Carya Golf Club, TPL's development in the popular golfing region of Belek, Turkey is set to open its doors for play on November 24.

With the opening date now set preparations are ahead of schedule with all the greens and fairways seeded to allow the playing surfaces to be fully established and in pristine condition for the opening.

Carya Golf Club is set to be Turkey's first heathland style course

The Belek region will be awash with golf courses, but Carya promises to stand out from the rest due to its unique English feel, as it is the only Heathland inspired course in the region.

Carya will introduce heather as part of the design exactly as it is seen on courses like Sunningdale and The Berkshire in the UK. Once open for play Carya will boast close to one million heather plants, which will have been propagated on site.

TPL's Philip Spogard, who has overseen the project, said: “It is the ambition that the course should present new standards for golf design, course conditioning and hospitality for the region.”
 

	Tim Lobb (left) and Ross Perrett at New Giza where the pyramids will provide the ideal driving line on the 1st hole

The design at our New Giza project in Cairo is developing well. Here is a sneak preview of what is to be expected.

Golfers teeing up on the first hole at New Giza in Egypt will have a perfect line for the middle of the fairway – the pyramids of Giza. Faced with a split fairway, the golfer's best option is to literally line the driver up with the pinnacle of New Giza pyramid.

The course is situated in an old quarry offering spectacular and dramatic scenery, and if that is not enough, the golfer will experience a number of vistas of the pyramids during the round.

The drama in the immediate landscape will be created through the intelligent use of contrast – texture and colour contrast between rock and water, sand and shrub, and the golf course dissecting its way through the barren landscape.

Holes 12, 13 and 14 (par 5 par 3 par 5 respectively) give the golfer one of the most spectacular experiences in golf. Located in and around 10-15m high quarry walls, the player will have to negotiate their way into, and then out of, the quarry, while avoiding water and sheer walls.

The 12th requires the golfer to carefully and strategically plot their way safely to the hole, the 13th is a 15m drop down par-3 carrying a water at the very bottom of the quarry - club selection will be critical, and 14 is mammoth 605m heroic par-5 played 10m above and adjacent to the 13th.

Construction is programmed to commence later this summer.
 

The Ballarat Golf Club, one of Australia's oldest clubs has opened its new Thomson Perrett designed course for play. Like the original, the new course has a parkland style, which features established conifers and exotic trees and a ground plain of indigenous shrubs and grasses.

18th hole

Formerly flat and featureless, the site was transformed by 350,000 cubic metres of earthworks and the construction of an extensive network of creeks and wetlands to manage and store the storm water for irrigation purposes.

Given its windy location and length of 6,280 metres, the course has been set up to be challenging for members of all levels. Since the opening, the club has experienced a rapid growth in membership applications and greatly increased visitor numbers. As it matures, it is anticipated the course will become Victoria's premier regional golfing facility.

Ballarat is a prosperous regional city that was at the heart of the Australian Gold Rush of the 1860s.