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Sunday, February 27, 2011

The Week That Was: February 27, 2011

cuba Has the Countdown Begun?

Don't get all hot and bothered, but CNN is reporting that “the bourgeois sport of the West” -- that would be golf, naturally -- “is poised for a comeback on the communist-run island” of Cuba.

I hate to sound like an old sourpuss, but haven't we heard this story numerous times before? Is there really any reason to believe golf will gain a foothold in Cuba anytime soon?

Well, maybe there is. If you believe CNN -- or if you believe what people are telling CNN -- Cuba may very well achieve lift-off in 2011.

Andrew MacDonald, the CEO of London, England-based Esencia Hotels and Resorts, tells the news service that he plans to break ground on Carbonera Country Club “in the next few months.”

“Golf is becoming a reality in Cuba this year,” he said boldly.

This is real news, especially when you consider that Carbonera has been in the works for something like seven years. And that MacDonald is in a position to make it happen.

But if MacDonald is so confident about the future of golf in Cuba, why didn't he mention that Esencia is working on a second golf project on the island? It's called Rancho Luna, and it's supposed to be built in the town of Cienfuegos, on Cuba’s southern coast.

Maybe it's because Rancho Luna isn't going to happen anytime soon.

And what about the other golf projects that are always mentioned in stories about golf in Cuba? Are they any closer to coming out of the ground?

I'm not holding my breath.

CNN reports that Vancouver-based Leisure Canada is “at advanced stages with three planned golf developments in the Pinar del Rio province on Cuba's west coast.” That's nice, but Leisure Canada has been working on its golf projects since the early 1990s.

CNN also reports that London-based Foster & Partners “has been commissioned by a Spanish developer to build a 2,000-unit golfing community with three courses” somewhere on the island. Again, that's nice. But Foster & Partners got the commission more than a year ago. It should have made a little progress by now.

MacDonald tells CNN that he's “impressed by the enthusiasm and golfing knowledge of the Cuban contractors and government officials” and is convinced that their vision of building 15 or 16 golf courses over the next five to seven years “will become a reality.”

“Golf just wasn't a priority in Cuba before, and now it is,” he said.

I hope that's true. When it comes to golf and Cuba, however, I'm taking my cues from the golf pro at Havana Golf Club. He was quoted in the story as saying, “When the new [courses] open, show them to me. Then I will know it is true.”

bahamas Baha Mar Finds Its Sugar Daddy

More good news from another island in the Caribbean: Baha Mar Resorts, Ltd. has broken ground on Baha Mar, its 1,000-acre resort along Nassau’s Cable Beach. The project had been in the tank for more than two years, ever since the developers’ original partner, Harrah’s Entertainment, bailed out on them.

The mega-resort is said to be the largest project of its kind in the Caribbean, even bigger than the gigantic Atlantis resort on Paradise Island. At build-out, Baha Mar is expected to have thousands of condos, a 100,000-square-foot casino, four hotels (a total of about 2,250 rooms), a convention center, a shopping area, an entertainment venue, a water park, and three spas. (Jeez, wouldn't two be enough?)

The work has begun because Baha Mar Resorts, a group led by Sarkis Izmirlian and Don Robinson, has persuaded a pair of Chinese companies -– Beijing-based Export-Import Bank of China and the government-owned China State Construction & Engineering Corporation -– to cough up $2.5 billion in funding.

I'd be remiss if I didn't note that Jack Nicklaus will create a “signature” golf course for the resort. The course will replace the developers’ Cable Bay Golf Club, the Bahamas’ first golf course. Some sources say the track, which opened in the late 1920s, was designed by Devereaux Emmet.

And here's another factoid worth noting: Baha Mar is expected to create about 4,000 construction jobs for Bahamian workers and about 7,000 jobs for Chinese workers.

“The great geographical distance between our two countries has not impeded our friendship,” the Chinese ambassador said at the groundbreaking ceremony.

Baha Mar is scheduled to open in late 2014.

australia Eastern Golf Club Names Its Buyer

Eastern Golf Club has identified the preferred buyer of its 118-acre property in Doncaster, a suburb of Melbourne.

