One of the Middle East’s premier golf destinations is scheduled to get a makeover.
Next summer, Thomson Perrett & Lobb will oversee a renovation of the Majlis track at Emirates Golf Club, the first grass golf course in the Middle East and one of the highest-rated courses on the planet. The course, which hosts the Dubai Desert Classic and the Dubai Ladies Masters, is, according to Golf World, one of the world's top 100 courses.
The 7,301-yard layout was designed by Karl Litten and opened in 1988. TPL’s renovation will address the track's bunkers, which will be rebuilt and relocated to provide viable hazards for touring professionals.
“Our bunkers are out of date and, due to modern equipment, out of play,” said Rod Bogg of Dubai Golf, the government-owned group that manages the course.
The course will also get a new irrigation system.
Emirates Golf Club is also home to another highly rated 18-hole course, a track known as the Wadi when it opened in 1996, as well as a nine-hole, par-3 track and a golf academy. The Wadi course was redesigned by Nick Faldo in 2005 and is now called the Faldo. Sometime in the future, the club plans to add a practice center at the Faldo course.
Emirates Golf Club had planned to renovate the Majlis course in the summer of this year. Chris May, the club's general manager, blamed the delay on uncertainty over the delivery of the irrigation system.
"It was a straightforward decision based on the simple fact that the additional power required for the new pump station, necessary for the new irrigation system, could not be guaranteed within the time frame," May said in a press release.
TPL, which is based in Ripley, England, is led by Peter Thomson, a five-time winner of the British Open. This year the firm is overseeing the construction of the Oasis course at Dubai Golf City.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Sunday, September 26, 2010
The Week That Was: September 20, 2010
canada Mike Keiser's Next Must-Play Course
Canadian golf writers have recently been taking good, long looks at Cabot Links, the Scottish-style course taking shape along the Gulf of St. Lawrence in Nova Scotia, and they like what they see.
“The Rod Whitman design is going to be brilliant,” wrote Scoregolf's managing editor in his blog.
“I’d say it is going to be exceptional,” said a writer from CanadianGolfer. “Top 10 in Canada? That’s a possibility.”
Cabot Links is expected to open its first nine holes next summer, its second nine in the summer of 2012. It's being developed by Ben Cowan-Dewar, who owns a golf travel company, and Mike Keiser, the visionary who proved -- with Bandon Dunes in Oregon and Barnbougle Dunes in Tasmania, Australia -- that golfers are willing to travel to the world's most remote places to play impeccable, walkable golf courses.
Cowan-Dewar, one of the creators of GolfClubAtlas.com, told the Cape Breton Post that Cabot Links “really does sort of mimic the great links courses in the British Isles. I think that’s really what the excitement’s been about.”
scotland Hazelhead's Re-Do: Back on Tap
The on-again, off-again plan to overhaul the municipally-owned Hazlehead golf complex, particularly its Alister MacKenzie-designed golf course, appears to be on again.
The Aberdeen Evening Press says that Sport Aberdeen, the group that now oversees the 45-hole complex, plans to renew discussions with the prospective development group next month. The group, known as the MacKenzie Club, had previously offered to invest more than $30 million into the facility, but its negotiations with the city of Aberdeen fell apart last year.
The centerpiece of the redevelopment plan will be a restoration of Hazlehead's premier course, which opened in 1927. MacKenzie, one of the most respected architects in the history of golf (not to mention an expert in camouflage), designed some of the world's great courses, including the West course at Royal Melbourne Golf Club in suburban Melbourne, Australia; the Portland Course at the Royal Troon Golf Club in Troon, Scotland; and Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia.
MacKenzie Club is led by Brian Hendry, who owns some property in Augusta, Georgia. He recently offered to renovate and manage the city's money-losing golf course.
england A New Course in Cambridgeshire
A development group led by Michael Taylor of City & County wants to build an 18-hole, championship-length golf course in Great Paxton, a village roughly 15 miles west of Cambridge, England.
