Fresh off the opening of its new resort in Cyprus, one of the golf world’s best-known management companies now aims to build a similar resort in Italy.
Palmerston Hotels & Resorts plans to build Santa Teresa Golf Resort & Spa on a 550-acre parcel near the northern coast of Sardinia, the second-largest island in the Mediterranean. The resort will feature 150 villas, a 147-room hotel, a pair of restaurants, meeting space, a wellness spa, a private helipad, and an 18-hole golf course.
The project’s first phase -– consisting of some villas, the hotel, and the golf course –- is scheduled to break ground in late 2010.
Palmerston is led by Dieter Klostermann, the chairman of CCA International, Ltd. The company owns Palmerston Golf Resort in Woodham Village, England, which features an 18-hole golf course designed by James Hamilton Stutt, and just weeks ago it opened Elea Golf & Spa Resort near Paphos in Cyprus. Elea features a golf course designed by Nick Faldo as well as 200 villas, a resort village, a boutique hotel, and a spa.
These days, the company has one other golf project in the works in Italy, a sports-oriented resort near Florence. Castello di Sammezzano, as it’s known, will also have apartments, a boutique hotel, and a spa.
Hong Kong-based Palmerston also hopes to develop a resort on one of the islands in the Jardines del Rey chain of Cuba. Cayo Coco will have two 18-hole “championship” courses, one of them by Faldo.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Sunday, November 28, 2010
The Week That Was: November 28, 2010
india Nicklaus Has Grand Designs for India
Jack Nicklaus has designed one golf course in India and is working on two others, but those are apparently just the tip of the iceberg. Within the next three or four years, the company expects to put its name on as many as 10 golf courses in the world's second most-populous nation.
And Nicklaus’ mission in India doesn’t begin and end with course design. His company hopes to capitalize on a variety of development and marketing opportunities, notably in equipment and apparel sales, wine distribution, and real estate development.
To monitor all those activities, Nicklaus Design has opened its first office in India, in Mumbai. The office will be managed by Nicklaus’ Indian partner, Shivas Nath of Evolution Golf. Nath will coordinate what’s been described as a grass-roots effort to establish and grow the Nicklaus brand, with the first step in the process being the creation of a chain of golf academies that will provide a foundation for everything that follows.
Paul Stringer, Nicklaus’ executive vice president, discussed the India strategy in a lengthy press release. Some of his statements read like poor translations of what might have been original Indian material (perhaps material penned by Nath), but I think you’ll get the gist. I’ve also taken the liberty of tightening some loose syntax.
Here’s a little of what Stringer had to say:
Our strategy to grow the brand in India will be the bottom-up approach. We believe in initiating grass-root programs that will help create a permanent brand name in the country. . . .
We are looked at as the leaders in golf course design globally. People in India are brand-conscious, and they want the best brands. . . . We know we won’t get 100 percent of the market share, but we do intend to have a strong presence in India. We have been leaders in the countries in which we have set a market. Hence, we are sure we would get more business opportunities in India than our competitors. . . .
We see a huge growth and awareness for the sport in the next five to 10 years in countries like Russia, China, and India, which are under-developed golf markets. We see potential development of training centers, academies, [and] smaller golf courses in places where land is a constraint as well as . . . in some of the reserved markets in India, for example Goa and such others. . . .
In the next three to four years, you would see 10 more golf courses by Nicklaus Design. . . . At present, we are looking at developing golf courses in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, and Goa.
egypt A New Course for a Red Sea Resort
The first nine holes of the Tim Lobb-designed golf course at El Ein El Sukhna Beach Resort are scheduled to open in the spring of 2011.
Lobb, a principal of Thomson Perrett & Lobb, said in a press release that the resort-style track would be "a golfer's golf course" that provides "a challenge for all levels of player without being too daunting."
The second nine and a practice center are expected to open in 2012.
When completed, the 6,671-yard course will spread over 237 acres at El Ein El Sukhna, which is taking shape on a 400-acre parcel along the Red Sea, roughly 80 miles southeast of Cairo. The rest of the resort will include 600 housing units, a 120-room hotel, a tennis academy, and other attractions.
