Jack Nicklaus may not win the commission to design the golf course for the 2016 Olympics, but he’ll nonetheless soon make his mark on Brazil’s golf culture.
The North Palm Beach, Florida-based architect has been hired to produce an 18-hole “signature” golf course for SerrAzul Golf Club, in a northwestern suburb of Sao Paulo. The 7,000-yard layout will anchor Fazenda SerrAzul, an upscale, sports-oriented community that’s been designed, its developers say, for those who seek “quality of life associated with leisure, privacy, and security.”
Fazenda SerrAzul, a gated community with a 24-hour security force, is taking shape in a town called Itupeva. At build-out, it’ll consist of 361 single-family houses (and perhaps some condos), an equestrian center, sports centers for tennis and soccer, parks, lakes, and hiking trails.
The community is being developed by Terras de São José, a long-established home builder that describes itself as having “a rich history and a modern vision.” Terras de São José was spun off from a firm called SENPE, which got its start building roads and other large-scale engineering projects. The companies are responsible for some high-profile commercial landmarks in and around Itupeva, including a hotel, a major shopping mall, a theme park, and a water park.
Terras de São José hopes to break ground on the golf course next year.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Sunday, December 18, 2011
The Week That Was, december 18, 2011
. . . england A Long Shot for Longshot?
Citizens groups in suburban London, England have turned a cold shoulder to a proposed golf course that would be designed by David McLay Kidd.
The 18-hole track is to be the featured attraction of a 370-acre community near Leatherhead in Surrey. Longshot, Ltd., a group led by Joel Cadbury and Ollie Vigors, wants to convert the property’s crumbling manor house, known as Cherkley Court, into a boutique hotel with restaurants, a spa, and a health club. Alongside the hotel, Longshot hopes to build an ultra-luxurious private club featuring Kidd’s 18-hole golf course.
Cadbury told the BBC that Longshot’s goal is “to bring Cherkley back to life.” But some of the area’s residents contend that the company’s proposal runs afoul of local planning regulations and would degrade what’s been described as “an outstanding stretch of beautiful land.”
“A golf course would be artificial and spoil the landscape,” one of them argued.
Cherkley Court is the former home of Max Aitken (also known as Lord Beaverbrook), a Fleet Street press baron whom Kidd describes as “a 19th-century version of Rupert Murdock.” During World War II, Beaverbrook served as England’s minister of aircraft production and was a key member of Winston Churchill’s war cabinet. Before he died, in 1964, he entertained a parade of important historical figures at the estate, among them Churchill, Rudyard Kipling, H. G. Wells, and David Lloyd George.
Cadbury and Vigors bought the estate earlier this year and submitted their development plans to local officials a few months ago. The partners founded Longshot in 1994, as a holding company for their investments in London-area leisure and entertainment venues. Among their creations were the city’s first 24-hour restaurant and several pubs, night clubs, and eateries. They sold many of their holdings in 2007, reportedly for more than $80 million.
Just weeks ago, when I last spoke with Kidd, he said that he hopes to break ground on the course at Cherkley Court in the fall of 2012. The Bend, Oregon-based architect, a proponent of “purist” golf, says the 7,000-yard layout will be “ragged at the edges” and “very natural,” suited more to its members’ talents than to tournament ambitions.
The fate of Longshot’s proposal will likely be known next spring.
Some information in this post originally appeared in the June 2011 and December 2011 issues of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
And in Other News . . .
. . . china Moratoriums again be damned: Rick Jacobson reports that construction has wrapped up on his 18-hole golf course at Moganshan Gowin Golf Club near Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang Province. A press release issued by the Libertyville, Illinois-based architect states that the track will be the centerpiece of “an environmentally sensitive mixed-use development that includes hotel, residential, and retail elements.” The 7,100-yard course is scheduled to open in the spring of 2012, and it doesn’t sound as if it was designed to be a soft touch for the tourists who beat a trail to Moganshan Mountain. According to the press release, the course “winds through mountains and valleys and boasts water features on 13 of its 18 holes.” What’s more, “dramatic elevation changes” of more than 80 feet will surely tax any vacationers who brave the track on foot, and Jacobson’s “strategic bunkering” -- is there any other kind? -- will provide a challenge even to “the highly skilled international professional.” China’s golf developers have a reputation for building difficult golf courses, and it appears that Jacobson, who’s designed four other courses in the People’s Republic, is cultivating a reputation as an architect who can give them what they want.