Pending approvals by local officials, Cambridgeshire Golf Club & Academy will be built on property known as Low Farm, reports the Cambridge News. To prepare the site, Taylor's group plans to dump 120,000 tons of fill on the property.
The approvals appear to be forthcoming, although the village's council clearly has some reservations about the project's economic viability. “There are already more than 30 golf courses in this area,” the council said in a press statement, “all experiencing membership difficulties in the present economic climate.”
united states Before the Bankruptcy, Welcome Rewards
Even though it was bleeding money and tottering on the verge of bankruptcy, Sea Island Company still managed to pay more than $500,000 in bonuses to its top decision-makers this year.
According to the Associated Press, Sea Island's Chapter 11 filings indicate that David Bansmer, the company's president, received $222,000 in bonuses in addition to his $450,000 salary. Also receiving bonuses were a group of vice presidents, namely Ron Roberts ($88,000), Henry Cate ($75,000), Richard Shelnut ($75,000), and Eric Schneider ($50,000).
The tony resort in Georgia, in the United States, filed for bankruptcy protection last month and is scheduled to be sold at auction next month. Its owners reportedly owe more than $600 million to various lenders, and over the past two years they were forced to lay off hundreds of employees, probably 500 or more.
canada For 2011, Two New Courses in Central Alberta
A pair of player-friendly 18-hole courses are expected to open in the Edmonton area next year, both of them designed by Sid Puddicombe's design firm. Each of the courses -- Coal Creek Golf Course in Tofield and Whitetail Crossing Golf Club in Mundare -- are located within a short drive of Beaverhill Lake, about 40 miles east of the city.
Coal Creek, which is taking shape atop property that's been used as a coal mine since 1918, will open in two phases, in June and, fingers crossed, sometime later in the fall. Puddicombe's Edmonton-based firm had to reshape the site with more than 1.5 million cubic yards of fill.
"The golf course will be of a very high standard and will be of sufficient quality to handle any professional tournament, although the prime target will be for area residents," Grant Puddicombe, one of Sid's sons, told the Edmonton Journal.
The Puddicombes and Laurent LeBlanc, an Edmonton-based businessman, are developing Whitetail Crossing, which will anchor a golf community with 600 houses. Puddicombe says the 7,100-yard track "has a rural feel to it and is not overly demanding."
united states High Carolina, Under Construction Again
The 'dozers are moaning and groaning again in Swannanoa, North Carolina, as work has resumed on the Tiger Woods-designed golf course at the Cliffs at High Carolina.
The course, part of a 3,000-acre resort community that's had trouble selling its pricey lots, is scheduled to open in the fall of 2012. It'll almost certainly be Woods' first completed course, as the tracks he's designed in Dubai and Mexico are still stuck in financial mud.
Woods' design team has rerouted the original layout to lessen its impact on the property's trout streams. As a result, Woods says, the course will be a little shorter than expected.
"I'm looking forward to getting back there to check on construction," he told the Associated Press.
Canadian golf writers have recently been taking good, long looks at Cabot Links, the Scottish-style course taking shape along the Gulf of St. Lawrence in Nova Scotia, and they like what they see.
“The Rod Whitman design is going to be brilliant,” wrote Scoregolf's managing editor in his blog.
“I’d say it is going to be exceptional,” said a writer from CanadianGolfer. “Top 10 in Canada? That’s a possibility.”
Cabot Links is expected to open its first nine holes next summer, its second nine in the summer of 2012. It's being developed by Ben Cowan-Dewar, who owns a golf travel company, and Mike Keiser, the visionary who proved -- with Bandon Dunes in Oregon and Barnbougle Dunes in Tasmania, Australia -- that golfers are willing to travel to the world's most remote places to play impeccable, walkable golf courses.
Cowan-Dewar, one of the creators of GolfClubAtlas.com, told the Cape Breton Post that Cabot Links “really does sort of mimic the great links courses in the British Isles. I think that’s really what the excitement’s been about.”
scotland Hazelhead's Re-Do: Back on Tap
The on-again, off-again plan to overhaul the municipally-owned Hazlehead golf complex, particularly its Alister MacKenzie-designed golf course, appears to be on again.