El Ein El Sukhna is being developed by Galalah, an affiliate of the company that's developing the 1,500-acre New Giza community in suburban Cairo. New Giza, which is expected to open in 2013, will consist of 2,500 houses, three hotels (one of them an MGM Grand), a shopping mall, and another 18-hole course designed by Thomson Perrett & Lobb.
The golf course at El Ein El Sukhna doesn't aim to do anything more than it needs to do: offer a pleasurable round to an urban duffer on a weekend holiday. Lobb, who operates out of TPL's office in suburban London, England, said his goal was "to design a course that allowed visitors and residents a friendly environment in which to play golf, with an emphasis on delivering a memorable, positive experience that will encourage them to return."
Easy peasy.
california What Brown Can Do for You
In recent years, as the price of water has increased, many golf course superintendents have been wondering exactly how green their fairways need to be. This week, the Desert Sun checks in with a report on water-reduction efforts currently taking place at a popular resort in California, and how local golfers are taking to the changes.
Over the past two years, the 18-hole Dunes and Mountain courses at La Quinta Resort, just a short drive from Palm Springs, have reduced their water usage by 25 percent. The result: Firmer, faster, drier layouts that appear to be playing every bit as well as they did when they were lush and green.
“We have gotten to a point where I think we have gotten lazy as an industry,” said Mike Kelly, the resort’s director of golf. “I have to be careful how I say this. We don't need as much water as we are putting out on these golf courses.”
At La Quinta’s Dunes and Mountain tracks, more efficient sprinkler heads have been installed, 40 acres of turf have been replaced with less-thirsty native vegetation, and fewer acres are being over-seeded. None of this is new or unique, of course, but it’s nice to see the resort’s efforts featured in the mainstream press.
La Quinta feared that its customers and the resort’s home owners wouldn’t accept a browner course, but so far that doesn’t seem to be a significant problem.
“It didn't seem brown to me,” said a golfer. “I noticed the longer grass and even had to hit out of it twice. But the course looked fine.”
As a result of comments like that, the resort is sticking with the program. Its owners will probably begin a similar program at PGA West, probably the premier golf resort in the desert.
“We have to go in this direction, because it is the right thing to do,” Kelly told the newspaper. “It's the right thing to do for this brand, the right thing to do for the industry, and the right thing to do for the environment.”
By 2020, all of California’s golf courses must cut their water usage by 20 percent.
australia Tiger Trap
Over the years, Tiger Woods has muttered many things during tournament play that can't be printed in a family-friendly blog. But did you hear what he said at the recent Australian Masters?
While strolling to the seventh tee during the opening round of the event, played at Victoria Golf Club, Woods asked, “Why can’t we build golf courses like this in America?”
And then, for emphasis: “This is cool. This is so cool.”
So what is this “so cool” golf course?
By today's standards, and especially by today's professional tournament standards, it's a short track, just 6,886 yards. It's also old, as it opened just after the turn of the century -- the 20th century. And it hasn't been “modernized,” unless you consider Alister MacKenzie to be a “modern” architect.
Tiger Woods isn't the first golfer to wish contemporary architects would design shorter golf courses with classic character. But he very well may be the first golfer-turned-architect to say so publicly.
Maybe someone should remind Woods that he's designed a course that's currently being built in suburban Asheville, North Carolina. When completed, it's supposed to stretch to a nearly inhuman 7,500 yards.
If Woods really believes shorter courses are cooler, why doesn't he design them?
Jack Nicklaus has designed one golf course in India and is working on two others, but those are apparently just the tip of the iceberg. Within the next three or four years, the company expects to put its name on as many as 10 golf courses in the world's second most-populous nation.
And Nicklaus’ mission in India doesn’t begin and end with course design. His company hopes to capitalize on a variety of development and marketing opportunities, notably in equipment and apparel sales, wine distribution, and real estate development.
To monitor all those activities, Nicklaus Design has opened its first office in India, in Mumbai. The office will be managed by Nicklaus’ Indian partner, Shivas Nath of Evolution Golf. Nath will coordinate what’s been described as a grass-roots effort to establish and grow the Nicklaus brand, with the first step in the process being the creation of a chain of golf academies that will provide a foundation for everything that follows.
Paul Stringer, Nicklaus’ executive vice president, discussed the India strategy in a lengthy press release. Some of his statements read like poor translations of what might have been original Indian material (perhaps material penned by Nath), but I think you’ll get the gist. I’ve also taken the liberty of tightening some loose syntax.