It's Mirvac Group, the company that owns Gainsborough Greens Golf Course in suburban Brisbane. Eastern didn't say how much Mirvac is going to shell out, but various sources believe the club's property is worth about $100 million.

Eastern was established in its current location in 1924. It's expected to relocate to a 605-acre tract in nearby Yering, where it'll have a new, Greg Norman-designed golf course. Mirvac plans to build houses on its current home.

Mirvac, which has been in business for nearly 40 years, is one of Australia’s biggest home builders. It's co-owned Gainsborough Greens since 2006 (it became the sole owner in 2009), and last year it commissioned Ross Watson to oversee a four-year makeover of the 6,637-yard track.

Eastern expects to provide more details about the sale in a couple of weeks.

spain The “Strip” Tease

The chairman of Las Vegas Sands Corporation wants to build a “mini Las Vegas” in Spain. He isn't too particular about where.

Sheldon Adelson hopes to build the little Vegas in Madrid or Barcelona, but he's looking for the best deal. He says the $20 billion venture could include as many as 20,000 hotel rooms, convention and meeting space, and a shopping area.

“We're very seriously considering this, we're very actively pursuing this,” Adelson said in a story originally reported by the Associated Press. “There's no reason why we can't do it.”

Las Vegas Sands operates two casinos on the Strip in Las Vegas, three in Macau, one in Pennsylvania, and one in Singapore.

Adelson didn't say anything about building a golf course at his “mini Las Vegas” in Spain, but I'm willing to bet he's got one penciled in somewhere. I mean, you can't gamble 24 hours a day.

Friday, February 25, 2011

worth reading Who's Optimistic?

“For the first time in a long time,” says the opening line of a story in the Winston-Salem Journal, “there's optimism in the golf industry.”

That's good to hear, and a sentiment I generally agree with. My conversations with people in the golf business tell me that the vast majority are certainly more hopeful and more confident than they were last year. Without question, they're decidedly more upbeat than they were during the black days of 2009.

Unfortunately, the Journal's article left me asking a lot of questions about exactly where the golf industry stands today.

The paper bases the entire foundation of its article on a prepared statement from Rhett Evans, the CEO of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America. Evans contends that increased attendance at the industry's most important trade shows -- the PGA Merchandise Show and the Golf Industry Show, both of which were held in recent weeks -- suggest that happy days will soon be here again.

“There is definitely a different feeling than what prevailed last year at this time,” Evans said in a press release issued by the Golf Industry Show. “From a qualitative and quantitative perspective, the Golf Industry Show was quite successful.”

This sounds good until you consider that the attendance at the Golf Industry Show was down significantly in 2009 and 2010. The traffic at the event really had nowhere to go but up.

Despite that, I'm not convinced that the actual attendance really was up.

According to the Golf Industry Show's statistics, the event in 2009 had an “overall attendance” of 17,151, while the event in 2010 brought 16,156 through the turnstiles. I'm no mathematician, but that looks like a decline of about 1,000 to me.

In 2011, according to a statement issued earlier this month, the show recorded a “total attendance” of 14,781. This looks like another decline to me, but the GIS calls it “a 4 percent increase over 2010.”

Again, I can hardly balance a checkbook. Here's a link to the page with the post-show press releases from 2010 and 2011.

Let me post a simpler set of numbers that may give a clear-cut indication of where we are in the golf industry today. The press releases also say that GIS 2010 attracted 657 exhibitors, while GIS 2011 attracted 551.

Silly me, I read these numbers as a decline of about 100 exhibitors. The Golf Industry Show calls them “support to the growing wave of optimism that the golf industry is beginning to shake out of its doldrums.”

There's a truth hidden somewhere in all these numbers, but for now, at least, I can't find it.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

china Nicklaus Leaves a “Legacy”

The first Jack Nicklaus “legacy” course in Asia is supposed to open in early 2011, at Lan Hai International Golf Club on the island of Chongming, outside Shanghai.

I can’t say for sure what the “legacy” moniker means, but because the course has been co-designed by Nicklaus and his son Jack, I suspect that it ranks somewhere in the family hierarchy between a “signature” design and a Nicklaus Design. In any case, the club will eventually add a second 18 (it’s expected to open in late 2011 or early 2012) and a 30,000-square-foot, Tuscan-style clubhouse.