The Aberdeen Evening Press says that Sport Aberdeen, the group that now oversees the 45-hole complex, plans to renew discussions with the prospective development group next month. The group, known as the MacKenzie Club, had previously offered to invest more than $30 million into the facility, but its negotiations with the city of Aberdeen fell apart last year.
The centerpiece of the redevelopment plan will be a restoration of Hazlehead's premier course, which opened in 1927. MacKenzie, one of the most respected architects in the history of golf (not to mention an expert in camouflage), designed some of the world's great courses, including the West course at Royal Melbourne Golf Club in suburban Melbourne, Australia; the Portland Course at the Royal Troon Golf Club in Troon, Scotland; and Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia.
MacKenzie Club is led by Brian Hendry, who owns some property in Augusta, Georgia. He recently offered to renovate and manage the city's money-losing golf course.
england A New Course in Cambridgeshire
A development group led by Michael Taylor of City & County wants to build an 18-hole, championship-length golf course in Great Paxton, a village roughly 15 miles west of Cambridge, England.
Pending approvals by local officials, Cambridgeshire Golf Club & Academy will be built on property known as Low Farm, reports the Cambridge News. To prepare the site, Taylor's group plans to dump 120,000 tons of fill on the property.
The approvals appear to be forthcoming, although the village's council clearly has some reservations about the project's economic viability. “There are already more than 30 golf courses in this area,” the council said in a press statement, “all experiencing membership difficulties in the present economic climate.”
united states Before the Bankruptcy, Welcome Rewards
Even though it was bleeding money and tottering on the verge of bankruptcy, Sea Island Company still managed to pay more than $500,000 in bonuses to its top decision-makers this year.
According to the Associated Press, Sea Island's Chapter 11 filings indicate that David Bansmer, the company's president, received $222,000 in bonuses in addition to his $450,000 salary. Also receiving bonuses were a group of vice presidents, namely Ron Roberts ($88,000), Henry Cate ($75,000), Richard Shelnut ($75,000), and Eric Schneider ($50,000).
The tony resort in Georgia, in the United States, filed for bankruptcy protection last month and is scheduled to be sold at auction next month. Its owners reportedly owe more than $600 million to various lenders, and over the past two years they were forced to lay off hundreds of employees, probably 500 or more.
canada For 2011, Two New Courses in Central Alberta
A pair of player-friendly 18-hole courses are expected to open in the Edmonton area next year, both of them designed by Sid Puddicombe's design firm. Each of the courses -- Coal Creek Golf Course in Tofield and Whitetail Crossing Golf Club in Mundare -- are located within a short drive of Beaverhill Lake, about 40 miles east of the city.
Coal Creek, which is taking shape atop property that's been used as a coal mine since 1918, will open in two phases, in June and, fingers crossed, sometime later in the fall. Puddicombe's Edmonton-based firm had to reshape the site with more than 1.5 million cubic yards of fill.
"The golf course will be of a very high standard and will be of sufficient quality to handle any professional tournament, although the prime target will be for area residents," Grant Puddicombe, one of Sid's sons, told the Edmonton Journal.
The Puddicombes and Laurent LeBlanc, an Edmonton-based businessman, are developing Whitetail Crossing, which will anchor a golf community with 600 houses. Puddicombe says the 7,100-yard track "has a rural feel to it and is not overly demanding."
united states High Carolina, Under Construction Again
The 'dozers are moaning and groaning again in Swannanoa, North Carolina, as work has resumed on the Tiger Woods-designed golf course at the Cliffs at High Carolina.
The course, part of a 3,000-acre resort community that's had trouble selling its pricey lots, is scheduled to open in the fall of 2012. It'll almost certainly be Woods' first completed course, as the tracks he's designed in Dubai and Mexico are still stuck in financial mud.
Woods' design team has rerouted the original layout to lessen its impact on the property's trout streams. As a result, Woods says, the course will be a little shorter than expected.
