Which U.S. architect has designed the most golf courses in Egypt?
The answer is John Sanford, a Jupiter, Florida-based designer who’s completed four golf properties in the Land of the Pharaohs and has others slated to open in 2010 and 2011.
Sanford’s first course, at the Jolie Ville resort in Sharm El Sheik, opened in 2000.
Six years later, Orascom Hotels & Development -– the company that built the landmark El Gouna resort along the Red Sea -– opened a Sanford-designed course at the Taba Heights resort community in Taba.
Then, in 2008, came a 27-hole complex -– an 18-hole course, a nine-hole, par-3 course, and a practice center with three practice holes -– at another Red Sea resort, Makadi Bay in Hurghada.
Last year, Cairo-based Hassan Allam Group wrapped up construction on Sanford’s nine-hole course at Little Venice, a resort that’s expected to open next spring in Ain Sokhna City, on the western coast of the Suez Gulf.
And in the summer of 2010, a 27-hole complex jointly designed by Sanford and Nicklaus Design will be unveiled at Palm Hills Golf Club in Sixth of October City.
More important, Sanford isn’t done in Egypt: His course at Hacienda Bay, near El Alamein on the Mediterranean coast, is under construction and scheduled to open in the fall of 2011.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Sunday, March 7, 2010
CHINA Are You Sure It Can't Happen There?
You probably already know plenty about the golf boom in China. I'm sure you've heard that golf courses are being built in the People's Republic at a dizzying, near-exponential pace that could easily result in the opening of 1,000 or more new tracks over the next two decades.
Such growth hardly seems possible, until you remind yourself that everything in China happens on a scale that would be unimaginable in a normal-sized country. If its golf participation continues to grow as it has over the past decade, China can easily accommodate another 1,000 golf courses, maybe even 10,000.
That's why it sometimes seems as if China is an unstoppable force. It's one of the few places on earth where people are still writing checks, so it has a gravitational pull on all of us who make a living in golf.
But maybe it's time to ask the obvious question: Is there an immovable object out there somewhere?
I ask because several news services have recently reported some disturbing news about the real estate market in the People's Republic.
MarketWatch, citing a study by a research firm called Standard Chartered, says that real estate prices in China more than doubled in 2009.
Allow me to state the obvious: Such an increase isn't sustainable.
MarketWatch also says that real estate prices on Hainan Island, China's major golf hot-spot, increased by more than one-third in the first five weeks of 2010.
Clearly, also not sustainable.
Just last week, the New York Times noted that real estate prices in Shanghai have increased by more than 150 percent since 2003 and, as a result, an 1,100-square-foot apartment now costs $200,000.
Okay, that doesn't sound like much. But consider the newspaper's next sentence: "Shanghai residents typically earn less than $5,000 a year."
My math isn't very good, but I believe the apartment is roughly 40 times the salary. In the United States, you can't get that kind of mortgage, at least not anymore.
The New York Times also says that "speculators are snapping up properties on the expectation that prices will continue to rise, as prices have nearly every year for more than a decade."
As a result, according to the Times, "developers are scrambling to build more mansions, villas, and high-rise apartments with names like Rich Gate, Park Avenue, and Palais de Fortune."
Sound familiar? Because I have a distinct recollection of something like that happening in the United States just a few years ago.
And look at us now.
If you think that the Chinese government hasn't noticed, or isn't concerned, you'd be wrong.
"There is a bubble forming, and it is bound to burst if effective measures are not applied soon," a government official recently told China Daily, a state-run newspaper.
If the bubble bursts, some of the sizzle will inevitably leave China's golf business. We saw it happen in the United States. Buyers get skittish, bankers tighten up, over-leveraged developers go broke. Things fall apart. And when they do, there's nowhere to hide.
It happened here, and it can happen there. Those fabulous golf communities that are taking shape in China could, virtually overnight, become ghost towns.
Don't think so? Because it's also become clear that China has its share of developers who are afflicted with a "build it and they will come" mentality.
In the current issue of Executive Travel magazine, a U.S. golf architect, David Dale, says that some Chinese golf communities are taking shape in places that are so far off the beaten track that they can't possibly pencil out.