Lan Hai will be managed by IMG Golf Course Management, which reports that one of the courses will be capable of hosting “a significant international professional tournament.”

The club is part of a 617-acre community that’s being developed by Shanghai Zhongying Enterprises. IMG has said that the community will have a hotel and “an extensive real estate component,” and Nicklaus has said that the houses have been designed in the “Tuscan, Italian, and Spanish style.”

The Chinese are known for being great exporters, but they’re clearly great importers as well.

While I'm at it, I should note that a Nicklaus “signature” track is under construction at Changbaishan Golf & Ski Resort in Changbaishan (Jilin Province). Nicklaus has also been tapped to design a “signature” layout for Dayabay Nicklaus Golf Resort in Huizhou (Guangdong Province).

Sunday, February 20, 2011

The Week That Was: February 20, 2011

england Lobb Shot

The members of Wimbledon Park Golf Club have selected Thomson Perrett & Lobb to give their 5,483-yard, parkland-style golf course a minor makeover.

TPL plans to rebuild and relocate the bunkers on the 18-hole, par-66 track. The upgrades will be overseen by Tim Lobb, who operates out of TPL's office in suburban London.

“Our plans are to review the current bunkering across the whole course and implement a design plan that will enhance the playing experience for members and guests,” Lobb said in a press release.

The club, which has been in business since 1898, is in southwestern London, just a short hop from the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club, which hosts the annual Wimbledon tennis championship.

“TPL's work will undoubtedly give all golfers a greater strategic challenge when they play Wimbledon Park,” said the club's general manager, “but the improvements will also enhance the aesthetics of the course and make it much more appealing to the eye.”

The work is expected to start later this year.

canada Sutton Creek Seeks for a Buyer

A bankruptcy trustee is trying to sell Sutton Creek Golf Club in Essex, Ontario.

The club went into receivership in late 2010. Its 18-hole, 6,900-yard golf course was designed by Robert Heaslip and opened in 1991.

A story in the Windsor Star suggests that Debbie Aliberti, the club's owner and general manager, hopes to get $3.6 million for her 169-acre property.

“We’ve had some considerable interest already,” the bankruptcy trustee told the Star, “all from individuals or groups interested in operating it as a golf course.”

Sutton Creek has been in a financial pinch for years. In 2010, in an attempt to attract members, Aliberti cut its initiation fee from $15,000 to $2,000.

“Like most clubs in the area, we are struggling financially and will for the next couple of years,” Aliberti said late last year.

Robert Thompson, a Canadian golf critic, says that Heaslip has designed “straight-forward, affordable golf courses throughout Canada” but is “not particularly adept at marketing” his talents.

Essex is a 30-minute drive south of Windsor.

ghana Improvements Planned at Achimota

Ghana's premier golf course is looking to spiff up its clubhouse, modernize its irrigation system, and build a better practice area.

Those are among the plans outlined by Rene L. Gameli-Kwame, the recently appointed captain of Achimota Golf Club. Gameli-Kwame, who attended Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, hopes to secure grants from the R&A, the United States Golf Association, and the Tiger Woods Foundation to help pay for the improvements.

The upgrades are designed to maintain the club's position in Ghana's golf hierarchy. The club hosted the first Ghana Open, in 1940, and numerous other major events since.

Achimota was established (with a seven-hole track) by a group of Scots in 1934. It was probably the fourth or fifth course to open in Accra, but it was the first that grew to 18 holes and the only one that survives today. Its second nine opened in 1970, extending the course to 6,445 yards.

Gameli-Kwame told Modern Ghana that he aims to recruit new members to Achimota “by providing a social atmosphere where good conduct, discipline, and mutual respect for all are promoted.”

scotland Trump: A Progress Report?

The fear and loathing of Donald Trump continues in Scotland.

The Scottish distaste for all things Trump manifested itself this week in a news account from the Daily Express, which contends that “the world’s greatest golf course,” as Trump once called it, won't open as scheduled in the summer of 2012.


As evidence, the newspaper claimed that “there is little sign of the major construction work needed to complete the £1 billion project” and posted some photos that it says “cast doubt on whether it will be finished in time.”