"I'm looking forward to getting back there to check on construction," he told the Associated Press.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
worth reading The Hole Story
It may be impossible to break the spell of the 18-hole golf course, but Edwin Roald is doing his best to do so.
Roald, a course designer based in Reykjavik, Iceland, is telling anyone who'll listen that shorter courses -- ideally, 12- to 15-hole tracks -- would be good for golf. Shorter courses would be cheaper to build and maintain, he notes, and they could be played in about three hours, at lower greens fees.
We simply need to abandon the principle that a full round of golf consists of 18 holes, Roald contends, and get used to the thought that a golf course may have just any random number of holes that suits its particular environment.
Is Roald making a legitimate challenge to conventional wisdom or simply tilting at windmills? Decide for yourself at Why18Holes.com.
Roald, a course designer based in Reykjavik, Iceland, is telling anyone who'll listen that shorter courses -- ideally, 12- to 15-hole tracks -- would be good for golf. Shorter courses would be cheaper to build and maintain, he notes, and they could be played in about three hours, at lower greens fees.
We simply need to abandon the principle that a full round of golf consists of 18 holes, Roald contends, and get used to the thought that a golf course may have just any random number of holes that suits its particular environment.
Is Roald making a legitimate challenge to conventional wisdom or simply tilting at windmills? Decide for yourself at Why18Holes.com.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
nigeria Ron Garl Has His Ojo Working
Later this year, the number-one Toyota dealer in Nigeria expects to open an 18-hole golf course and a practice center in Ilara-Mokin, in the state of Ondo.
His name is Michael Ade Ojo, and he’s the chairman of a Lagos-based conglomerate called Elizade Group of Companies. (Elizade is a word he created by combining parts of his wife’s name, Elizabeth, and his own, Ade.)
Ojo was born in Ilara-Mokin, and in recent years he’s built a school and opened a bank in his home town, which is 70 miles northwest of Lagos. He hired Ron Garl, a Lakeland, Florida-based architect, to design the to-be-named, championship-length course that will serve as the community’s centerpiece.
Ojo also plans to build a 200-room hotel, a water park, and, eventually, some condos.
Garl says, “He’s not doing it necessarily to make money. He’s doing it because he loves golf.”
Garl has one other golf course under construction in Nigeria, at Lekki Beach Golf Resort just outside Lagos. Membership in the Lekki Beach club, which could open in 2011, is reported to be $250,000.
Elizade.net
His name is Michael Ade Ojo, and he’s the chairman of a Lagos-based conglomerate called Elizade Group of Companies. (Elizade is a word he created by combining parts of his wife’s name, Elizabeth, and his own, Ade.)
Ojo was born in Ilara-Mokin, and in recent years he’s built a school and opened a bank in his home town, which is 70 miles northwest of Lagos. He hired Ron Garl, a Lakeland, Florida-based architect, to design the to-be-named, championship-length course that will serve as the community’s centerpiece.
Ojo also plans to build a 200-room hotel, a water park, and, eventually, some condos.
Garl says, “He’s not doing it necessarily to make money. He’s doing it because he loves golf.”
Garl has one other golf course under construction in Nigeria, at Lekki Beach Golf Resort just outside Lagos. Membership in the Lekki Beach club, which could open in 2011, is reported to be $250,000.
Elizade.net
Sunday, September 19, 2010
The Week That Was: September 13, 2010
scotland Loch Lomond, Out of the Bog
The rumored buyers from the Middle East never put any real money on the table and the hotel operators from DeVere couldn't close a $55 million deal, so it appears that Sean Connery, Prince Andrew, and the other members of Loch Lomond are going to buy their club themselves.
The sale of the tony club in suburban Glasgow, developed by Scottsdale, Arizona-based Lyle Anderson and lost to foreclosure, is expected to close within a month. The Sunday Herald reports that each of the club's 850 members -- a group that's said to include Nick Faldo, Sandy Lyle, and former auto racer Jackie Stewart -- will contribute something to the purchase, with a few members expected to kick in more than $300,000.