Here’s a little of what Stringer had to say:
Our strategy to grow the brand in India will be the bottom-up approach. We believe in initiating grass-root programs that will help create a permanent brand name in the country. . . .
We are looked at as the leaders in golf course design globally. People in India are brand-conscious, and they want the best brands. . . . We know we won’t get 100 percent of the market share, but we do intend to have a strong presence in India. We have been leaders in the countries in which we have set a market. Hence, we are sure we would get more business opportunities in India than our competitors. . . .
We see a huge growth and awareness for the sport in the next five to 10 years in countries like Russia, China, and India, which are under-developed golf markets. We see potential development of training centers, academies, [and] smaller golf courses in places where land is a constraint as well as . . . in some of the reserved markets in India, for example Goa and such others. . . .
In the next three to four years, you would see 10 more golf courses by Nicklaus Design. . . . At present, we are looking at developing golf courses in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, and Goa.
egypt A New Course for a Red Sea Resort
The first nine holes of the Tim Lobb-designed golf course at El Ein El Sukhna Beach Resort are scheduled to open in the spring of 2011.
Lobb, a principal of Thomson Perrett & Lobb, said in a press release that the resort-style track would be "a golfer's golf course" that provides "a challenge for all levels of player without being too daunting."
The second nine and a practice center are expected to open in 2012.
When completed, the 6,671-yard course will spread over 237 acres at El Ein El Sukhna, which is taking shape on a 400-acre parcel along the Red Sea, roughly 80 miles southeast of Cairo. The rest of the resort will include 600 housing units, a 120-room hotel, a tennis academy, and other attractions.
El Ein El Sukhna is being developed by Galalah, an affiliate of the company that's developing the 1,500-acre New Giza community in suburban Cairo. New Giza, which is expected to open in 2013, will consist of 2,500 houses, three hotels (one of them an MGM Grand), a shopping mall, and another 18-hole course designed by Thomson Perrett & Lobb.
The golf course at El Ein El Sukhna doesn't aim to do anything more than it needs to do: offer a pleasurable round to an urban duffer on a weekend holiday. Lobb, who operates out of TPL's office in suburban London, England, said his goal was "to design a course that allowed visitors and residents a friendly environment in which to play golf, with an emphasis on delivering a memorable, positive experience that will encourage them to return."
Easy peasy.
california What Brown Can Do for You
In recent years, as the price of water has increased, many golf course superintendents have been wondering exactly how green their fairways need to be. This week, the Desert Sun checks in with a report on water-reduction efforts currently taking place at a popular resort in California, and how local golfers are taking to the changes.
Over the past two years, the 18-hole Dunes and Mountain courses at La Quinta Resort, just a short drive from Palm Springs, have reduced their water usage by 25 percent. The result: Firmer, faster, drier layouts that appear to be playing every bit as well as they did when they were lush and green.
“We have gotten to a point where I think we have gotten lazy as an industry,” said Mike Kelly, the resort’s director of golf. “I have to be careful how I say this. We don't need as much water as we are putting out on these golf courses.”
At La Quinta’s Dunes and Mountain tracks, more efficient sprinkler heads have been installed, 40 acres of turf have been replaced with less-thirsty native vegetation, and fewer acres are being over-seeded. None of this is new or unique, of course, but it’s nice to see the resort’s efforts featured in the mainstream press.
La Quinta feared that its customers and the resort’s home owners wouldn’t accept a browner course, but so far that doesn’t seem to be a significant problem.
“It didn't seem brown to me,” said a golfer. “I noticed the longer grass and even had to hit out of it twice. But the course looked fine.”
As a result of comments like that, the resort is sticking with the program. Its owners will probably begin a similar program at PGA West, probably the premier golf resort in the desert.
“We have to go in this direction, because it is the right thing to do,” Kelly told the newspaper. “It's the right thing to do for this brand, the right thing to do for the industry, and the right thing to do for the environment.”
By 2020, all of California’s golf courses must cut their water usage by 20 percent.
australia Tiger Trap
Over the years, Tiger Woods has muttered many things during tournament play that can't be printed in a family-friendly blog. But did you hear what he said at the recent Australian Masters?