Worse, the paper published some critical comments made by none other than David Milne, who lives on property that Trump has been trying to buy for years and has steadfastly refused to sell. Milne is hardly an objective observer and no expert in golf construction, but the Daily Express nevertheless asked for his opinion on the progress Trump has made.

“There is a fair amount of work going on,” Milne acknowledged, “but it doesn’t seem to be at the speed I would expect it to be, considering the so-called investment that has gone into it.”

He added: “They seem to be having major issues with the whole thing.”

This is idle speculation if I ever heard it, and really shoddy journalism.

Naturally, the allegations put Trump on the defensive, forcing him to insist that he's “on target” to complete the golf course on time. He admitted that he hasn't yet begun work on the course's clubhouse, the hotel, and the 1,450 houses he plans to build, but he said that his construction crew is “installing irrigation systems,” “ready to plant our turf,” and “very much on schedule to open by July 1 next year.”

If the course doesn't open in July, you can be sure of one thing: The Scottish newspapers will be first with the story.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Shameless Self-Promotion, February 2011

Did you know that Eduardo “El Gato” Romero and Randy Thompson have agreed to co-design a golf course in suburban Buenos Aires? Or that a Harvard-educated economist is itching to build a ski resort in China's Tian Shan Mountains? Or that Robert Trent Jones, Jr. is designing a golf course in South Korea for an affiliate of Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church?

Those are just three of the golf projects we profile in this month's World Edition of the Golf Course Report. The new issue hit the streets about two weeks ago. If recent experience is a reliable guide, some of February's stories will soon be spread all over cyberspace -- minus my byline, of course, and sometimes with the bylines of people who had nothing whatsoever to do with the researching, reporting, and writing that occupy so many hours of my time.

Yes, I'm talking about you, Jonny Lyman, you weasel. What gives you the right to put your name on my work?

February's World Edition also has news about two high-profile golf projects that are being resurrected: Jack Nicklaus Golf Club Anguilla and Forest Hills Golf & Country Club in suburban Moscow.

We also have stories about the Italian group that aims to build a golf course in Romania, the Swedish golf star who's co-designed a “sustainable” course in Austria, and a new course in St. Petersburg. (That would be Russia, not Florida.)

We also report on several new courses in China, a pair in Vietnam, and others in Poland, Scotland, Argentina, and Egypt, plus notable renovations in Australia and India.

If you'd like a copy of this month's World Edition, give me a call at 301/680-9460 or send an e-mail to me at WorldEdition@aol.com.

And if you're out there, Jonny Lyman, I'd love for you to give me a call. We have a lot to talk about.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

india Letter from Ron Fream

I depart soon for Assam and Arunachal Pradesh -- states in northeastern India. I was in the same area in November, at Thanksgiving.

This part of the world is fully primitive, lacking in modern conveniences, densely crowded with uneducated, unwashed folks. Shameful housing, and hotels only a low-caste Indian could enjoy. Sometimes there's no hot water, or water at all. Arunachal Pradesh is considered South Tibet by China.

The recent events in Tunisia and Egypt show the need for governments to provide employment as a means of raising living standards. India has huge employment-producing needs, and even its so-called democratic government is not immune to discontent. I shudder when I think that in 2050 India is projected to have a population of 1.7 billion (up from 1.2 billion now) in a land area about half the size of the United States. Five hundred million Indians do not consistently earn a dollar a day in income.

I will be touring tea plantations and national oil-company areas where golf courses exist. The challenge: how to create tourist-quality golfing experiences from simple, 100-year-old, nine-hole courses. The clubhouses have signs listing club champions from as far back as 1900. They are meager facilities, but in 1920 they were uptown hang-outs for English tea planters.

There is no history of tourist golf in this part of India, and little serious tourist golf elsewhere in the country. The recently opened courses and those set to open in the next few years -- maybe 10 or so -- will help grow the local market.

From India, I go to Nepal. The Bhutan Youth Golf Association shifted country focus last year, to Nepal. The Nepal Golf Association is very supportive. The Bhutanese golf association did not have the vision or the empathy for youth golf to provide adequate local support.

Today there are some 200 young people active in golf lessons at three sites in Nepal. The teaching pro is a woman from the United States who's living in Kathmandu. She works with the executive secretary of the Nepal Golf Association. The lesson program is impacting young people who have at times not had three meals a day.