Some information in this post originally appeared in the June 2011 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
. . . united states Speaking of China, the good times continue to roll for Lee Schmidt and Brian Curley, who’ve been named the architects of the year by Golf magazine. This is the latest in a string of recent accolades for the Scottsdale, Arizona-based partners, who’ve also been recognized as the “best golf course architects” by Asian Golf Monthly and as two of the “most influential” U.S. architects by Golf, Inc. The long-time partners have never won much acclaim for their work in the United States, but they’ve raised their status considerably with a series of high-profile projects in the People's Republic, notably the Mission Hills resorts in Shenzhen and on Hainan Island. As a result, today they’re arguably the busiest architects on the planet. “Since Lee and I founded the firm in 1997, we’ve been devoted to designing fun-to-play golf courses built on time and under budget,” Curley said in a press release. “We're proud of our pioneering ways and very bullish on golf’s future in China and throughout the Pacific Rim.” Golf also put a little icing on the Schmidt-Curley cake: It ranked the duo’s Lava Fields track at Mission Hills Haikou as this year’s the best new international course.
. . . united states Jack Nicklaus, speaking last fall, compared the U.S. economy to the rest of the world’s: “I haven't been to a country in the last year where the outlook is as bad economically as it is here for us.”
. . . wild card click Are you feeling lucky?
Citizens groups in suburban London, England have turned a cold shoulder to a proposed golf course that would be designed by David McLay Kidd.
The 18-hole track is to be the featured attraction of a 370-acre community near Leatherhead in Surrey. Longshot, Ltd., a group led by Joel Cadbury and Ollie Vigors, wants to convert the property’s crumbling manor house, known as Cherkley Court, into a boutique hotel with restaurants, a spa, and a health club. Alongside the hotel, Longshot hopes to build an ultra-luxurious private club featuring Kidd’s 18-hole golf course.
Cadbury told the BBC that Longshot’s goal is “to bring Cherkley back to life.” But some of the area’s residents contend that the company’s proposal runs afoul of local planning regulations and would degrade what’s been described as “an outstanding stretch of beautiful land.”
“A golf course would be artificial and spoil the landscape,” one of them argued.
Cherkley Court is the former home of Max Aitken (also known as Lord Beaverbrook), a Fleet Street press baron whom Kidd describes as “a 19th-century version of Rupert Murdock.” During World War II, Beaverbrook served as England’s minister of aircraft production and was a key member of Winston Churchill’s war cabinet. Before he died, in 1964, he entertained a parade of important historical figures at the estate, among them Churchill, Rudyard Kipling, H. G. Wells, and David Lloyd George.
Cadbury and Vigors bought the estate earlier this year and submitted their development plans to local officials a few months ago. The partners founded Longshot in 1994, as a holding company for their investments in London-area leisure and entertainment venues. Among their creations were the city’s first 24-hour restaurant and several pubs, night clubs, and eateries. They sold many of their holdings in 2007, reportedly for more than $80 million.
Just weeks ago, when I last spoke with Kidd, he said that he hopes to break ground on the course at Cherkley Court in the fall of 2012. The Bend, Oregon-based architect, a proponent of “purist” golf, says the 7,000-yard layout will be “ragged at the edges” and “very natural,” suited more to its members’ talents than to tournament ambitions.
The fate of Longshot’s proposal will likely be known next spring.
Some information in this post originally appeared in the June 2011 and December 2011 issues of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
And in Other News . . .