While strolling to the seventh tee during the opening round of the event, played at Victoria Golf Club, Woods asked, “Why can’t we build golf courses like this in America?”
And then, for emphasis: “This is cool. This is so cool.”
So what is this “so cool” golf course?
By today's standards, and especially by today's professional tournament standards, it's a short track, just 6,886 yards. It's also old, as it opened just after the turn of the century -- the 20th century. And it hasn't been “modernized,” unless you consider Alister MacKenzie to be a “modern” architect.
Tiger Woods isn't the first golfer to wish contemporary architects would design shorter golf courses with classic character. But he very well may be the first golfer-turned-architect to say so publicly.
Maybe someone should remind Woods that he's designed a course that's currently being built in suburban Asheville, North Carolina. When completed, it's supposed to stretch to a nearly inhuman 7,500 yards.
If Woods really believes shorter courses are cooler, why doesn't he design them?
Friday, November 26, 2010
worth reading The Only Architect You'll Ever Need
Attention, golf developers in the United States and around the world: If you need a celebrity architect to design your next golf course, think outside the box that's filled with names like Faldo, Montgomerie, Langer, and Sorenstam.
Instead, I urge you to consider Darius Oliver.
I know you've probably never heard of him. That's because his firm, Darius Oliver Golf Course Design, is new, small, and, well, Australian. And because it's never actually designed a single golf course.
But none of those things really matter, do they? Everyone has to start somewhere. Once upon a time, Paul Casey, Thomas Bjorn, Padraig Harrington, Darren Clarke, Ian Woosnam, Paul Lawrie, and K. J. Choi hadn't yet designed a golf course. That didn't stop them from entering the design business.
And, thank goodness, it's not going to stop Darius Oliver.
Besides, as much as any golf pro turned golf designer, Oliver knows exactly what qualities developers are looking for in an architect.
“Like Alister MacKenzie at Augusta National,” he writes in the press release announcing his company's creation, “Darius Oliver Golf Course Design works with the earth to harness the spirit of Old Tom Morris and the Old Course at St. Andrews to create timeless, sustainable golf masterpieces.”
Enticing, isn't it? Such noble ideals!
But don't pull out your checkbook just yet. You're being taken for a ride.
Darius Oliver is the architecture editor of Australian Golf Digest and a blogger at Planet Golf. His phony press release aims to spoof the self-aggrandizing announcements that golf pros make when they decide they need to leave a legacy. It's directed, he writes, “at golf clubs and developers who wish to build courses without genuine golf architects.”
Is that you, Bubba?
“With a recent spate of B-, C-, and even D-grade golf celebrities now offering so-called ‘design services,’ I figured it was time for me to also get in on the act and try to exploit my limited media profile for additional coin,” Oliver confesses.
Such refreshing honesty!
The way Oliver sees it, the places where golf is just now establishing a presence are especially fertile territories for celebrity designers. That's why, he says, he aims to secure commissions wherever “a disconnect exists between client ambition and architect ability.”
The good news for fledgling course “designers” like me is that in developing regions it apparently doesn’t matter if you can’t route a course, build a hole, float a green, or solve drainage problems. You don’t even need to understand the principles of true strategic design. If you have won important championships or (hopefully) written well-received golf articles, then you are more than qualified to advise and design.
So don't hesitate! Get in on the ground floor! Hire Darius Oliver today!
Instead, I urge you to consider Darius Oliver.
I know you've probably never heard of him. That's because his firm, Darius Oliver Golf Course Design, is new, small, and, well, Australian. And because it's never actually designed a single golf course.
But none of those things really matter, do they? Everyone has to start somewhere. Once upon a time, Paul Casey, Thomas Bjorn, Padraig Harrington, Darren Clarke, Ian Woosnam, Paul Lawrie, and K. J. Choi hadn't yet designed a golf course. That didn't stop them from entering the design business.
And, thank goodness, it's not going to stop Darius Oliver.
Besides, as much as any golf pro turned golf designer, Oliver knows exactly what qualities developers are looking for in an architect.
“Like Alister MacKenzie at Augusta National,” he writes in the press release announcing his company's creation, “Darius Oliver Golf Course Design works with the earth to harness the spirit of Old Tom Morris and the Old Course at St. Andrews to create timeless, sustainable golf masterpieces.”