The program is focusing on picking four of the best players who also have scholastic aptitude. The Nepal Golf Association is working to fund four-year scholarships so these good student-players can go to university, where golf is on offer. The hope is to produce graduates who can become role models for other Nepali youth, and maybe one day make it to the Indian pro circuit or even the Asian Tour -- quite a leap for such a marginally developed country.

I have been helping, as it may be, in Nepal since around 1978. Golf tourism is more advanced there than in northeastern India, but there are none of the tea estates that encouraged golf 100 years ago. Royal Nepal Golf Club, the oldest club in the kingdom, is 70 or so years old.

I am hopeful that my efforts in northeastern India and Nepal grow and yield meaningful results. I tried for several years to encourage tourist golf in Kashmir, in northwestern India, but sectarian terrorism and deteriorating social conditions prevented any measure of progress. The unemployment rate in Kashmir must be 40 percent. Islamic promises look good to the under-fed and under-employed.

The final stop on this trip is Sri Lanka, to evaluate a new resort site. Sri Lanka was the site of a mass war, killing thousands, up until about the time of the tsunami. I have not been there for 25 years, so it will be interesting to see what has changed.

I do not know how much longer my health will hold out. I am beyond normal retirement age now, but the satisfaction I get from visiting exotic places still holds an attraction for me.

Best wishes!
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.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

australia Doon Deal

Michael Clayton and former U.S. Open champion Geoff Ogilvy, who formed a design partnership last year, have landed their first job: an overhaul of the 18-hole links at Bonnie Doon Golf Club, the third-oldest course in suburban Sydney.

Bonnie Doon was founded in 1897 and relocated to its current digs in Pagewood in the late 1940s. Expanding suburbia has gradually squeezed the life out of the layout, which was once ranked among the top 100 in Australia. But the club has claimed 16 adjacent acres, and Clayton and Ogilvy promise to give the holes some breathing room.

In their master plan proposal, they wrote: “This is a golf course that could easily sit amongst the top 20 or 30 in the country. . . . Currently there are two distinct golf courses out there, and neither is doing as well as the land and the historic standing of the club demands.”

The renovation begins in the spring. Two or three holes will be completely redesigned, and the greens complexes on at least five others will get a thorough makeover.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

The Week That Was: February 13, 2001

portugal Tom Fazio Goes Global

Tom Fazio has agreed to design his first golf course in Europe, a move that may turn out be the first step in a campaign of world domination.

The course will take shape on a huge expanse of waterfront property along Portugal’s Alentejo coast, as part of a massive resort community called Herdade da Comporta. The community's developers and Portuguese golf officials hope that Fazio’s course, Comporta Links, will be the host venue for the 2018 Ryder Cup.

“I genuinely believe we have the opportunity to build something special here,” Fazio said in an interview with Scottish Golf View. “Something that will still be around long after we’ve all gone.”

The commission is a significant departure for Fazio, who's never strayed far from his home in Hendersonville, North Carolina. Over the course of his 40-year career, he's designed close to 200 courses -- including a dozen or so that routinely pop up on world's-best lists -- and unquestionably become one of the most famous golf designers of our time. He might have become the hands-down number one if he'd been willing to hit the road with the zest of Jack Nicklaus.

“I have probably built about 150 courses within two hours of my home,” said Fazio. “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.”

For the record, Fazio has designed courses in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Barbados, Puerto Rico, and Panama. They're foreign countries, to be sure, but not quite foreign enough to dish out extreme cases of culture shock.

Now that his children have grown -- one of them is the president of his design firm -- Fazio is apparently ready to spread his wings and start building his “look hard, play easy” courses all over the planet. Word has it that he's talking with developers about projects in Asia and South America.

Herdade da Comporta is being developed by Espirito Santo Group, a conglomerate that controls Portugal’s second-largest bank, Banco Espirito Santo. The company owns several golf courses in suburban Lisbon, including the 36-hole Ribagolfe complex and Quinta do Peru Golf & Country Club. Espirito Santo has also commissioned David McLay Kidd to build a course at Herdade da Comporta.

