Tomorrow's Scotsman reports that Loch Lomond Golf Club is facing a race against time to get the course in shape for this summer's Barclays Scottish Open after all 18 greens were damaged by the severe winter weather.
After calling in turf experts to address the problem, four of the putting surfaces have been completely returfed while 14 temporary greens are in operation as a result of much of the course being under a sheet of ice in December and January.
"This is an unfortunate situation but is a consequence of the serious damage wrought by the most severe winter witnessed in the area for 30 years," said the club yesterday. "The situation has also been exacerbated by cool spring temperatures which have delayed the start of the growing season."
The European Tour are monitoring the situation but say they are not contemplating a contingency plan for the Scottish Open, which takes place on 8-11 July with a field headed by Masters champion Phil Mickelson. . . .
The Scotsman's story is called "Loch Lomond in Race To Fix Greens After Ice Damage."
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
talking points Selling the Sizzle
Kyle Phillips, a Granite Bay, California-based golf designer, in a recent interview with Jay Flemma:
What have we done to golf in America? . . . We have taken golf design [and] made it like McDonald's. We’ve packaged it and sold it around the world at ridiculous prices. Now the world is choking on Big Macs.
What have we done to golf in America? . . . We have taken golf design [and] made it like McDonald's. We’ve packaged it and sold it around the world at ridiculous prices. Now the world is choking on Big Macs.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
croatia Smokin' Aces
The biggest tobacco company in Croatia has received permission to build a golf resort along the Adriatic Sea on the Istrian peninsula, the nation’s favorite vacation destination.
Adris Group sells several brands of cigarettes, including Ronhill, Walter Wolf, and Avangard. It also owns a publicly traded hotel and golf travel company, Maistria, Ltd., that plans to build a 200-room hotel with a 27-hole golf complex on 265 acres near Vrsar, a village along Istria’s western coast.
The golf complex, which will include a learning center, will be designed by Jose Maria Olazabal, the Spanish golf star. Olazabal, who’s based in San Sebastian, Spain, designed a golf course for the giant Mission Hills complex in Shenzhen, China and more than a dozen courses in Spain, including Club de Golf Masia Bach in Barcelona and Golf Los Retamares in Madrid.
Maistria, one of Croatia’s top hotel companies, operates more than a dozen hotels and resorts with a total of nearly 11,000 rooms. Most of its properties are located in the northwestern part of Istria, near the towns of Rovinj and Vrsar.
The company plans to break ground on the golf complex at Maistria Stancija Grande in early 2011.
Maistra.com, OlazabalDesign.com
Adris Group sells several brands of cigarettes, including Ronhill, Walter Wolf, and Avangard. It also owns a publicly traded hotel and golf travel company, Maistria, Ltd., that plans to build a 200-room hotel with a 27-hole golf complex on 265 acres near Vrsar, a village along Istria’s western coast.
The golf complex, which will include a learning center, will be designed by Jose Maria Olazabal, the Spanish golf star. Olazabal, who’s based in San Sebastian, Spain, designed a golf course for the giant Mission Hills complex in Shenzhen, China and more than a dozen courses in Spain, including Club de Golf Masia Bach in Barcelona and Golf Los Retamares in Madrid.
Maistria, one of Croatia’s top hotel companies, operates more than a dozen hotels and resorts with a total of nearly 11,000 rooms. Most of its properties are located in the northwestern part of Istria, near the towns of Rovinj and Vrsar.
The company plans to break ground on the golf complex at Maistria Stancija Grande in early 2011.
Maistra.com, OlazabalDesign.com
Sunday, May 2, 2010
switzerland Putting on the Glitz
Sometime this month, one of the world's wealthiest people expects to start transforming a sleepy Swiss village into the next great ski destination in the Alps.
Samih Sawiris is an Egyptian hotel developer who’s said to be worth $1.5 billion –- enough to rank him as number 655 on Forbes' list of the world’s richest people. He made his money running the fast-growing resort division of Orascom Group, a conglomerate founded by his father, Onsi Sawiris. Under Samih's direction, Orascom built the famed El Gouna golf resort on Egypt’s Red Sea coast.