Enticing, isn't it? Such noble ideals!
But don't pull out your checkbook just yet. You're being taken for a ride.
Darius Oliver is the architecture editor of Australian Golf Digest and a blogger at Planet Golf. His phony press release aims to spoof the self-aggrandizing announcements that golf pros make when they decide they need to leave a legacy. It's directed, he writes, “at golf clubs and developers who wish to build courses without genuine golf architects.”
Is that you, Bubba?
“With a recent spate of B-, C-, and even D-grade golf celebrities now offering so-called ‘design services,’ I figured it was time for me to also get in on the act and try to exploit my limited media profile for additional coin,” Oliver confesses.
Such refreshing honesty!
The way Oliver sees it, the places where golf is just now establishing a presence are especially fertile territories for celebrity designers. That's why, he says, he aims to secure commissions wherever “a disconnect exists between client ambition and architect ability.”
The good news for fledgling course “designers” like me is that in developing regions it apparently doesn’t matter if you can’t route a course, build a hole, float a green, or solve drainage problems. You don’t even need to understand the principles of true strategic design. If you have won important championships or (hopefully) written well-received golf articles, then you are more than qualified to advise and design.
So don't hesitate! Get in on the ground floor! Hire Darius Oliver today!
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
canada Saline Solution
The Rotary Club of Fort McMurray hopes to break ground on an 18-hole, Les Furber-designed golf course next year, in the hope of opening it in 2012.
The championship-length track, which could someday be joined by another nine, will take shape on part of a municipally owned 500-acre parcel near the airport in Fort McMurray, in northeastern Alberta.
The course is being built in conjunction with a large community called Saline Creek, in the southern part of the city. Saline Creek will have 6,800 houses, a village center, four schools, and other attractions.
Furber, who apprenticed with Robert Trent Jones, is based in Canmore, Alberta. He’s designed several courses in Canada, including the first course at the Predator Ridge resort in Kelowna, along with Varadero Golf Course in Varadero, Cuba, two courses in the Czech Republic, and another in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
The championship-length track, which could someday be joined by another nine, will take shape on part of a municipally owned 500-acre parcel near the airport in Fort McMurray, in northeastern Alberta.
The course is being built in conjunction with a large community called Saline Creek, in the southern part of the city. Saline Creek will have 6,800 houses, a village center, four schools, and other attractions.
Furber, who apprenticed with Robert Trent Jones, is based in Canmore, Alberta. He’s designed several courses in Canada, including the first course at the Predator Ridge resort in Kelowna, along with Varadero Golf Course in Varadero, Cuba, two courses in the Czech Republic, and another in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
The Week That Was: November 21, 2010
cyprus Another Golf Course for Parched Cyprus
Early next year, MedGolf Group is expected to finally break ground on a long-awaited resort community outside Larnaca in Cyprus.
Seven years in the making, Larnaca Golf Resort & Country Club will occupy 370 acres in the village of Tersefanou. Its 6,157-yard golf course has been designed by Stanford Eby of European Golf Design, a British firm that's co-owned by the PGA European Tour. Accompanying the course will be a PGA-branded golf academy, the first of its kind on the island, that will include some practice holes.
Demes Karapatakis, the chairman of DJK Corporation and one of MedGolf's principals, told Cyprus Property News, “The aim is to put Cyprus on the golden map of the professional golfers.”
If anyone out there knows where “the golden map” is, will you please let me know?
Besides the golf course, Larnaca will include 250 villas, 150 apartments, a village center with stores and restaurants, a spa, meeting space, and a recreation center.
It’ll also have a desalination plant, to provide water for the resort. Such plants are common in Europe, particularly in and around Greece. The area is known for its droughts, and in recent years the major reservoirs in Cyprus have essentially dried up.
“I would like to see Cyprus as a golf destination,” Karapatakis added. “I’d be happy to see more golf clubs coming up.”
Despite the water shortage, other development groups are doing their best to make Karapatakis' wish come true. Just weeks ago, Palmerston Hotels & Resorts opened the island's fourth 18-hole golf course, a Nick Faldo-designed track at Elea Golf Club in Paphos.
scotland A Likely Approval for Darren Clarke
Next week, Scottish officials are expected to approve a golf community outside Dundee that will include a Darren Clarke “signature” golf course.