Curiously, Comporta Links isn't a solo project for Fazio. It's a co-design with Ross McMurray of European Golf Design.

The reason may be that EGD is partly owned by the PGA European Tour, which will select the venue for the 2018 Ryder Cup. Portugal is competing against France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain for the prized event, and it probably figures it never hurts to have an ace up your sleeve.


india Will DLF Build Goa's Golf Course?


India's biggest, most powerful developer is vying for the right to build a golf course in northern Goa.

Tourism officials in the state announced last week that New Delhi-based DLF, Ltd. has submitted a proposal to build a golf course and related “tourist facilities” -- including a hotel, presumably -- on a site in Paliem-Pernem. DLF, which reportedly owns 3,000 acres in suburban New Delhi, is controlled by Kushal Pal Singh, who ranks #74 on Forbes’ list of the world’s richest people. Net worth: $9 billion.

DLF's main competition will be Leading Hotels of the World, which aims to build its golf course in Tiracol-Pernem. New York City-based Leading Hotels has ultra-exclusive lodging in 80 countries, and some of its properties are part of golf resorts, but I can't determine if it owns any golf courses.

Goa's tourism officials say they've also received a third proposal, from an unnamed group, but suggested that it wasn't a serious contender.

DLF is probably best known as the developer of DLF City, the mini-metropolis that helped to make Gurgaon, a southwestern suburb of New Delhi, the industrial and financial center of Haryana. DLF City is home to one of India’s top golf courses, an Arnold Palmer-designed track at DLF Golf & Country Club, and last year DLF hired Gary Player to design the community's second golf course.

Goa's government haven't said when the winner will be selected.

“A committee will go through the details and take it ahead from there,” the state's tourism director told the Times of India.

australia Graham Marsh Does a Site Visit

Last year Graham Marsh agreed to design a golf course for a small resort community on Queensland’s central coast, and last week he got his first look at the site.

The Gladstone Observer reports that Marsh “was impressed with what he saw” and believes his course has “the potential not only to be the best in Central Queensland but also Queensland.”

The 18-hole, championship-length track will be the featured attraction of a community that's being developed by a group of local businessmen operating as the Boyne Tannum Trust. The trust takes its name from the towns of Boyne Island and Tannum Sands, which are located across from each other along the western and eastern shores of the Boyne River. The combined population of the towns, which are roughly 15 miles south of Gladstone, is about 10,000.

Besides Marsh's golf course, the community will include some golf course houses, riverfront townhouses, apartments, and villas for retirees, along with an aquatic center and a shopping area.

Marsh, who’s based in Robina, Queensland, has designed two courses in China, including Suzhou Taihu International Golf Course in Suzhou, and two in the United States, including Sutton Bay Golf Club in Pierre, South Dakota. The trust hopes his course in Boyne Tannum will open in 2014.

dubai The $50 Million Man

It turns out that the amount Tiger Woods supposedly got for designing his golf course in Dubai -- $10 million -- was off by a factor of five.

Last week the Guardian reported that Woods has in fact received more than $50 million for his work on now-suspended golf course.

The paper, citing a report in Arabian Business, says that Woods received more than $26 million in 2006, when he agreed to design the course at Tiger Woods Dubai. At the time, you'll remember, it was widely speculated that Woods was getting $25 million for the job.

In addition, the Guardian says, Woods received another $26 million in the summer of 2008 -- just weeks before the financial world collapsed -- when he renegotiated his contract. As part of the deal, he gave up the lot he was to receive in the community.

According to Arabian Business, Woods would have received even more money if Tiger Woods Dubai had come to life. He was set to get a $14.6 million appearance fee when the community officially opened and almost $29 million for designing a second 18-hole course for Tatweer, the group that was developing the community.

I'm sure that Woods would have liked to design the golf course in the community that was named after him. But that $52 million certainly cushions the blow.

Friday, February 11, 2011

worth reading Island Paradise

A few weeks ago, the Washington Post checked in with a fun, informative feature on Hainan Island and its increasingly controversial transformation into “the Hawaii of the East.”

The island, says the newspaper, has experienced “a 12-month frenzy of construction -- lavish resorts, seaside villas, spas, and a helicopter landing pad, still being built, for well-heeled visitors with no time to waste.”