. . . china Moratoriums again be damned: Rick Jacobson reports that construction has wrapped up on his 18-hole golf course at Moganshan Gowin Golf Club near Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang Province. A press release issued by the Libertyville, Illinois-based architect states that the track will be the centerpiece of “an environmentally sensitive mixed-use development that includes hotel, residential, and retail elements.” The 7,100-yard course is scheduled to open in the spring of 2012, and it doesn’t sound as if it was designed to be a soft touch for the tourists who beat a trail to Moganshan Mountain. According to the press release, the course “winds through mountains and valleys and boasts water features on 13 of its 18 holes.” What’s more, “dramatic elevation changes” of more than 80 feet will surely tax any vacationers who brave the track on foot, and Jacobson’s “strategic bunkering” -- is there any other kind? -- will provide a challenge even to “the highly skilled international professional.” China’s golf developers have a reputation for building difficult golf courses, and it appears that Jacobson, who’s designed four other courses in the People’s Republic, is cultivating a reputation as an architect who can give them what they want.
Some information in this post originally appeared in the June 2011 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
. . . united states Speaking of China, the good times continue to roll for Lee Schmidt and Brian Curley, who’ve been named the architects of the year by Golf magazine. This is the latest in a string of recent accolades for the Scottsdale, Arizona-based partners, who’ve also been recognized as the “best golf course architects” by Asian Golf Monthly and as two of the “most influential” U.S. architects by Golf, Inc. The long-time partners have never won much acclaim for their work in the United States, but they’ve raised their status considerably with a series of high-profile projects in the People's Republic, notably the Mission Hills resorts in Shenzhen and on Hainan Island. As a result, today they’re arguably the busiest architects on the planet. “Since Lee and I founded the firm in 1997, we’ve been devoted to designing fun-to-play golf courses built on time and under budget,” Curley said in a press release. “We're proud of our pioneering ways and very bullish on golf’s future in China and throughout the Pacific Rim.” Golf also put a little icing on the Schmidt-Curley cake: It ranked the duo’s Lava Fields track at Mission Hills Haikou as this year’s the best new international course.
. . . united states Jack Nicklaus, speaking last fall, compared the U.S. economy to the rest of the world’s: “I haven't been to a country in the last year where the outlook is as bad economically as it is here for us.”
. . . wild card click Are you feeling lucky?
Friday, December 16, 2011
. . . worth reading China's Dirty Business
While doing research on Chinese golf, I occasionally stumble across phrases like “the wonders of fresh, clean air” and “the purifying effects of clean air.” For me, such phrases always went through one eye and out the other. Like most Americans, I take clean air mostly for granted.
The Chinese aren’t so lucky. China’s over-crowded, poorly regulated cities have become a threat to good health.
Sure, I’ve often read often about China’s polluted cities. But the message didn’t hit home with me until a week or so ago, when I read this dispatch in the New York Times:
Capital International Airport in Beijing was forced to cancel hundreds of flights on Monday because of heavy smog and weather conditions. The cancellations were the latest sign that pollution in China’s largest cities, among the worst in the world, is leading to significant economic losses.
That paragraph was my wake-up call. And the next day, the Times followed up with a longer, more detailed account of life unprotected by a Clean Air Act, where government officials mislead and misinform and cover their tracks with deceit.
No wonder China’s golf operators seize every opportunity to tout the quality of their air. A marketing message that focuses on the healthful, therapeutic effects of golf resonates among people who cough their way to work every morning.
Here’s a condensed version of the Times’ follow-up story.
The statement posted online along with a photograph of central Beijing muffled in a miasma of brown haze did not mince words: “The end of the world is imminent.”
The ceaseless churning of factories and automobile engines in and around Beijing has led to this: hundreds of flights canceled since Sunday because of smog, stores sold out of face masks, and many Chinese complaining on the Internet that officials are failing to level with them about air quality or make any improvements to the environment.
Chronic pollution in Beijing, temporarily scrubbed clean for the 2008 Summer Olympics, has made people angry for a long time, but the disruptions it causes to daily life are now raising questions about the economic cost and the government’s ability to ensure the safety of the population.
