, which must be an embarrassment for someone who so often touts himself as a brilliant businessman.

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