And yes indeed, golf construction has been part of the frenzy. The Post says that 26 courses are currently operating, 70 more are under construction, and “as many as 300” could eventually be built.

The paper also offers an interesting factoid about Mission Hills Haikou, which it says “will boast 10 courses and 162 holes.” Sounds like eight 18-hole tracks and a pair of nines.

But is there a dark side to the golf development, or at least a dirty little secret?

“No golf course has actually earned money,” a fellow named Liu Futang tells the paper. “Few of them have people coming to play.”

I don't know how authoritative Futang is -- he's described as “a former chief of Hainan's Forest Fire Prevention Bureau” -- but if what he says is true, you've got to wonder how many of those 300 planned courses will actually come out of the ground.

Then again, the health of the golf business may be the least of Hainan Island's potential troubles.

“The dizzying pace of construction,” says the Post, “has forced thousands of indigenous farmers off their land, driven property prices up tenfold and higher, and has many residents asking the question: How much development is too much?”

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

india The Odd Couple

Kelly Blake Moran has designed golf courses in Mexico, Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay, and now he’s moving into India.

The Blandon, Pennsylvania-based architect has entered into what he calls “an internet marriage” with an Indian entrepreneur, Ashish Vaishnava, and their first offspring will be a nine-hole golf course and a practice center somewhere in northern India. The course will be part of a community whose underground parking lot will be located beneath the golf course.

Construction could start early this year.

Vaishnava, the principal of New Delhi-based AV Golf, reports in his bio that he’s been involved in the construction of three golf courses in India (including Cambay Golf Course, a lighted, executive-length, nine-hole track in Gandhinagar, in the state of Gujarat) and “knows the game and its business like the back of his hand.”

As of late 2010, the partners hadn’t had a face-to-face meeting, but Moran says they’ve developed a good rapport and have also bid on a project with an 18-hole layout.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

The Week That Was: February 6, 2011

dubai The End of the Dream

While it may not be completely, officially, you-can-stick-a-fork-in-it dead, it's become apparent that the much-ballyhooed, Tiger Woods-designed golf course in Dubai won't be built anytime soon.

The course's developer, blaming “market conditions that do not support high-end luxury real estate,” announced this week that it currently has no plans to resume construction of the long-delayed course. Though it suggested that work on the course could resume in the future -- hey, things change -- it's clear that Woods' course has become yet another victim of the Great Recession.


“It's been put on hold for right now,” Woods told the Associated Press. “We've got six completed holes and a few that were about to be grassed before construction was halted. Everything is on hold.”

The golf course was to be the featured attraction of Tiger Woods Dubai, an ultra-expensive community that was master-planned to have 22 palaces, 75 mansions, 100 villas, a boutique hotel, and a high-end shopping area. The cheapest house was priced at about $11 million, and no, none of them have been built.

The site is now a veritable ghost town. The golf course, called Al Ruwaya Golf Club, should have opened in the fall of 2009.

Tiger Woods Dubai was supposed to be part of a huge desert spread known as Dubailand, which is also dying a slow death. Dubailand's main draws were to be a collection of theme parks -- Universal Studios, Legoland, Six Flags -- none of which have been built.

Tiger Woods Dubai's developer, Dubai Properties Group, is an affiliate of Dubai Holding, a cash-strapped, government-controlled entity. AP says that Dubai Holding “is deeply in debt and has been locked in talks with creditors to renegotiate the terms of its liabilities.”

Real estate values in Dubai hit their peak in mid 2008 and have fallen by about half since then.

dubai Architect for Hire

You think Jack Nicklaus charges too much -- still $2 million or so -- to design a “signature” golf course?

Tiger Woods was paid an eye-popping $10 million to design his unfinished course in Dubai, according to a report from Arabian Business. And on top of his design fee, he was to receive royalties on the sale of the pricey villas ($11 million), mansions ($15 million), and palaces (don't even ask) that were to surround his course.


Arabian Business also says that Woods planned to build a mansion -- 16,500 square feet, with a gym, a theater, a library, and a pool -- beside his course.

While $10 million is a lot of scratch, and a crazy-large sum for a first-time designer, it's a far cry from the $25 million that Woods was rumored to be getting for the work.