“As a Chinese citizen, we have been kept in the dark on this issue for too long,” said Yu Ping, the father of a seven-year-old boy, who has started a public campaign to demand that officials report more accurately about Beijing’s air quality. “The government is just so bureaucratic that they don’t seem to care whether we common people live or die.” . . .
The motionless cloud of pollution that has smothered the capital and its surroundings in recent days has frayed tempers. Long stretches of highway have been shut down because of low visibility, hobbling transportation of people and goods. Workers at Capital International Airport have faced crowds of irate travelers whose flights have been grounded. From Sunday to 11 a.m. Tuesday, more than 700 outbound and inbound flights were canceled, one airport official said. . . .
An announcement at the airport made no mention of pollution, attributing the cancellations and delays to “the weather condition.” That has long been the government line: the haze is fog, not fumes.
But increasingly, Chinese know better. . . .
Many people now follow a Twitter feed from the United States Embassy that gives hourly updates on air quality. Gauges on top of the embassy in central Beijing measure, among other things, the amount of fine airborne particles, which are extremely damaging to the lungs. Since Sunday, the air has been rated “very unhealthy” or “hazardous,” meaning that people should avoid any outdoor activity. On Sunday, the particulate measurement exceeded the scale’s maximum of 500, a reading that the embassy once called “crazy bad” on its @BeijingAir Twitter feed.
The fine particles, called PM 2.5 because they are 2.5 microns in diameter or smaller, make up much of the pollution in the city, but they are not included in the air quality ratings issued by the Chinese government. The published ratings take into account only a larger class of particles (up to 10 microns in diameter) called PM 10. As a result, Beijing officials have announced good or excellent air quality nearly 80 percent of the time over the last two years, while the embassy’s assessment says the air was unhealthy more than 80 percent of the time. . . .
In July 2009, a Chinese Foreign Ministry official, Wang Shu’ai, told American diplomats to halt the embassy’s air quality Twitter feed, saying that the data “is not only confusing but also insulting,” according to a State Department cable obtained by WikiLeaks. The embassy’s data, Mr. Wang said, could lead to “social consequences.” . . .
On Tuesday, the English-language China Daily published an article under the headline “Exposure to Smog Is Severe Hazard.” It said the lung cancer rate in Beijing had increased by 60 percent in the last decade even though the smoking rate did not change.
The Chinese aren’t so lucky. China’s over-crowded, poorly regulated cities have become a threat to good health.
Sure, I’ve often read often about China’s polluted cities. But the message didn’t hit home with me until a week or so ago, when I read this dispatch in the New York Times:
Capital International Airport in Beijing was forced to cancel hundreds of flights on Monday because of heavy smog and weather conditions. The cancellations were the latest sign that pollution in China’s largest cities, among the worst in the world, is leading to significant economic losses.
That paragraph was my wake-up call. And the next day, the Times followed up with a longer, more detailed account of life unprotected by a Clean Air Act, where government officials mislead and misinform and cover their tracks with deceit.
No wonder China’s golf operators seize every opportunity to tout the quality of their air. A marketing message that focuses on the healthful, therapeutic effects of golf resonates among people who cough their way to work every morning.
Here’s a condensed version of the Times’ follow-up story.
The statement posted online along with a photograph of central Beijing muffled in a miasma of brown haze did not mince words: “The end of the world is imminent.”
The ceaseless churning of factories and automobile engines in and around Beijing has led to this: hundreds of flights canceled since Sunday because of smog, stores sold out of face masks, and many Chinese complaining on the Internet that officials are failing to level with them about air quality or make any improvements to the environment.
Chronic pollution in Beijing, temporarily scrubbed clean for the 2008 Summer Olympics, has made people angry for a long time, but the disruptions it causes to daily life are now raising questions about the economic cost and the government’s ability to ensure the safety of the population.
“As a Chinese citizen, we have been kept in the dark on this issue for too long,” said Yu Ping, the father of a seven-year-old boy, who has started a public campaign to demand that officials report more accurately about Beijing’s air quality. “The government is just so bureaucratic that they don’t seem to care whether we common people live or die.” . . .
