TPL has joined forces with HOK, global leaders in

Ross and Tim survey the dunes at Al Ain

innovation for the built environment, to create a championship golf course, Ain Al Emarat, in the United Arab Emirates for Al Qudra Real Estate. The 18-hole golf course will be part of a new community in the desert on the outskirts of Al Ain, the UAE’s largest inland city, designed by the pioneering sustainable architectural practice HOK.

The settlement will be home to 120,000 people with facilities including a 40,000-seat sports stadium, leisure complex, business district and housing. It will be a major suburb for the oasis city of Al Ain, known as The Garden City of the Gulf, and will feature an innovative 7km canal system integrated into both the residential community and golf course.

Tim Lobb, who recently returned from the UAE after an on-site visit with partner Ross Perrett, said: "The golf course at Ain Al Emarat, like the new community itself, will be extraordinary. This is an outstanding desert site, overlooked by mountains, with rolling sand dunes that will be incorporated naturally into the golf course. TPL shares HOK's vision for sustainable design and so there has been a natural synergy in our plans for this project. Both practices believe Ain Al Emarat will be a very special place."

Design work on the course is already underway with construction likely to start later this year.

Barry Lowe of HOK said: "The golf course is an essential element of the new community, which is why we wanted to work with a golf course design company that shared our values and vision, and could create an outstanding, traditional style course of international standard."

Landscape architecture graduate

Ross with Philip (centre) and Peter in Melbourne

Philip Christian Spogard, 28, from Denmark, has been getting into the swing of TPL's business since joining the practice as a Golf Course Architect in September last year.

Spogard, who completed a successful four-month internship at the company's Melbourne office last year, has already made site visits to TPL projects in Dubai, Turkey, Ireland and Egypt.

Ross Perrett, said: "Thomson Perrett & Lobb is enjoying a period of sustained growth, with projects underway across the Europe, Middle East and Africa region, so acquiring a talented design associate like Philip is excellent news. During his internship with us in Melbourne we saw that he is an exceptional individual and will be a great asset to our business."

Spogard, who plays to a handicap of three, speaks five languages – Danish, English Swedish, Norwegian and German – and first graduated with a BSc in Law from the University of Copenhagen, before pursuing his dream of becoming a golf course architect. Having taken up golf at age 17, his interest in the game led him to travel around the world observing the best course designs, including Pebble Beach and many of the UK's Open Championship venues.

He is currently completing a two-year diploma in golf course design with the European Institute of Golf Course Architects and will work alongside Principal and Golf Course Architect Tim Lobb in TPL's office in Surrey, England.

Chris Lomas, course manager at the acclaimed

Chris Lomas at Carya's heather propagation facility

Berkshire Golf Club, is assisting TPL with its innovative project to create a classic, heathland-style course in Turkey.

Lomas, 33, is helping establish an extraordinary cultivation project that has so far resulted in more than 30,000 heather plants being propagated in glasshouses next to the new Carya GC course while also preparing a two-hectare outdoor heather nursery to supply the club over the long term.

Lomas, who has 11-years' experience working on heathland courses, said: "Heather is renowned in the UK as a feature of some of our finest golf courses, including Sunningdale, Walton Heath and The Berkshire. I think it is tremendous that Thomson Perrett & Lobb want to emulate the character of these classic courses in Turkey, where heather already grows naturally, and has gone the extra mile to achieve that goal.

"We will be using the heather to frame and shape the course and create that unique setting that is famous to the heathland courses in the UK."

The site of Carya Golf Club is one of the best in the region for golf development and features sand hills as well as mature pine and eucalyptus forest. Although heather is naturally occurring on the site, a specially selected variety – Erica Cinerea – will suit the native soils and will be over-seeded for its protection and mixed with fine fescue grasses, before being placed on bunker tops and banking to give the course a classic heathland appearance.

A spectacular new island golf course, reachable

The site of Dent Island's 18th tee

only by boat, is to be created by our Melbourne office, off the coast of North Queensland, Australia.

The Dent Island Golf Club will be built across rugged ridges and cliffs on the 2,500-acre Dent Island in the Whitsundays, a world heritage marine site in the Great Barrier Reef. The course is the project of billionaire Bob Oatley, founder of the prestigious Rosemount Wine Estate, and is situated adjacent to Hamilton Island, one of Australia's most exclusive holiday destinations. 

The practice is proactive in its management of this site and is working with 28 different environmental management plans for the site. Every hole at Dent Island Golf Club – one of 74 islands in the Whitsundays – will have a sea view and the course will be reached by a 900-metre boat trip from nearby Hamilton Island.

One of the projects in China, a new course in the

View from the 2nd tee site at Beidaihe

coastal resort of Beidaihe, is set to open in time for the 2008 Olympic Games.

Construction is progressing quickly at the site, located amid rocky outcrops and a former quarry, in the resort two hours north of Beijing. The region is set to stage a number of Olympic football fixtures in 2008 and will host large numbers of international visitors.

Ross Perrett said: "The Beidaihe project is set to 
be one of our most spectacular. We are restoring
a tradition of golf that dates back to the 1930's and it will be our first course in the region."

The design for the course includes a par 72, 6,500-metre layout set amongst hillsides, rock outcrops and scenic water features. A five-star hotel, clubhouse and residential villa properties will complement the course layout.