talking points Tom Fazio Hits the Road

Last year, Tom Fazio agreed to do something he's never done before: cross an ocean to design a golf course.

This is a major departure for Fazio, who's been designing bona-fide world-class golf venues since the 1960s but has rarely strayed far from his home in Hendersonville, North Carolina. His international portfolio is painfully thin, consisting only of a few courses in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Barbados, Puerto Rico, and Panama.

Of course, that was then. In the prime of his career, Fazio could afford to spurn the advances of solicitous foreign suitors and take his pick of high-profile opportunities close to home. Now, he has no such luxury. If he wants to work, he has to follow the money.


That's why he's designing his first course in Europe, a 7,867-yard track for a resort community called Herdade da Comporta, on Portugal's Alentejo Coast. It's the first step in what appears to be a sincere effort to establish a global presence and create an international brand. I suppose that's why Fazio has called the commission “a great opportunity for us.”

In a recent story, Fazio explains why he took the job:

I wouldn’t travel far from home while I had my children, but now [that] they have grown up and left home, I’m free to travel the world and to accept some jobs I would have turned down in the past. My family has always come first, and you’d have to say I didn’t have much incentive to travel, either.

I’d have to check the actual figures, but my house in Asheville, North Carolina is about two hours from New York, two hours from Chicago, two hours from Dallas, two hours from Palm Springs. [Note: I think he may have meant (or said) Palm Beach, Florida.] And in that area, I’d guess there has been around 4,000 courses built since I started out in the design business back in the 60s.

I have probably built about 150 courses within two hours of my home. There was no need to travel. But now there’s no reason to stay home, which is why I’m here at Comporta and why we’ll probably do other overseas projects in the future.

We’re going to put our name in Europe, put our name in Portugal. The time is right.

The Week That Was: March 13, 2011

spain Muammar Gaddafi, a Developer Spurned

You probably already know that Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan despot famously described by Ronald Reagan as the “mad dog of the Middle East,” is fond of bunkers. He routinely builds them under the foundations of his many villas and houses. He does it as a precautionary measure, in case he needs to hunker down for a while during, say, a civil war or national calamity.

You may not know that Gaddafi also wants to build some bunkers, along with an entire 18-hole golf course, on the Costa del Sol. The course would be the centerpiece of a huge resort community that includes more than 1,900 houses, some hotels, meeting and convention space, restaurants, and only he knows what else.


Of course, nobody is going to be playing Gaddafi's golf course anytime soon. Spain has put his development dreams on ice, as part of the world-wide economic sanctions that have been imposed against his corrupt, evil regime.

Libya's oil reserves have made Gaddafi an extremely wealthy man. Besides the riches he's socked away in his own country, his Libyan Investment Authority reportedly has stakes in well-known companies all over the planet -- among them Fiat, the Italian auto manufacturer; Juventus, the Italian soccer team; and Pearson PLC, the company that publishes London's Financial Times.

The authority obviously also has some interest in high-profile real estate, like the 15,000 acres -- roughly 25 square miles -- Gaddafi controls in and around Benahavis, a mountain village in Malaga Province. Various sources say that Brother Leader has owned the property, roughly 10 miles west of Marbella, for 20 years. He reportedly last visited it in late 2007, mere months before the world's economy melted down and the golf business went belly up.

So, like so many other would-be developers, Gaddafi has a golf project on indefinite hold. Of course, it's possible that Spain is actually doing him a favor by putting his project in the deep freeze. Benahavis already has nine golf courses, says Wikipedia, with six more are in planning.

brazil Jack Nicklaus, Dealmaker

A couple of months ago, while doing some research on a golf course that Jack Nicklaus is designing in the Caribbean, I was told that his “signature” layouts still fetch about $2 million apiece, depending on the amount of face time that's required of him.

To be honest, I was surprised to hear it. Given the squeeze that's been put on golf development of late, I thought for sure that a Nicklaus course could be bought at a discount.

As it turns out, I was right. Yes, Nicklaus still charges a veritable king's ransom to put his name on a golf course. But it's become clear that he's also willing to cut a deal, as long as a prospective client offers either a legacy commission or a willingness to buy in bulk.