The motionless cloud of pollution that has smothered the capital and its surroundings in recent days has frayed tempers. Long stretches of highway have been shut down because of low visibility, hobbling transportation of people and goods. Workers at Capital International Airport have faced crowds of irate travelers whose flights have been grounded. From Sunday to 11 a.m. Tuesday, more than 700 outbound and inbound flights were canceled, one airport official said. . . .
An announcement at the airport made no mention of pollution, attributing the cancellations and delays to “the weather condition.” That has long been the government line: the haze is fog, not fumes.
But increasingly, Chinese know better. . . .
Many people now follow a Twitter feed from the United States Embassy that gives hourly updates on air quality. Gauges on top of the embassy in central Beijing measure, among other things, the amount of fine airborne particles, which are extremely damaging to the lungs. Since Sunday, the air has been rated “very unhealthy” or “hazardous,” meaning that people should avoid any outdoor activity. On Sunday, the particulate measurement exceeded the scale’s maximum of 500, a reading that the embassy once called “crazy bad” on its @BeijingAir Twitter feed.
The fine particles, called PM 2.5 because they are 2.5 microns in diameter or smaller, make up much of the pollution in the city, but they are not included in the air quality ratings issued by the Chinese government. The published ratings take into account only a larger class of particles (up to 10 microns in diameter) called PM 10. As a result, Beijing officials have announced good or excellent air quality nearly 80 percent of the time over the last two years, while the embassy’s assessment says the air was unhealthy more than 80 percent of the time. . . .
In July 2009, a Chinese Foreign Ministry official, Wang Shu’ai, told American diplomats to halt the embassy’s air quality Twitter feed, saying that the data “is not only confusing but also insulting,” according to a State Department cable obtained by WikiLeaks. The embassy’s data, Mr. Wang said, could lead to “social consequences.” . . .
On Tuesday, the English-language China Daily published an article under the headline “Exposure to Smog Is Severe Hazard.” It said the lung cancer rate in Beijing had increased by 60 percent in the last decade even though the smoking rate did not change.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Shameless Self-Promotion, december 2011
Life, it’s sometimes said, is a beach. And golf development, I’ll tell you right now, is evolving into the search for a perfect beach -– or at least a perfect beachfront property.
Expanses of sandy soil, dunes sprinkled with native grasses, unpredictable ocean breezes -– this is the stuff of minimalist dreams, and minimalists, be they designers or developers, are about the only people working in golf these days. On foot or on Google Earth, they tirelessly search the coasts of our planet for tracts ideally suited for golf. Day after day, night after night, they beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
Okay, I stole most of that last sentence from F. Scott Fitzgerald. My bad.
And while there’s no Great Gatsby in December’s World Edition of the Golf Course Report, we did provide our faithful readers with news about the current activities of golf’s foremost beachcombers. In particular, we revealed which developer has dispatched Tom Doak to size up a coastal site in Argentina, and where in Tasmania the next world-class minimalist golf course is expected to emerge.
Need more sand and water? Well, we also reported on two California-based architects who’ll be spending time next year on sunny beaches in Panama and Puerto Rico.
Of course, sometimes the search for ideal property takes golf development way off the beaten track and far from the madding crowd. (Thomas Hardy, I apologize.) That’s why we also reported on the future of the most historic course on the Isle of Man, on the new life that awaits a course on Pulau Langkawi, on a planned new course at a resort in a dusty, remote part of Australia, and on new courses in Kenya and Nigeria.
We’ve also got stories about golf projects in less sandy, more conventional places, namely the course in Vietnam designed by the world’s premier “signature” architect, the course in England designed by the self-described “purist” architect, and other up-and-coming ventures in China, Tunisia, and other places.
Let’s hope they all get built.
If you'd like your own copy of December’s World Edition, give me a call at 301/680-9460 or send an e-mail to me at WorldEdition@aol.com.