“There are 54-hole complexes going up in remote places, three hours from the nearest city, and there’s no logical way for the operating numbers to make sense,” says Dale, a partner in Santa Rosa, California-based GolfPlan. “But they’re in a projected growth corridor, and the land is seen as having huge appreciation potential.”
This is no surprise. If you were a developer, how would you maximize the potential of land in the middle of nowhere?
Well, you'd make your community as exclusive and as full of cachet as it could possibly be. You'd build an ultra-expensive golf course (maybe even two) designed by a "brand-name" architect, and you'd build huge, luxurious houses that would be coveted by home buyers eager to show off their new-found wealth.
Kind of like what Tim Blixseth did at Yellowstone Club. Or what Bobby Ginn and Bonita Bay Group did in Florida. Or what Pivotal Group did in Park City.
I could give other examples, but I'm sure you get the point.
Which leads me to a related issue, this one raised by Michael Hurdzan in a recent issue of Sports Illustrated.
"The danger I see," said Hurdzan, a Columbus, Ohio-based golf architect, "is that the developers and golf architects will go out and make the same mistakes in Asia that they made here in North America. They'll build mostly big resorts and private clubs. They won't make it a people's game."
And wouldn't it be ironic if things worked out that way in the People's Republic?
Such growth hardly seems possible, until you remind yourself that everything in China happens on a scale that would be unimaginable in a normal-sized country. If its golf participation continues to grow as it has over the past decade, China can easily accommodate another 1,000 golf courses, maybe even 10,000.
That's why it sometimes seems as if China is an unstoppable force. It's one of the few places on earth where people are still writing checks, so it has a gravitational pull on all of us who make a living in golf.
But maybe it's time to ask the obvious question: Is there an immovable object out there somewhere?
I ask because several news services have recently reported some disturbing news about the real estate market in the People's Republic.
MarketWatch, citing a study by a research firm called Standard Chartered, says that real estate prices in China more than doubled in 2009.
Allow me to state the obvious: Such an increase isn't sustainable.
MarketWatch also says that real estate prices on Hainan Island, China's major golf hot-spot, increased by more than one-third in the first five weeks of 2010.
Clearly, also not sustainable.
Just last week, the New York Times noted that real estate prices in Shanghai have increased by more than 150 percent since 2003 and, as a result, an 1,100-square-foot apartment now costs $200,000.
Okay, that doesn't sound like much. But consider the newspaper's next sentence: "Shanghai residents typically earn less than $5,000 a year."
My math isn't very good, but I believe the apartment is roughly 40 times the salary. In the United States, you can't get that kind of mortgage, at least not anymore.
The New York Times also says that "speculators are snapping up properties on the expectation that prices will continue to rise, as prices have nearly every year for more than a decade."
As a result, according to the Times, "developers are scrambling to build more mansions, villas, and high-rise apartments with names like Rich Gate, Park Avenue, and Palais de Fortune."
Sound familiar? Because I have a distinct recollection of something like that happening in the United States just a few years ago.
And look at us now.
If you think that the Chinese government hasn't noticed, or isn't concerned, you'd be wrong.
"There is a bubble forming, and it is bound to burst if effective measures are not applied soon," a government official recently told China Daily, a state-run newspaper.
If the bubble bursts, some of the sizzle will inevitably leave China's golf business. We saw it happen in the United States. Buyers get skittish, bankers tighten up, over-leveraged developers go broke. Things fall apart. And when they do, there's nowhere to hide.
It happened here, and it can happen there. Those fabulous golf communities that are taking shape in China could, virtually overnight, become ghost towns.
Don't think so? Because it's also become clear that China has its share of developers who are afflicted with a "build it and they will come" mentality.
In the current issue of Executive Travel magazine, a U.S. golf architect, David Dale, says that some Chinese golf communities are taking shape in places that are so far off the beaten track that they can't possibly pencil out.
“There are 54-hole complexes going up in remote places, three hours from the nearest city, and there’s no logical way for the operating numbers to make sense,” says Dale, a partner in Santa Rosa, California-based GolfPlan. “But they’re in a projected growth corridor, and the land is seen as having huge appreciation potential.”
This is no surprise. If you were a developer, how would you maximize the potential of land in the middle of nowhere?
Well, you'd make your community as exclusive and as full of cachet as it could possibly be. You'd build an ultra-expensive golf course (maybe even two) designed by a "brand-name" architect, and you'd build huge, luxurious houses that would be coveted by home buyers eager to show off their new-found wealth.