The club is the home of the Scottish Open. Its golf course, co-designed by Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morrish and opened in 1993, has long ranked among the world's best. Ernie Els has called it "probably the best course in Europe," and Tom Lehman once said, "It's more fun to play than Augusta, and I rank it up there behind Pebble Beach in terms of beauty."
It's said that Weiskopf nearly died while building the course. According to the story, he was walking through an area near holes #13 and #14 when he began to sink into a bog. He clung to the limb of a nearby tree for several hours before he was rescued.
The club is said to have members from 30 countries. Its initiation fee is reported to be about $86,000.
france Can Lightning Strike Twice?
Robert Von Hagge has returned to the scene of his greatest triumph, to design a second golf course.
Von Hagge's first course at Les Bordes Golf Club is generally regarded as the best course in France, and last year Golf World named it the top course in all of Europe. The 7,062-yard track is extremely tough, even on touring pros. It's hard to believe, but numerous reports say the course record (held by Jean Van de Velde) is a one under par 71.
Von Hagge promises that the new course at Les Bordes will be more forgiving. He expects to break ground on it next year, with an opening scheduled for 2013.
Tony Jimenez, the chairman of the group that owns Les Bordes, said in a press release, "I am confident the new course at Les Bordes will be also recognized as one of the great courses of the world."
canada A Piece of the Rocks Is Approved
It’s taken several years, but Frank Racioppo is getting closer to winning approval to transform a mined-out quarry into southern Ontario’s next golf resort.
Niagara-on-the-Lake's planning advisory committee has approved an amendment that will allow the community at Queenston Quarry to move forward. If the town's council adopts the committee's recommendation, the amendment will go to higher authorities for final approval.
The 248-acre quarry is along the QEW, just a short drive from the U.S. border. Since 2007, Racioppo has been trying to convert it into a resort community featuring townhouses and condos, an inn, a spa, a winery, an equestrian center, and an 18-hole, 7,200-yard golf course designed by Boris Danoff.
Danoff, a partner in the Queenston Quarry project, has designed at least five golf courses in Ontario, including Royal Ontario Golf Club in Milton and Royal Niagara Golf Club in Niagara Falls. He and Racioppo co-developed Thundering Waters Golf Club in Niagara Falls, which bears the “signature” of John Daly.
mexico Grupo Mall Booted from Campeche Playa
Don't look for the Jack Nicklaus “signature” golf course at Campeche Playa Golf, Marina & Spa Resort to be built anytime soon.
A big Mexican construction company, Empresas ICA, has assumed control of the struggling resort community on the western coast of the Yucatan peninsula. According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Empresas ICA took the action in response to “continual failures” -- presumably continual financial failures -- on the part of the community's Spanish developer, an affiliate of Grupo Mall.
Campeche Playa is supposed to be “the first ecological golf course in Latin America.” In addition to the golf course, the 761-acre spread in Champoton has been master-planned to include 3,045 housing units, a 246-room Westin hotel, a boutique hotel, a town center, a marina with berths for 150 boats, a yacht club, an underwater archaeology museum, a medical center, and a heliport.
The golf course was supposed to have opened in 2008.
The Journal says that Empresas ICA aims to complete the first phase of the community “as soon as possible.”
florida Greg Norman, Bargain Hunter
You think you've got money troubles? Greg Norman has started warehouse clubbing.
According to a "spywitness" for the Palm Beach Post, the Shark was spotted in a check-out line at a Costco near his home on Jupiter Island, Florida. "He had a T-shirt on that had that shark logo," the source said, "but no one talked to him."
Norman, as most everyone knows, is a winemaker, so it's worth noting that among the items in his cart were six bottles of Far Niente chardonnay, from Napa Valley, California. A strong endorsement, no?
The rumored buyers from the Middle East never put any real money on the table and the hotel operators from DeVere couldn't close a $55 million deal, so it appears that Sean Connery, Prince Andrew, and the other members of Loch Lomond are going to buy their club themselves.