Expanses of sandy soil, dunes sprinkled with native grasses, unpredictable ocean breezes -– this is the stuff of minimalist dreams, and minimalists, be they designers or developers, are about the only people working in golf these days. On foot or on Google Earth, they tirelessly search the coasts of our planet for tracts ideally suited for golf. Day after day, night after night, they beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.
Okay, I stole most of that last sentence from F. Scott Fitzgerald. My bad.
And while there’s no Great Gatsby in December’s World Edition of the Golf Course Report, we did provide our faithful readers with news about the current activities of golf’s foremost beachcombers. In particular, we revealed which developer has dispatched Tom Doak to size up a coastal site in Argentina, and where in Tasmania the next world-class minimalist golf course is expected to emerge.
Need more sand and water? Well, we also reported on two California-based architects who’ll be spending time next year on sunny beaches in Panama and Puerto Rico.
Of course, sometimes the search for ideal property takes golf development way off the beaten track and far from the madding crowd. (Thomas Hardy, I apologize.) That’s why we also reported on the future of the most historic course on the Isle of Man, on the new life that awaits a course on Pulau Langkawi, on a planned new course at a resort in a dusty, remote part of Australia, and on new courses in Kenya and Nigeria.
We’ve also got stories about golf projects in less sandy, more conventional places, namely the course in Vietnam designed by the world’s premier “signature” architect, the course in England designed by the self-described “purist” architect, and other up-and-coming ventures in China, Tunisia, and other places.
Let’s hope they all get built.
If you'd like your own copy of December’s World Edition, give me a call at 301/680-9460 or send an e-mail to me at WorldEdition@aol.com.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
south korea Japan Redux?
Is the golf business in South Korea about to take on the trajectory of the golf business in Japan?
South Korea’s decade-long golf construction spree, fueled by a buoyant economy and surging middle-class aspirations, is losing momentum, and the Korea Times worries that “a slew of bankruptcies” may be “imminent.”
South Korea has 435 existing golf properties, according to the Korea Golf Course Business Association, plus 180 more either in planning or under construction. But play at the nation’s 228 private courses has been “dismal” of late, says the Times. The number of rounds played reportedly peaked at 18.2 million in 2009, dropped to 17.7 million in 2010, and may not hit 16 million this year.
As a result, a growing number of clubs have been pushed to the edge of insolvency.
“At least 20 golf courses appear to be on sale right now, and one could expect a dramatically larger number of owners bailing next year, as profitability continues to deteriorate,” a KGBA official told the Times. “The rapid growth number of golf courses over the years and the sharply declining membership sales continue to raise worries that the country might be headed for a similar path experienced by Japan, which saw a large number of courses topple after the golf boom fizzled.”
South Korea still has an estimated 2 million passionate golfers, but if Japan’s experience is any guide, the number will shrink as its population ages and stops playing golf.
Some of the information in this post originally appeared in the December 2011 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
South Korea’s decade-long golf construction spree, fueled by a buoyant economy and surging middle-class aspirations, is losing momentum, and the Korea Times worries that “a slew of bankruptcies” may be “imminent.”
South Korea has 435 existing golf properties, according to the Korea Golf Course Business Association, plus 180 more either in planning or under construction. But play at the nation’s 228 private courses has been “dismal” of late, says the Times. The number of rounds played reportedly peaked at 18.2 million in 2009, dropped to 17.7 million in 2010, and may not hit 16 million this year.
As a result, a growing number of clubs have been pushed to the edge of insolvency.
“At least 20 golf courses appear to be on sale right now, and one could expect a dramatically larger number of owners bailing next year, as profitability continues to deteriorate,” a KGBA official told the Times. “The rapid growth number of golf courses over the years and the sharply declining membership sales continue to raise worries that the country might be headed for a similar path experienced by Japan, which saw a large number of courses topple after the golf boom fizzled.”
South Korea still has an estimated 2 million passionate golfers, but if Japan’s experience is any guide, the number will shrink as its population ages and stops playing golf.
Some of the information in this post originally appeared in the December 2011 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.
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