Kind of like what Tim Blixseth did at Yellowstone Club. Or what Bobby Ginn and Bonita Bay Group did in Florida. Or what Pivotal Group did in Park City.
I could give other examples, but I'm sure you get the point.
Which leads me to a related issue, this one raised by Michael Hurdzan in a recent issue of Sports Illustrated.
"The danger I see," said Hurdzan, a Columbus, Ohio-based golf architect, "is that the developers and golf architects will go out and make the same mistakes in Asia that they made here in North America. They'll build mostly big resorts and private clubs. They won't make it a people's game."
And wouldn't it be ironic if things worked out that way in the People's Republic?
Friday, March 5, 2010
CROATIA Golf Park Dubrovnik, Dubrovnik
Late last year, Greg Norman visited Croatia, where he pitched a proposal to build a golf complex atop Srd Hill, overlooking the city of Dubrovnik.
Srd Hill (a.k.a. Mount Srd) is certainly an appealing site, as it looms more than 1,300 feet above Dubrovnik and offers inspiring views of both the ancient walled city and the Adriatic Sea. The hill was a popular hangout until 1991, when, during Croatia’s war of independence, the cable car that took tourists up and down was destroyed. Now the hill, which is difficult to climb, is rarely visited and stands as a symbol of times that Dubrovnik would love to forget.
So we’re sure that the city fathers and Croatia’s tourism officials listened closely to Norman and his colleagues, for they are eager to establish Dubrovnik as a vacation destination. No doubt, many of them agreed with Ivan Kusalic, the director of Razvoj Golf and a member of the development team, when he called the venture a “project of national interest.”
And we’re sure that they didn’t need to remind themselves that various developers have been trying to develop the property on Srd Hill since 2003, if not before.
Norman and Kusalic are part of Golf Development Company, Ltd., which plans to build a resort called Golf Park Dubrovnik. The resort is expected to consist of a hotel (maybe two), a spa, meeting space, and, perhaps most important, a means of linking the property to the city.
Golf Park Dubrovnik has been called Croatia’s biggest current development venture. Norman will design its golf complex, which will consist of a private 18-hole course (possibly a tournament-worthy layout), a public six- to nine-hole course designed for beginners, and a Norman-branded practice center.
Norman is also one of the partners in Golf Development Company, which owns about 800 acres. Another partner is Braslav Turcic, who served as a consultant to a German group that tried to build a similar project, called Golf Park Srd, on the property in 2003.
Today an Israeli arms dealer, Aaron Frankel, owns the site. Frankel has been trying to build a golf course on the property for several years; he met with Jack Nicklaus in 2006, presumably to discuss the course’s design.
If Golf Park Dubrovnik is ever completed, it would be Croatia’s fourth golf property.
Srd Hill (a.k.a. Mount Srd) is certainly an appealing site, as it looms more than 1,300 feet above Dubrovnik and offers inspiring views of both the ancient walled city and the Adriatic Sea. The hill was a popular hangout until 1991, when, during Croatia’s war of independence, the cable car that took tourists up and down was destroyed. Now the hill, which is difficult to climb, is rarely visited and stands as a symbol of times that Dubrovnik would love to forget.
So we’re sure that the city fathers and Croatia’s tourism officials listened closely to Norman and his colleagues, for they are eager to establish Dubrovnik as a vacation destination. No doubt, many of them agreed with Ivan Kusalic, the director of Razvoj Golf and a member of the development team, when he called the venture a “project of national interest.”
And we’re sure that they didn’t need to remind themselves that various developers have been trying to develop the property on Srd Hill since 2003, if not before.
Norman and Kusalic are part of Golf Development Company, Ltd., which plans to build a resort called Golf Park Dubrovnik. The resort is expected to consist of a hotel (maybe two), a spa, meeting space, and, perhaps most important, a means of linking the property to the city.
Golf Park Dubrovnik has been called Croatia’s biggest current development venture. Norman will design its golf complex, which will consist of a private 18-hole course (possibly a tournament-worthy layout), a public six- to nine-hole course designed for beginners, and a Norman-branded practice center.
Norman is also one of the partners in Golf Development Company, which owns about 800 acres. Another partner is Braslav Turcic, who served as a consultant to a German group that tried to build a similar project, called Golf Park Srd, on the property in 2003.
