FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – 19 January 2012

FIRST NINE OPEN AT NEW EGYPT COURSE

The first nine holes of the El Ein Bay golf development in Ain Sokhna, Egypt have opened. The course has been designed by London-based firm Thomson Perrett & Lobb (TPL), the practice founded by five time Open Champion Peter Thomson.

Egyptian firm Galalah Touristic Investments is the developer of El Ein Bay, which is part of an integrated development including 200 villas and three apartment precincts. “We spent a lot of time with TPL refining the site master plan to ensure the housing has as little impact on the golf course as possible,” said Maged Hosny, partner and general consultant to Galalah Touristic Investments. “As a result, we have a really great golf course that we’re confident people will have a lot of fun playing.”

View of 5th hole from one of the well designed villa's

TPL principal Tim Lobb said: “Ain Sokhna is a resort town about an hour from Cairo – the closest beach to the city – and is frequented mostly by Cairo residents and expats, so we have designed the course to be playable by the widest possible range of golfers. It’s not the longest course, but I believe it will provide a wide variety of shotmaking options, whatever your level of ability.”

Some of the detailed bunkering at El Ein Bay

Lobb highlighted the par three fifth and par five seventh holes as his favourites among the new nine. “The fifth green has strong contours, which will make it challenging for good players, especially if the pin is in the back right position, which is heavily guarded by bunkers, but it is also large, and thus relatively forgiving,” he said. “And the seventh has a large bunker short of the green that acts as an optical illusion. The bunker makes the green appear much shorter than it actually is.”

US-based firm King Golf International was the contractor on the construction of El Ein Bay. The course has been grassed entirely with Platinum paspalum, supplied by Atlas Turf International.

Tim Lobb (TPL) and Tad King (King Golf International) attended the opening of the first nine holes at El Ein Bay

In a separate development, the ownership of El Ein Bay has linked up with an adjoining golf project, the Little Venice Golf Resort, developed by Hassan Allam Properties, to create Golf Club Sokhna. With the nine holes now open at El Ein Bay, and nine holes, designed by American architect John Sanford, at Little Venice, the new club already has an eighteen hole course, which measures 6,968 yards from the back tees. The completion of El Ein Bay’s second nine, expected for later in 2012, will make the club a 27-hole destination.

ENDS

The show, filmed around the ‘Golf in North Africa – Setting the New Standards’ seminar organised by Golf Course Architecture, Toro and Thomson Perrett & Lobb, looked at how the country is becoming a magnet for overseas, especially Middle Eastern investors developing golf properties targeting both incoming tourists and middle class Moroccans looking for housing away from hectic, overcrowded cities such as Casablanca.

Click on link for more from Golf Course Architecture

http://www.golfcoursearchitecture.net/Article/CNN-show-covers-Moroccan-golf/2322/Default.aspx

December 23, 2011

From all of us at Thomson Perrett & Lobb we would like to wish our colleagues, Clients, friends in the industry and fellow golfers a Merry Christmas and look forward to a wonderful 2012.

At this time of the year there always comes a time for reflection on our achievements and on things we could have done better. While the golf development market is still quite stagnant we are pleased with our progress and accomplishments throughout the year.

Please see below some of our highlights for the year.

Master Planning Projects

We have been working on some fascinating master planning projects throughout the year. First of which is a 12, 000Ha site in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) called Wadi Al Asla, where we are appointed by leading architects HOK to assist them with the integration of two golf courses within the complex community master plan. The site has varied landscapes and characteristics and TPL has been onsite since day one to determine the optimal positioning of the golf course sites and how they will give a great golfing experience whilst ensuring connectivity to the rest of the 120km2 site.

Navigating around a 12, 000Ha site at Wadi Al Asla with HOK. The iPad is a great piece of kit.

Another major master planning project we have been concentrating on this year has been Barwa New Cairo. We are appointed by leading US architects RNL to assist them with the integration of an 18 hole championship golf course within a 600Ha residential community in the expanding Cairo suburbs. Whilst it has been a transforming era in Egyptian politics this year the project has continued and we are now looking at finalising the master plan in the near future.

The dramatic landscape at Barwa New Cairo.

International Expansion

In December 2010 we formed the Thomson Perrett & Lobb office in Cape Town, South Africa in which Andrew Goosen (Senior Design Associate) heads up.

Andrew Goosen at our new Cape Town office

TPL has made good in roads into developing long term projects in the African market and have been involved with preliminary studies for projects in Mozambique, Mauritius, Zambia, South Africa and Nigeria.

The dramatic Mozambique coastline where TPL visited in 2011

We look forward to a long association with Africa and to developing a typically ‘African golfing experience’ on all of the projects that we work on.

