Where in the world?
“Build it and they will come”… it’s the line made famous by character ‘Shoeless Joe’ Jackson in the movie ‘Field of Dreams’ – and the adopted mantra for many modern golf course developers. – Scott Champion
When Sand Hills was built in 1994, it ushered in an age of looking for great sites irrespective of where they were located. Sand was a premium, as was great undulation. The distance to populated areas wasn’t. In some ways, the more remote the better, as it appealed to the golfer’s sense of adventure. Mullen, the small town in Nebraska where Sand Hills was built, has a population of just under 500. It’s also shut for over six months of the year due to winter. Regardless, it boasts a full membership, it is notoriously difficult to get a game… and, oh, it just happens to be the ranked in the world’s top 20.
Destination Golf: The Global Map – Issue 18 – Editor, Golf Golf Architecture
Hawaii 1
Mexico 3
(Eg – Quivera GC)
Scotland 11
(Eg – Western Isles region
including Ardfin on Jura,
Machrihanish Dunes
Also Fife, Aberdeenshire,
etc)
USA
Wisconsin 12
(Eg – Sand Valley)
Oregon 34
(Eg – Bandon Dunes)
Nova Scotia 13
(Eg – Highlands Links,
Cabot Links)
Nebraska 14
(Eg – Sand Hills, Dismal River)
Monterey Peninsula 15
(Eg – Pebble Beach,
Spanish Bay)
South Dakota 16
(Eg – Sutton Bay, Ballyneal)
North Carolina 17
(Eg – Pinehurst)
Ireland 18
(Eg – Royal Dornoch)
Spain Costa Del Sol 19
(Eg – Sotogrande)
Portugal The Algarve 20
(Eg – Penina, San Lorenzo)
Italy 21
(Eg – Marco Simone G&CC)
Sardinia 22
(Eg – Pevero)
Turkey 5
(Eg – Carya GC, The National).
Iceland 6
On the back of Sand Hills, several other remote courses appeared – no doubt spurred on by the success of developer Dick Youngscap’s creation. In early 2000 Bandon Dunes started construction of their first course. It now boasts four 18-hole designs, a 13-hole par-3 course and the title of America’s top resort – not bad considering most thought Mike Keiser mad for considering even one course in this remote part of Oregon. Others soon followed… Dismal River, Sutton Bay, Ballyneal, Sand Valley, Whistling Straits, and Cabot Cliffs in Nova Scotia. Closer to home Cape Kidnappers and Kauri Cliffs were built in early 2000 in New Zealand. Here in Australia, on the north-east tip of Tasmania, Barnbougle Dunes opened in 2004 and was followed by Lost Farm in 2009. Cape Wickham and Ocean Dunes, on even more remote King Island in Bass Strait, have followed. The island, better known for its world-renowned beef and dairy products, is only accessible by light plane and has a population of less than 2000.
Bali 2
(Eg – Bali Handara
Bali National GC
Nirwana Bali GC
New Kuta Golf)
Vietnam 4
(Eg – Danang Dunes)
Kunming (China) 7
Thailand 8
(Eg – Black Mountain GC)
Hainan Island 9
(Eg – Yalong Bay))
Inner Mongolia 10
Australia
Bridport Tasmania 24
(Barnbougle/Lost Farm)
King Island 25
(Cape Wickham & Ocean
Dunes)
Alice Springs 26
(Alice Springs GC)
Airlie Beach 27
(Laguna Quays)
Port Douglas 28
(Paradise Links)
Capricorn Coast Qld 29
(Capricorn Resort)
Fiji 23
(Eg – Pacific Harbour,
Denarau)
New Zealand
Nth of Auckland 30
(Eg – Tara Iti)
Matauri Bay 30
(Kauri Cliffs)
Napier 31
(Kape Kidnappers)
Queenstown 32
(Eg – Arrowtown, Jacks
Point, Kinloch)
Sri Lanka 33
(Eg – Nuwara Eliya)
Remote golf isn’t anything new. Golf courses have been built in far-off places for 100 years… they just didn’t have the marketing tag-line of ‘destination golf’ attached. The original Stanley Thompson course at Highlands Links – not far from the new developments on Nova Scotia – suffered the same difficulties of season closures and remoteness long before private jets and airports made the trek manageable. Even Machrihanish on the West Coast of Scotland or Royal Dornoch in the north are hardly on the main tourist route.
In the 1980s the game experienced a boom, where golf course developments were used as a way of attracting tourists wanting to escape bitter Northern European winters. Resorts in Spain, Portugal, Italy and more recently in the Antalya region of Turkey, are in their own way ‘destination golf’ courses. The same could be said for parts of Asia. When Peter Thomson, Michael Wolveridge and Ronald Fream built their course at Bali Handara in the mid-1970s, carving through the forests of Bali, surely that was viewed as an extremely remote course? Or more recently, developments in China… Hainan Island, Kunming and some as far north as the Mongolian border where the land might be stunning but where golf is as foreign to the nomadic tribes that roam there as the latest Tesla car.
But as you will read in this edition, successful developers with a love for golf, who are prepared to take a risk, have their eyes on sites all over the globe. Virtually nowhere is too remote if the land is good enough. – The Editors.