This week, we learned that Nicklaus normally charges $2.5 million to design a “signature” course. The price was posted by Jim Smith, Nicklaus' lobbyist in Florida.

That's right, I said lobbyist. When a fellow wants to pull some strings in government, he hires a lobbyist. We have a long and sordid history of it here in Washington. And Nicklaus didn't just pick a nobody out of a hat. He went to work with a fellow described by a Florida-based newspaper as “a former attorney general and secretary of state,” which is a measure of bona-fide quality in the lobbying business.

Nicklaus had good reason to seek professional help. This week, it was revealed that he hopes to design golf courses in five of Florida's state parks. Smith is apparently the guy who persuaded a pair of Republican state legislators to propose bills that would have required Florida's division of recreation and parks to build what's been named the Jack Nicklaus Golf Trail.

In the nation's capital, we call such legislation a boondoggle. But I'm sure the politicians in Florida, not to mention the lobbyists, aren't nearly so crass.

Here's the bad news: The trail had a public life of about a week. Newspaper columnists and environmentalists tore the idea to shreds, and even some people in the golf industry had trouble with it. A spokesperson for Arnold Palmer's design company advised the state to explore “alternative options” instead of “using our state parks for 'new' golf course development.”

The legislation has officially died.

But here's the good news: Nicklaus didn't plan to charge $2.5 million for each of the five courses. In fact, he offered the state of Florida a pretty sweet deal. According to his lobbyist, he'd design the first course for free, and he'd do the rest of them for $625,000 each.

In other words, Nicklaus was willing to deliver five “signature” courses for the price of one.

Get 'em while they're hot, folks!

The five-for-one discount wasn't the only can't-beat-our-prices deal that Nicklaus said he'd swing last week. During an interview with NBC, Nicklaus suggested that he and Annika Sorenstam are willing to take on the world's most coveted design project -- the golf course for the 2016 Olympics in Brazil -- at no charge.

“We're not interested in remuneration or anything else,” Nicklaus said.

Talk about a price being right! The notion was so unexpected, so out of the blue, that Geoff Shackelford asked Nicklaus Design for a clarification.

“Neither of them is seeking compensation,” came the reply.

So what happens next? Well, the team of Greg Norman and Lorena Ochoa will have to match Nicklaus' no-fee fee, as will the team of Robert Trent Jones, Jr. and Mario Gonzalez. Then, one by one, the individual applicants -- Palmer, Nick Faldo, Gary Player, Seve Ballesteros -- will fall into line.

They'll take the high road, of course, even though it's no longer paved in gold. They'll say they're giving up the money for the good of the game. And, in the interest of full disclosure, they'll admit that they can afford to work for nothing. After all, they're among the richest people in our business.

You've got to hand it to Nicklaus, though. This week, he leveled the playing field. Too bad it's now at ground zero.

caribbean Feeling Woosie on St. Kitts

A development group based in Trinidad & Tobago has broken ground on what it describes as “a world-class, environmentally friendly, and culturally sensitive resort” on the island of St. Kitts.

Now that all of the marketing department's hot buttons have been pushed, I can tell you that the community is called Kittitian Hill and that it's being developed by Terra Forma Developments. At build-out, it'll feature townhouses, cottages, and villas, a boutique hotel, a village center, “artists' studios,” an outdoor theater, a beach club, a spa, and an 18-hole golf course that's been “signed” by Ian Woosnam.

Kittitian Hill is taking shape on a 400-acre beachfront parcel that reportedly offers views of St. Barths, Saba, and St. Maarten.

“The views from the site are quite amazing,” says Gary Johnston of Sunningdale, England-based European Golf Design, who did the architectural heavy lifting. “It's a beautiful development that blends harmoniously with the environment.”

Terra Forma broke ground on Kittitian Hill's 6,825-yard golf course last month. It's expected to open in late 2012 or early 2013.

libya Letter from Ron Fream

I was the first U.S. civilian to enter Libya, on the first day our government allowed U.S. citizens to go there.

It was in 2004. I had been in Tunis, working to get a visa so I could go to Libya with some Tunisians. My visa was issued, after numerous bureaucratic delays, on the day the travel embargo was lifted.