Working with existing Clubs

In addition to working on large scale master planned golf developments TPL also has great satisfaction in working with existing Clubs to improve their playing strategies. Throughout the year we have undertaken full strategic design reviews at The Richmond Golf Club, Wimbledon Park Golf Club, Royal Jersey Golf Club and a historic restoration of holes 16 + 17 at Burhill Golf Club.

Throughout the months of September to current there has been much construction works being undertaken and we are very proud of our achievements at these Clubs.

Bunker construction work at Royal Jersey Golf Club completed on hole 11, Dec 2011

TPL completed construction of a full 18 hole bunker and strategic review at Richmond Golf Club in Nov 2011.

TPL commenced with phase 1 (50%) of a total bunker reconstruction at Wimbledon Park Golf Club

Restoration of the 16th hole at Burhill Golf Club was completed in Nov 2011

2012?

TPL look forward to the year ahead. The golf development market is still very depressed and struggling in this current economic climate but despite this opportunites are still apparent.

We wish our Melbourne office, Thomson Perrett well for their bid to design the golf course for the Rio Olympics 2016. The decision is to be announced in the new year.

We are pleased to travel to the Opening of our El Ein Bay project in Egypt just after the Christmas break. A fantastic achievement to get this course finished despite the challenges Egypt has faced this year.

Opening of TPL's - El Ein Bay in January 2012

We are in the middle of bidding for three new major new developments so will hopefully have some success with one or more of those for the new year.

We continue to search for Clients who appreciate our attention to detail and our passion for delivering golf courses that complement the indigenous surroundings they lie in. But most importantly for our golf courses to provide a strategic challenge for all and make golf a fun game to play again.

Tim, Peter and Ross wish you a very Merry Christmas and look forward to seeing you all in 2012.

Goodbye 2011 – hello 2012.

Good golfing.

Thank you Dr Green for your observations and photos of the setup at Royal Mlebourne GC for the upcoming President Cup in November.

Words and pictures supplied by Dr John Green.

Royal Melbourne is preparing for the Presidents Cup to be held 14^th – 20^th November.

The layout to be used for the Presidents Cup in November is different to that usually used. One of the most important changes being that the 16^th East is to replace the 4^th East, largely at the request of the players, who regretted merely walking past this hole, and will be played as the fourteenth hole.

New 14th hole (16 East). Ti-tree was removed from behind this hole and a stand constructed.

The other significant change was that the 18^th East, which has always been the 18^th hole, despite several different arrangements of the holes, will now be the 16^th; the 1^st and 2^nd of the West will be the two finishing holes.  This is because many matches finish about the sixteenth, 18^th East has the best area for the gallery and stands, and is near to the clubhouse.

18th East green, which is to be used as the sixteenth hole. The proximity of the clubhouse and stands can be seen. The players approach this hole from the right hand side of the picture.

Stands have been erected at many holes especially the closing holes, but also at places where play is likely to be most interesting.

17th East, which will be played as the fifteenth hole. The stand at the left will also look back down the 1st West, to be played as the seventeenth hole.

That after last year’s breaking of the severe ten year drought, all the evidence points to the course being in magnificent condition for the event.

—–END——

Thanks to Dr John Green for being our first guest blogger. We at TPL have a long history of playing and enjoying this fine 36 hole golfing experience. Good luck to Richard Forsyth and all the ground staff at RMGC for the event.

For information on Dr Green’s book please see

www.royalmelbournehistoryofcourses.com

See below some pictures of this great fun hour of golf.

The greens were running pretty fast on the Stimp. Love the dinosaur in background.

I personally hope that we see more of these facilities and know of a new Adventure Golf park by the Burhill Group at Abbey Hill Golf Centre in a Pirate Theme. Will have to go for a look one day.

The last few holes were under the waterfall and in the cave. Very clever.

The game took about an hour. We didnt really keep score but it was great to see the kids loving playing golf but not the trudgery of a driving range.

This one scared my daughter a bit but was pretty interesting.

The dinosaur theme was really interesting and there was information boards on the way explaining facts about dinosaurs which was interesting.

The last hole next to the waterfall also provided some chance to advertise the F+B offering.

Costa Coffee were also onsite which offered a good chance to rest and relax after the game. This golfing experience had it all in my view for kids who have never really tried golf before.

This dinosaur had full movement and audio. It was great.

Go and have a go at Adventure Golf at World of Golf – Beverley Way

www.jurassicencounter.com

Good golfing…

Dr John Green has compiled this fantastic book and we are helping to spread the word.

Contact us if interested in purchasing a book

 http://www.royalmelbournehistoryofcourses.com/

Golf seminar planned for Marrakech

The team behind the successful ‘Golf in the Middle East – The Next Generation’ seminar, run in Abu Dhabi last September, has announced its second event.