For the past couple of years, Sawiris has trained his attention on Andermatt, a village in central Switzerland. Andermatt has lots of snow, challenging terrain, and plenty of Old World charm, but it lacks pizzazz. For the last 50 years or so, it’s served as a training center for the Swiss army, and its tourist business has consisted mostly of hard-core skiers.
Sawiris believes Andermatt can attract people who want to do more than ski -– people who currently vacation in glitzier places like Gstaad and St. Moritz, which have both a day and a night life. So he’s purchased 247 acres from the army and leased more land from local residents.
By 2014, he hopes to build a "carbon-neutral" resort with more than 500 villas and apartments, a half-dozen hotels (844 total rooms), a shopping area, a spa, a sports center, an indoor pool with a “beach,” and an 18-hole golf course with a six-hole practice course.
Of course, Sawiris isn’t completely focused on Andermatt. His company, publicly traded Orascom Development Holding AG, is currently working on two resort projects in Oman (Jebel Sifah and Salalah Beach, each of which will have golf courses), and it plans to build a pair of golf courses at the Chbika Sahara Atlantique resort in Oued Chbika, Morocco. It also plans to build a waterfront resort with a golf course on the Lustica peninsula in Montenegro.
The golf course in Switzerland is scheduled to open in 2013.
Andermatt-SwissAlps.com, OrascomDH.com
Samih Sawiris is an Egyptian hotel developer who’s said to be worth $1.5 billion –- enough to rank him as number 655 on Forbes' list of the world’s richest people. He made his money running the fast-growing resort division of Orascom Group, a conglomerate founded by his father, Onsi Sawiris. Under Samih's direction, Orascom built the famed El Gouna golf resort on Egypt’s Red Sea coast.
For the past couple of years, Sawiris has trained his attention on Andermatt, a village in central Switzerland. Andermatt has lots of snow, challenging terrain, and plenty of Old World charm, but it lacks pizzazz. For the last 50 years or so, it’s served as a training center for the Swiss army, and its tourist business has consisted mostly of hard-core skiers.
Sawiris believes Andermatt can attract people who want to do more than ski -– people who currently vacation in glitzier places like Gstaad and St. Moritz, which have both a day and a night life. So he’s purchased 247 acres from the army and leased more land from local residents.
By 2014, he hopes to build a "carbon-neutral" resort with more than 500 villas and apartments, a half-dozen hotels (844 total rooms), a shopping area, a spa, a sports center, an indoor pool with a “beach,” and an 18-hole golf course with a six-hole practice course.
Of course, Sawiris isn’t completely focused on Andermatt. His company, publicly traded Orascom Development Holding AG, is currently working on two resort projects in Oman (Jebel Sifah and Salalah Beach, each of which will have golf courses), and it plans to build a pair of golf courses at the Chbika Sahara Atlantique resort in Oued Chbika, Morocco. It also plans to build a waterfront resort with a golf course on the Lustica peninsula in Montenegro.
The golf course in Switzerland is scheduled to open in 2013.
Andermatt-SwissAlps.com, OrascomDH.com
Saturday, May 1, 2010
australia Allied Farmers Sells Troubled Nicklaus Course
The beleaguered Jack Nicklaus signature golf course at Kinloch has changed hands for the second time in two years, the New Zealand Herald reports.
The deal is good news for shareholders in rural services company Allied Farmers, which has now managed to extract itself from the troubled Kinloch mortgage it inherited when it bought the loan book of Hanover Finance last year.
"We have no further association with Kinloch and I'm very happy," Allied managing director Rob Alloway said.
To read the entire story, go to Kinloch Goes to Poultry Family.
The deal is good news for shareholders in rural services company Allied Farmers, which has now managed to extract itself from the troubled Kinloch mortgage it inherited when it bought the loan book of Hanover Finance last year.
"We have no further association with Kinloch and I'm very happy," Allied managing director Rob Alloway said.
To read the entire story, go to Kinloch Goes to Poultry Family.
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