I landed in Tripoli later that morning. On arrival, I was detained for a while as the various personnel in the immigration arrival hall took turns examining my passport. They had never before seen a standard, non-diplomatic U.S. passport.

Our Golfplan team was working with a Tunisian businessman who wanted to start developing tourist golf facilities in Libya, as I'd been doing since 1973 in Tunisia. The idea was to build a compact nine- or 18-hole course that would replace the British-inspired Tripoli Golf Club. We were going to turn the club's rolling, all-sand site into green grass. The location was near the Great Man-Made River, which pipes in water from the southern part of the country, so irrigation wasn't going to be a problem.

We did a master plan, but the project never went anywhere. Our Tunisian client got bogged down by trust issues, mostly involving money and transparency, with his prospective Libyan partner, and the deal died.

I ended up making two visits to Libya. On the second one, I showed our concept to one of Colonel Gaddafi's sons, the one who ran the nation's telecommunications industry and its national soccer team. I can't remember his name. My memory isn't what it once was.


What I remember about Libya are beautiful Roman and Carthaginian seaside ruins, many barely uncovered out of the sand. Libya, in fact, has an amazing Mediterranean seafront -- no bad coastal development, like you find in Egypt around Alexandria or overbuilt Sharm el-Sheikh. Some areas around Benghazi remind me of Tabarka, in northern Tunisia -- pine trees, cork oak, sandy areas, mountain settings.

In Tripoli, it was nice to see old English and Italian architecture, and still surviving Roman ruins. The port was one of the few along the Mediterranean that didn't have container facilities. Alcohol was available if you knew someone in the diplomatic corps.

Gaddafi had become wealthy from oil income, but the rewards hadn't trickled down to the average citizen. Donkey and camel were the main sources of protein. As is common in the Third World, preventive maintenance was not a known activity. All was dingy, dirty, boring.

Since there was little public greenery, it was easy to understand the plain, all-green flag of Libya. Most Libyans can only view sand and sea. At least their flag shows the color of nature.

Leadership change in Libya is long overdue. Libya needs tourism to help create jobs and provide hope to the nation's young people. I believe golf tourism in Libya could surpass that of Tunisia, where the seven Golfplan-designed resort courses were generating -- until the world recession and, more lately, the Jasmine Revolution -- 10 percent of the nation's foreign exchange earnings.

I'm writing to you from India, from a town called Mechuka in the very primitive northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh. Mechuka is in a beautiful valley, 6,500 feet high, surrounded by 20,000-foot, snow-capped Himalayan peaks and ridges. Tibet is 30 miles to the north.

To get here, I made a 14-hour drive over two days, on roads that, for the last seven hours, were one lane or so wide. Slow going. There's no electricity after eight o'clock, and the only way to get hot water is to warm up a pot on a wood stove. On my last visit, in November, we carried pails of water up to our rooms at the guest house so we could flush the toilets.

All in all, though, this is a nice place for natural, Scottish-style golf -- fescues, cattle to mow the roughs and fairways. But there's a slight problem with access.

Cheers!
Ron Fream

Ron Fream is the founder of GolfPlan, a Santa Rosa, California-based design firm. He's designed about 75 new courses, including one for the Sultan of Brunei, and he currently has projects in Mongolia, Uganda, and other countries. He lives in Malaysia.

The Week That Was: March 6, 2011

brazil Jones, Jr. Gets on the Road To Rio

It takes two to tango, and it may also take two to design the golf course that hosts the Olympic games in 2016.

I'm sure you've heard that Jack Nicklaus and Annika Sorenstam have formed a partnership to win the coveted commission. Late last year, they were jointed by another high-profile, opposite-sex team: Greg Norman and Lorena Ochoa.

Now meet the latest dynamic duo to throw their proverbial hats into the ring: Robert Trent Jones, Jr. and -- drum roll, please -- Mario Gonzalez.

Who?

No, I never heard of him, either. The Associated Press simply describes Gonzalez as a “retired Brazilian golf great.” I've learned that he won the Brazilian Open eight times and played in the Masters three times. His main claim to fame: He won the Argentine Open as an amateur in 1940, when he was 17 years old.