Today an Israeli arms dealer, Aaron Frankel, owns the site. Frankel has been trying to build a golf course on the property for several years; he met with Jack Nicklaus in 2006, presumably to discuss the course’s design.
If Golf Park Dubrovnik is ever completed, it would be Croatia’s fourth golf property.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
INDIA The End of the Dream
I have seen the future of golf in India, and it scares the hell out of me.
I saw it in the form of a horror story called "Going Greens: India's Golf Boom" that was published in February by Global Post. You should read it for yourself. Do it in a clean, well-ventilated place.
The story starts all bright and sunny. Over the past five years, it says, "new courses have mushroomed all over the country," which is a good thing. Even better, it says, more new courses are in planning or under construction. Ashit Luthra, the chairman of the Indian Golf Union, gives a prediction: "We are just short of 200 courses, and we expect that we will put up in the next decade more than 100 courses."
So far, nothing to fear.
But things soon started to get weird.
I read that "India's skyrocketing residential real estate market has played a big part in the boom." I read that golf, "aided by corporate support and a rising middle class," is "fast becoming big business in India."
Then I read something that took my breath away. It came from Luthra, who says that golf "is becoming a corporate sport."
A corporate sport? Big business?
Are these supposed to be virtues? Is this good for golf?
Only if you're running around with dollar signs in your eyes.
Yes, golf is hot in India, just as it is in any nation with a lot of people, a lot of money, and a functioning economy. But remember, nearly a half-billion Indians live in abject poverty. If you do the math, the way the World Bank did, you find that one-third of all the really poor people in the entire world live in India.
That's really scary.
But let's not dwell on the slumdogs. Let's focus on the millionaires.
Heck, that's what India's golf industry is doing!
"Virtually every major real estate developer in India is turning to golf," says Global Post, "as a way of marketing their properties to an elite."
In other words, big companies are using golf to sell real estate to rich people.
No surprise there. It happened in the United States, and it's happening now in India and China. It'll happen in Russia and Middle East, once their economies revive. Maybe it'll happen everywhere.
But I have the sense that the golf industry in India doesn't fully realize what it's gotten itself into. Does it know that the development model it's supporting has completely flopped in the United States?
The people who are supposed to be tending to India's nascent golf industry are now officially taking direction from corporate big-wigs -- home builders, hotel operators, resort developers -- who have absolutely no stake in the future of golf.
I know it feels right. Corporate bosses are smart people. They're persuasive. They instill confidence. They have the appearance of success.
You have opinions. They have marketing studies to support their opinions.
Unfortunately, these people are bad for golf. All they really care about is selling houses and time-share condos, about filling hotel rooms and restaurants and water parks. As long as golf helps them do these things, they're the game's biggest supporters.
But when the home buyers disappear and the vacationers turn their fickle attention to other destinations, they'll abandon golf. Their shareholders will demand it. It's the first rule of Big Business.
If you want a golf boom that will inevitably go bust, you turn it over to Corporate India. You give it to the bottom-liners who are in the business of making money, not making great golf courses or making golf affordable or bringing new players into the game or worrying about the sport's future.
And before you know it, you discover that the only golf courses worth building are the ones designed by guys like Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, and Greg Norman, because you need to put a "brand name" on your product.
You discover that your nation needs a lot of "championship-standard" courses, because they command the highest greens fees and attract the richest players.
You discover that your city needs to build not just one or two golf courses but five or even 10, so you can attract legions of free-spending tourists who desire to play several different courses during their week-long holidays.
And in a few years, you realize that you've priced your "rising middle class" out of the market and created a nation of golf snobs. You realize that you don't have any home-grown golfers, because you never extended a hand to youngsters and beginners. You realize that you have a game that's expensive and, even worse, exclusive.
Then, when it's too late, you realize that you don't really have much of a golf industry at all.
And finally, you realize that you've missed a golden opportunity.
Just as we did in the United States.
I saw it in the form of a horror story called "Going Greens: India's Golf Boom" that was published in February by Global Post. You should read it for yourself. Do it in a clean, well-ventilated place.