The Irish pro's course will be the centerpiece of the Angus, a resort community that's set to be built on 315 acres of farmland in Wellbank. In addition to the golf course, the Angus will feature 160 houses, 18 “holiday lodges,” a hotel, a spa, and a golf academy for kids.
The golf course will be “ghost-designed” by Graeme Webster of Niblick Golf Design in Moss, Norway. The academy will be managed by Rudy Duran, a Californian who, many years ago, served as one of Tiger Woods’ teachers.
The Angus is being built by Mike Forbes, a former farmer and fly-fishing champion who owns the Forbes of Kingennie country resort in Dundee. Forbes is familiar with Webster’s work, as Webster designed the nine-hole track at Forbes of Kingennie.
Nick Hunter, the chairman of Golf Tourism Scotland, believes the Angus will nicely complement the area's existing courses -- Wellbank is just a few miles west of Carnoustie -- as well as planned Scottish golf courses such as Donald Trump's 36-hole complex at the Menie Estate in Aberdeen, an hour's drive north.
“The Scottish golf tourism market has not really moved since 2009,” Hunter told the Aberdeen Press & Journal, “but as we start to pull ourselves out of the recession, we’re starting to see some big developments being put in motion which could attract golfers from further afield.”
Two-thirds of the comments that local officials have received about the Angus have been favorable. The project has been recommended for approval.
australia A Minimalist Course in Wilton
Unique and minimalist are two of the words that Graham Marsh recently used to describe the golf course he's designed for the Bingara Gorge community in New South Wales.
“Its style is unique,” Marsh told the Camden Advertiser. “It will be a minimalistic course, meaning we disturb the least amount of land rather than make it look like a resort-style course.”
Bingara Gorge is taking shape in Wilton, a town that's roughly 60 miles southwest of Sydney. At build-out, the 1,125-acre community will include 1,165 houses, an elementary school, and other community amenities.
Delfin, one of Australia's biggest home builders, expects to open the first nine holes of Marsh's course in the spring of 2012. The company had originally tapped Ernie Els to design the track.
Marsh has designed the recently opened Kalgoorlie-Boulder Golf Club in Kalgoorlie, his home town, and at least 20 other courses in Australia. He's also designed courses in China, Japan, Germany, South Korea, Malaysia, the Czech Republic, the United States, and other nations.
“Sometimes the courses with the smaller budgets create the most interest,” Marsh said of the course at Bingara Gorge, “and it's pleasing to build a course crafted out of nothing, because you have got nothing to work with.”
scotland A Ryder Cup for Trump?
When Sandy Jones talks, people listen. And last week Jones said some absolutely wonderful things about the golf course that Donald Trump is building in Aberdeen.
Jones, the CEO of the British PGA and a senior member of its Ryder Cup board, believes the course will host a major international tournament within a decade of its expected opening in 2012.
“When this course is complete,” he told the Aberdeen Press & Journal, “there is no doubt in my mind . . . that it will be one of the great golf courses in the world.”
As most everyone knows, Trump International Golf Club Scotland will eventually consist of two 18-hole golf courses, 500 single-family houses, 950 "holiday" houses, and a posh hotel.
Jones gushed about the club's setting, calling the property “a fantastic site” that will be “a great venue” for golf. He also noted that Trump is plenty capable of delivering the key ingredient that a big-time tournament needs: corporate money.
His conclusion: “I'll be amazed if there is not a really major world event here within a decade.”
Early next year, MedGolf Group is expected to finally break ground on a long-awaited resort community outside Larnaca in Cyprus.
Seven years in the making, Larnaca Golf Resort & Country Club will occupy 370 acres in the village of Tersefanou. Its 6,157-yard golf course has been designed by Stanford Eby of European Golf Design, a British firm that's co-owned by the PGA European Tour. Accompanying the course will be a PGA-branded golf academy, the first of its kind on the island, that will include some practice holes.
Demes Karapatakis, the chairman of DJK Corporation and one of MedGolf's principals, told Cyprus Property News, “The aim is to put Cyprus on the golden map of the professional golfers.”
If anyone out there knows where “the golden map” is, will you please let me know?