That's right, Gonzalez was born in 1923. He's 88.

So much for golf evolving into a younger, hipper sport.

The AP reports that Jones, who's 71, was in Brazil last week, checking out potential sites -- the leading candidate is said to be in the Barra da Tijuca neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro -- and buttering up potential decision-makers. A designer will likely be selected later this year.

“I've been a long-time Olympic activist, and obviously was very happy golf rejoined the games,” Jones said during his visit. “We want to be part of it. It would be a wonderful thing.”

Jones and Gonzalez are competing against a parade of celebrity architects, including Nick Faldo, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, and Seve Ballesteros.

“We have dozens of designers interested in this course,” an official from the Brazilian Golf Federation told the AP. “I think it's even possible that one of these designers will offer their work free of charge just because of the importance of having their name associated with this historic tournament.”

I wouldn't bet on it. These days, the Olympics is all about getting paid.

spain New Course in Andalusia

A Spanish development group aims to build a 36-hole golf complex in Andalusia.

The complex will be the centerpiece of Los Velez Golf Club, a resort community in the village of Vélez-Rubio. As best I can determine, the 346-acre community will include more than 1,000 villas and apartments, a 180-room hotel, a spa, a wellness center, a shopping area, and a couple of schools.

Los Velez is being developed by Valle de Mahimón Urbanizadora SL Valley. The information I've found on the project is sketchy, but I believe the developers plan to build one 18 for local golfers, the other 18 for professional events. They hope to attract 500 members to their club.

Velez-Rubio is roughly 15 miles west of Lorca, in Almería Province.

qatar Follow the Bouncing Ball

Over the next year, a government-controlled development group in Qatar plans to begin awarding $3 billion worth of contracts for the construction of the Lusail mega-city.

Qatar needs to build Lusail in time for soccer's World Cup in 2022. The championship game will be played in a to-be-built stadium just north of the city.

Lusail is supposed to be complete in 2019. It's been planned to include thousands of houses -- enough to accommodate a population of 200,000 -- hotels, office space, an entertainment district, retail and commercial areas, five sports stadiums, and an 18-hole golf course.

The initial contracts will be issued for various infrastructure projects, notably a highway that will run along Lusail's western border. About three-quarters of the city's land has reportedly been sold to private developers. They are obligated to complete their projects within four years of the date when they take possession of the property.

Lusail's developer, Lusail Real Estate Development Company, is an affiliate of Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Company. Qatari Diar is the development arm of the Qatar Investment Authority, which is led by the emirate's prime minister. He reports to Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifah al-Thani, Qatar's emir.

All in all, Qatar expects to spend about $65 billion to dress itself up for the World Cup. Among other things, the emirate needs to double its hotel capacity, build nine new soccer stadiums, and refurbish three existing soccer stadiums.

cyprus A Pair of Kings

It appears that the Jack Nicklaus- and Gary Player-designed golf courses at Limni Golf Resort could open sometime next year.

According to a poorly prepared and horribly translated press release, “one of the finest golf course developments in the world today is officially underway in Polis, Cyprus.” The release never names the resort, but Limni is the only golf development in the world that anchored by Nicklaus- and Player-designed courses.

The resort is taking shape on 690 acres in Polis, a small town on the northwestern coast of Cyprus. Player's course is taking shape on a former copper quarry in the hills overlooking the Nicklaus course, part of which buts up to the beach.

“Having seen the intimate details of the courses and the site itself,” says the press release, “there is no doubt as a golf lover that this is the best site in the whole of Europe, bar none.”

It's prudent to assume that the resort's press agents may be exaggerating.

Besides the “signature” golf courses, Limni will have high-end villas, townhouses, and apartments, a village center, a boutique hotel, a spa, a beach club, entertainment venues, and hiking trails.

It’ll also have a desalination plant to convert sea water to fresh water, a vital process in a place as dry as Cyprus.

Limni is being developed by Shacolas Group, a firm based in Nicosia, Cyprus. The press release says that “the master project is due for completion in mid to late 2012.”