The story starts all bright and sunny. Over the past five years, it says, "new courses have mushroomed all over the country," which is a good thing. Even better, it says, more new courses are in planning or under construction. Ashit Luthra, the chairman of the Indian Golf Union, gives a prediction: "We are just short of 200 courses, and we expect that we will put up in the next decade more than 100 courses."
So far, nothing to fear.
But things soon started to get weird.
I read that "India's skyrocketing residential real estate market has played a big part in the boom." I read that golf, "aided by corporate support and a rising middle class," is "fast becoming big business in India."
Then I read something that took my breath away. It came from Luthra, who says that golf "is becoming a corporate sport."
A corporate sport? Big business?
Are these supposed to be virtues? Is this good for golf?
Only if you're running around with dollar signs in your eyes.
Yes, golf is hot in India, just as it is in any nation with a lot of people, a lot of money, and a functioning economy. But remember, nearly a half-billion Indians live in abject poverty. If you do the math, the way the World Bank did, you find that one-third of all the really poor people in the entire world live in India.
That's really scary.
But let's not dwell on the slumdogs. Let's focus on the millionaires.
Heck, that's what India's golf industry is doing!
"Virtually every major real estate developer in India is turning to golf," says Global Post, "as a way of marketing their properties to an elite."
In other words, big companies are using golf to sell real estate to rich people.
No surprise there. It happened in the United States, and it's happening now in India and China. It'll happen in Russia and Middle East, once their economies revive. Maybe it'll happen everywhere.
But I have the sense that the golf industry in India doesn't fully realize what it's gotten itself into. Does it know that the development model it's supporting has completely flopped in the United States?
The people who are supposed to be tending to India's nascent golf industry are now officially taking direction from corporate big-wigs -- home builders, hotel operators, resort developers -- who have absolutely no stake in the future of golf.
I know it feels right. Corporate bosses are smart people. They're persuasive. They instill confidence. They have the appearance of success.
You have opinions. They have marketing studies to support their opinions.
Unfortunately, these people are bad for golf. All they really care about is selling houses and time-share condos, about filling hotel rooms and restaurants and water parks. As long as golf helps them do these things, they're the game's biggest supporters.
But when the home buyers disappear and the vacationers turn their fickle attention to other destinations, they'll abandon golf. Their shareholders will demand it. It's the first rule of Big Business.
If you want a golf boom that will inevitably go bust, you turn it over to Corporate India. You give it to the bottom-liners who are in the business of making money, not making great golf courses or making golf affordable or bringing new players into the game or worrying about the sport's future.
And before you know it, you discover that the only golf courses worth building are the ones designed by guys like Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, and Greg Norman, because you need to put a "brand name" on your product.
You discover that your nation needs a lot of "championship-standard" courses, because they command the highest greens fees and attract the richest players.
You discover that your city needs to build not just one or two golf courses but five or even 10, so you can attract legions of free-spending tourists who desire to play several different courses during their week-long holidays.
And in a few years, you realize that you've priced your "rising middle class" out of the market and created a nation of golf snobs. You realize that you don't have any home-grown golfers, because you never extended a hand to youngsters and beginners. You realize that you have a game that's expensive and, even worse, exclusive.
Then, when it's too late, you realize that you don't really have much of a golf industry at all.
And finally, you realize that you've missed a golden opportunity.
Just as we did in the United States.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
ENGLAND TBD @ Park Hall, Mansfield Woodhouse
Jonathan Gaunt helped Donald Steel redesign the Carlson Farm Course at Greensboro Country Club in Greensboro, North Carolina, and, on his own, he’s designed more than a dozen golf courses in the U.K., Spain, Denmark, Turkey, and the Czech Republic. Next up, the Bakewell, England-based architect will design a “destination” golf course in Mansfield Woodhouse, a close-in northern suburb of Mansfield, England.
The 18-hole, 5,623-yard track will take shape on 125 acres near the Park Hall mansion, which will be transformed into a hotel, 16 lodges, and apartments for vacationers.
It’s the first golf venture for Mansfield-based Vital Property, Ltd., which plans to submit an official application to Mansfield’s district council in early 2010.
The 18-hole, 5,623-yard track will take shape on 125 acres near the Park Hall mansion, which will be transformed into a hotel, 16 lodges, and apartments for vacationers.
It’s the first golf venture for Mansfield-based Vital Property, Ltd., which plans to submit an official application to Mansfield’s district council in early 2010.
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