Besides the golf course, Larnaca will include 250 villas, 150 apartments, a village center with stores and restaurants, a spa, meeting space, and a recreation center.
It’ll also have a desalination plant, to provide water for the resort. Such plants are common in Europe, particularly in and around Greece. The area is known for its droughts, and in recent years the major reservoirs in Cyprus have essentially dried up.
“I would like to see Cyprus as a golf destination,” Karapatakis added. “I’d be happy to see more golf clubs coming up.”
Despite the water shortage, other development groups are doing their best to make Karapatakis' wish come true. Just weeks ago, Palmerston Hotels & Resorts opened the island's fourth 18-hole golf course, a Nick Faldo-designed track at Elea Golf Club in Paphos.
scotland A Likely Approval for Darren Clarke
Next week, Scottish officials are expected to approve a golf community outside Dundee that will include a Darren Clarke “signature” golf course.
The Irish pro's course will be the centerpiece of the Angus, a resort community that's set to be built on 315 acres of farmland in Wellbank. In addition to the golf course, the Angus will feature 160 houses, 18 “holiday lodges,” a hotel, a spa, and a golf academy for kids.
The golf course will be “ghost-designed” by Graeme Webster of Niblick Golf Design in Moss, Norway. The academy will be managed by Rudy Duran, a Californian who, many years ago, served as one of Tiger Woods’ teachers.
The Angus is being built by Mike Forbes, a former farmer and fly-fishing champion who owns the Forbes of Kingennie country resort in Dundee. Forbes is familiar with Webster’s work, as Webster designed the nine-hole track at Forbes of Kingennie.
Nick Hunter, the chairman of Golf Tourism Scotland, believes the Angus will nicely complement the area's existing courses -- Wellbank is just a few miles west of Carnoustie -- as well as planned Scottish golf courses such as Donald Trump's 36-hole complex at the Menie Estate in Aberdeen, an hour's drive north.
“The Scottish golf tourism market has not really moved since 2009,” Hunter told the Aberdeen Press & Journal, “but as we start to pull ourselves out of the recession, we’re starting to see some big developments being put in motion which could attract golfers from further afield.”
Two-thirds of the comments that local officials have received about the Angus have been favorable. The project has been recommended for approval.
australia A Minimalist Course in Wilton
Unique and minimalist are two of the words that Graham Marsh recently used to describe the golf course he's designed for the Bingara Gorge community in New South Wales.
“Its style is unique,” Marsh told the Camden Advertiser. “It will be a minimalistic course, meaning we disturb the least amount of land rather than make it look like a resort-style course.”
Bingara Gorge is taking shape in Wilton, a town that's roughly 60 miles southwest of Sydney. At build-out, the 1,125-acre community will include 1,165 houses, an elementary school, and other community amenities.
Delfin, one of Australia's biggest home builders, expects to open the first nine holes of Marsh's course in the spring of 2012. The company had originally tapped Ernie Els to design the track.
Marsh has designed the recently opened Kalgoorlie-Boulder Golf Club in Kalgoorlie, his home town, and at least 20 other courses in Australia. He's also designed courses in China, Japan, Germany, South Korea, Malaysia, the Czech Republic, the United States, and other nations.
“Sometimes the courses with the smaller budgets create the most interest,” Marsh said of the course at Bingara Gorge, “and it's pleasing to build a course crafted out of nothing, because you have got nothing to work with.”
scotland A Ryder Cup for Trump?
When Sandy Jones talks, people listen. And last week Jones said some absolutely wonderful things about the golf course that Donald Trump is building in Aberdeen.
Jones, the CEO of the British PGA and a senior member of its Ryder Cup board, believes the course will host a major international tournament within a decade of its expected opening in 2012.
“When this course is complete,” he told the Aberdeen Press & Journal, “there is no doubt in my mind . . . that it will be one of the great golf courses in the world.”
As most everyone knows, Trump International Golf Club Scotland will eventually consist of two 18-hole golf courses, 500 single-family houses, 950 "holiday" houses, and a posh hotel.
Jones gushed about the club's setting, calling the property “a fantastic site” that will be “a great venue” for golf. He also noted that Trump is plenty capable of delivering the key ingredient that a big-time tournament needs: corporate money.
His conclusion: “I'll be amazed if there is not a really major world event here within a decade.”
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