I'm wondering how much of the $10 million went to Woods’s design partner, Beau Welling.

mexico Will Punta Brava Debut in 2012?

A reporter for Forbes says that Tiger Woods' golf course in Mexico, which hasn't yet broken ground, is “on track to open in the second half of 2012.”

The course is to be the centerpiece of Punta Brava, an ultra high-end private community that's apparently still going to be built on 264 acres just south of Ensenada, 65 miles south of San Diego, California. The rest of Punta Brava (“Wild Point”) was originally planned, back in 2008, to consist of 40 estate lots, 80 villas, a 20-villa private hotel, an ocean club, a wellness center, and a spa. The lots were to range in price from $3 million to $12 million.



Woods’ 6,835-yard golf course will take shape on a rocky peninsula that extends seven miles into the Pacific Ocean, off the western coast of Baja California. Brian Tucker, one of the project's developers, said in an e-mail to Kurt Badenhausen that 17 of the course's holes will be located on or adjacent to the ocean and that golfers will need to play “over half a dozen shots” over water. He also said that he and his partners were creating “something special –- a true golf club -– not just another real estate development with golf.”

Punta Brava is being developed by Flagship Group, a firm co-founded by Brady Oman and Hal Jones. The group's partners include “Red” McCombs, a co-founder of Clear Channel Communications, a long-time member of the Forbes 400, and a former owner of the Minnesota Vikings, the San Antonio Spurs, and the Denver Nuggets.

The course was originally scheduled to open this year. Tucker blamed the construction delay on difficulties involved in securing environmental permits, but he says the permits are now in hand.

The developers haven't yet begun to sell the community's lots. According to Tucker,
“After the course is open, the club will have a real estate offering, but when it does, it will only be to the members.”

united states The Low-Down on High Carolina

Despite having sold only 42 lots, the developer of Cliffs at High Carolina says he's still “fully committed” to building the community's Tiger Woods-designed golf course.

“We've invested $150 million in this project, so we are fully committed, and Tiger is fully committed to seeing this through to completion,” Jim Anthony told the Asheville Citizen-Times.


The bad news: the construction won't wrap up anytime soon.

Anthony told the paper that he now hopes to open the course in 2013. Last year he said he was shooting for late 2011 or 2012, already a delay from the original construction schedule.

Anthony also provided a construction update, as he said that “the mass grading [of five holes and the driving range] are two-thirds complete.”

Anthony has been selling lots in Cliffs at High Carolina since 2008. At build-out, the 3,000-acre community in Swannanoa, an eastern suburb of Asheville, is supposed to have up to 1,200 houses.

Don't fret, though. The news from North Carolina is still better than the news from Dubai.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

poland Coal Comfort

A coal mine in southern Poland is about to find new life as a golf community.

It’s the Szombierki mine in Bytom, a northwestern suburb of Katowice. An affiliate of Armada Development SA owns the 250-acre property, where it plans to build single-family houses, some retail and commercial areas, and an 18-hole golf course that’s been co-designed by Christoph Stadler and Christian Althaus of Munster, Germany-based Stadler Golf Courses.

The most visually arresting element on the property is the mine’s 15-story hoisting tower, which will be transformed into a 50-room hotel with some apartments, office space, a restaurant, stores, and a recreation center. The tower is a protected structure -– the developers call it “a gem of the modernist industrial architecture” -– that can’t be torn down.

Armada purchased the site from the state, and it hopes to acquire more than 500 acres of additional state-owned property in the future. Michael Golis, the company’s primary stockholder, also owns a local Toyota dealership and, perhaps more importantly, the city’s professional soccer team.

Golis broke ground on Bytom Golf Club’s first nine last fall and expects to open it in late 2011. The course’s second nine will take shape on property that’s still being mined, and work on it won’t begin until 2012 or 2013.

Stadler has designed several golf courses in Germany, including 27-hole complexes at Semlin am See Golf Club in Brandenburg and Golf Club Wittenbeck in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

He and another associate, Joachim Reinmuth, have co-designed an 18-hole course for Golfclub Haxterpark, which is under construction in Paderborn. The construction is expected to wrap up in the spring, and the course will likely open next year.