The sale of the tony club in suburban Glasgow, developed by Scottsdale, Arizona-based Lyle Anderson and lost to foreclosure, is expected to close within a month. The Sunday Herald reports that each of the club's 850 members -- a group that's said to include Nick Faldo, Sandy Lyle, and former auto racer Jackie Stewart -- will contribute something to the purchase, with a few members expected to kick in more than $300,000.
The club is the home of the Scottish Open. Its golf course, co-designed by Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morrish and opened in 1993, has long ranked among the world's best. Ernie Els has called it "probably the best course in Europe," and Tom Lehman once said, "It's more fun to play than Augusta, and I rank it up there behind Pebble Beach in terms of beauty."
It's said that Weiskopf nearly died while building the course. According to the story, he was walking through an area near holes #13 and #14 when he began to sink into a bog. He clung to the limb of a nearby tree for several hours before he was rescued.
The club is said to have members from 30 countries. Its initiation fee is reported to be about $86,000.
france Can Lightning Strike Twice?
Robert Von Hagge has returned to the scene of his greatest triumph, to design a second golf course.
Von Hagge's first course at Les Bordes Golf Club is generally regarded as the best course in France, and last year Golf World named it the top course in all of Europe. The 7,062-yard track is extremely tough, even on touring pros. It's hard to believe, but numerous reports say the course record (held by Jean Van de Velde) is a one under par 71.
Von Hagge promises that the new course at Les Bordes will be more forgiving. He expects to break ground on it next year, with an opening scheduled for 2013.
Tony Jimenez, the chairman of the group that owns Les Bordes, said in a press release, "I am confident the new course at Les Bordes will be also recognized as one of the great courses of the world."
canada A Piece of the Rocks Is Approved
It’s taken several years, but Frank Racioppo is getting closer to winning approval to transform a mined-out quarry into southern Ontario’s next golf resort.
Niagara-on-the-Lake's planning advisory committee has approved an amendment that will allow the community at Queenston Quarry to move forward. If the town's council adopts the committee's recommendation, the amendment will go to higher authorities for final approval.
The 248-acre quarry is along the QEW, just a short drive from the U.S. border. Since 2007, Racioppo has been trying to convert it into a resort community featuring townhouses and condos, an inn, a spa, a winery, an equestrian center, and an 18-hole, 7,200-yard golf course designed by Boris Danoff.
Danoff, a partner in the Queenston Quarry project, has designed at least five golf courses in Ontario, including Royal Ontario Golf Club in Milton and Royal Niagara Golf Club in Niagara Falls. He and Racioppo co-developed Thundering Waters Golf Club in Niagara Falls, which bears the “signature” of John Daly.
mexico Grupo Mall Booted from Campeche Playa
Don't look for the Jack Nicklaus “signature” golf course at Campeche Playa Golf, Marina & Spa Resort to be built anytime soon.
A big Mexican construction company, Empresas ICA, has assumed control of the struggling resort community on the western coast of the Yucatan peninsula. According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Empresas ICA took the action in response to “continual failures” -- presumably continual financial failures -- on the part of the community's Spanish developer, an affiliate of Grupo Mall.
Campeche Playa is supposed to be “the first ecological golf course in Latin America.” In addition to the golf course, the 761-acre spread in Champoton has been master-planned to include 3,045 housing units, a 246-room Westin hotel, a boutique hotel, a town center, a marina with berths for 150 boats, a yacht club, an underwater archaeology museum, a medical center, and a heliport.
The golf course was supposed to have opened in 2008.
The Journal says that Empresas ICA aims to complete the first phase of the community “as soon as possible.”
florida Greg Norman, Bargain Hunter
You think you've got money troubles? Greg Norman has started warehouse clubbing.
According to a "spywitness" for the Palm Beach Post, the Shark was spotted in a check-out line at a Costco near his home on Jupiter Island, Florida. "He had a T-shirt on that had that shark logo," the source said, "but no one talked to him."
Norman, as most everyone knows, is a winemaker, so it's worth noting that among the items in his cart were six bottles of Far Niente chardonnay, from Napa Valley, California. A strong endorsement, no?
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