Some of the international guests that attending the Abu Dhabi Seminar in 2010

The seminar, entitled ‘Golf in North Africa – Setting The New Standards’, will take place at the Meridien N’Fis hotel in Marrakech, from 9-10 November. As with last’s year’s event in Abu Dhabi, attendance will be free of charge and by invitation only. Guests will include leaders from across North Africa’s golf industry. The keynote address will be given by leading Moroccan development firm Compagnie Générale Immobiliére, which is involved in a number of golf projects across the country.

Golf has a long history in North Africa, but in a crowded golf tourism market, the region’s courses – and developers considering new courses – need to rethink their approach to remain competitive. This need is all the more urgent given the political and economic upheavals that have shaken North Africa this year. The seminar aims to help developers, operators and managers position their region at the forefront of the golf industry, and will include visits to a number of new golf facilities.

Organised by Andy Brown of Toro, Adam Lawrence of Golf Course Architecture, and Tim Lobb of Thomson Perrett & Lobb, the seminar is supported by Braemar Golf and Jennings Turf International. 

ENDS

Gary presenting site analysis philosophies

During the two day workshop the four new students were introduced to the new Moodle Website that has been created to allow for ‘at home’ education. This has been a great achievement for the EIGCA and will prove successful form of educational transfer for years to come.

After the adminsitration lessons on how to use the Moodle website we threw the students in the deep end and starting working immediately on a golf course routing for presentation later in the workshop.

Simon from David Krause's office presenting his plans at the end of the workshop

The presentations by the students at the end of the workshop were really great and showed that they had clearly been through a design evolution to arrive at their presented material. Gary and Tim were particularly interested to see how this design evolution had been considered and how this impacted on the final solution.

 Good luck to the four students undertaking the Education Programme. It was great to see that out of the four students we had countries represented from England, Netherlands, Poland/ Czech, German.

Andrew Goosen TPL, Con Strydom ARUP, and Craig Todd

The golf day was a prelim event to the opening of the SA parliament and an opportunity for private and public sectors to rub shoulders.

The very successful day was closed by an address given by the SA Minister for Sport, Mr Fikile Mbalula, in which he stressed the important role sport can play in enhancing peoples lives and how golf in particular needs to break its stigma of being an elitist game and be made more accessible to all South Africans.

TPL endorse this need for change in the game as not only can the game reach into poorer communities, but it will play a significant role in the longevity of the game.

Andrew Goosen heads up our new Cape Town office. We look forward to a long and rewarding experience in Africa. Andrew can be contacted on agoosen@tpl.eu.com or tel: +27 (0) 21 812 2646 (office)

Thomson Perrett & Lobb to open new African office

(London, England – December 15th, 2010) Thomson Perrett & Lobb, the golf course architecture practice founded by five times Open Champion Peter Thomson with partners Ross Perrett and Tim Lobb, is to expand its international business by opening a Cape Town office to service Africa.

The new business will be managed by Andrew Goosen who previously worked in the UK practice for four years, but has now moved back to his native South Africa in the newly promoted role of Senior Design Associate.

Commenting on this important step in the development of the TPL business, Principal, Tim Lobb, said: “We have been monitoring the development of golf in this region for some time and the creation of our new African office, coupled with the continent’s growing profile as a golf destination, is a logical progression which will allow us to closely manage both new and existing work going forwards.

“Andrew has already played a significant role in our Egyptian projects, New Giza and El Ein Bay, and we are confident our business interests in Africa, and those of our clients, will be in safe hands with the opening of this new office.”

Andrew added: “I have thoroughly enjoyed working alongside Tim Lobb in the UK, but the lure of returning to my native South Africa is very exciting. There has been noticeable growth and significant investment in the golf and tourism industry in Africa, and the prospects for the sport are very strong.”

Andrew Goosen in front of TPL's Cape Town office

As part of Andrew’s role, he will also be overseeing a new TPL project in Zambia, which will see the design and construction of an exciting new golf course that forms part of a hunting lodge development spread across 50,000 acres of land.

This expansion also rekindles great memories for the company’s five-time Open Champion, Peter Thomson, who had many head-to-head sporting encounters with the great South African golfer, Bobby Locke. The pair became great friends and toured the former Rhodesia and other parts of Africa, playing a series of exhibition matches during the 1950s and 60s.

TPL’s growth in the region coincides with the announcement that South Africa has been named ‘Africa, Indian Ocean and Gulf States Golf Destination of the Year 2011’ by the International Association of Golf Tour Operators (IAGTO).

For further information and videos about Thomson Perrett & Lobb, visit the company’s website at www.tpl.eu.com

ENDS

Press release issued on behalf of Thomson Perrett & Lobb by Landmark Media International Limited. www.landmark-media.com