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.

http://edition.cnn.com/video/?hpt=igo_mid#/video/sports/2011/11/03/golf-presidents-cup-2011.cnn

The Presidents Cup returns to Royal Melbourne Golf Club in a few weeks.

Go Internationals.

First stop was Royal Jersey Golf Club where Thomson Perrett & Lobb is undertaking a full golf course strategy review. The Club is the home club of Harry Vardon and Ted Ray and very much steeped in history.

Peter Thomson and Tim Lobb with Royal Jersey Club officials on second tee

Peter Thomson undertook a course review with particular attention spent on the design solutions proposed for holes 3 + 9 where a bottle neck occurs in the layout.

Review of Harry Vardons memorial stone, located within putting distance of his house

Some of the TPL bunker strategy work is to start construction in October with holes 8 + 11 commencing the programme.

Peter Thomson catching up with Royal Jersey legend - Tommy Horton

Next stop on Peter’s tour was to visit  The Richmond Golf Club where Thomson Perrett & Lobb is half way through construction of a strategic review and re-bunkering process.

Richmond Golf Club's General Manager, John Maguire discussing some of the works

Works on the second and final phase of the bunker review at The Richmond Golf Club is to commence in October. We look forward to completing construction of this project and seeing the course being played in it’s complete form.

Les Howkins (Course Manager), Peter Thomson and John Maguire in front of the rebunkered 4th hole, Richmond GC

Next stop was just up the road to Wimbledon Park Golf Club where again TPL are undertaking a full strategic review of the golf course and preparing to commence works with the bunker re-construction in the coming weeks.

Peter Thomson with Club officials at Wimbledon Park Golf Club

During the final day of Peter’s three day visit to our UK projects he spent time with Tim Lobb at our design office in Ripley discussing some of the international new course design work ongoing in Egypt (3 courses) and Saudi Arabia (2 courses) as well as upcoming work from our new African office in Cape Town lead by Andrew Goosen.

Tim Lobb and Peter Thomson at our design office in Ripley, Surrey

Peter Thomson founded the foundation design practice in 1965 in Melbourne, Australia. Since that time Peter has shown a great energy and passion in the business of creating enjoyable golfing experiences.

Peter is actively involved in the business and is an inspiration for all that come in contact with him.

Peter and his wife, Mary will be enjoying themselves in St Andrews for the remainder of their annual UK holiday and competing in the R & A, Autumn Meetings in the coming weeks.

Good golfing Peter.

We salute you.

Click on above link to access our Summer Newsletter, 2011

Click on the link below to read

http://www.tpl.eu.com/news-12.php

If you would like to subscribe please email Tim Lobb at tlobb@tpl.eu.com

Happy reading

Very warm weather welcomed the participants with firm and fast conditions on the brillant Red Course.

Below are a couple of pictures from the day.

Participants at the 4th Annual Thomson Cup.

Peter presenting the Thomson Cup to winner, Sir Rocco Forte

Get practising for next year…..

Thanks to The Berkshire Golf Club for allowing us to play our event on their fine heathland course.

Click on link above to see original footage of Peter winning the 1955 Open Championship at St Andrews.

As the golfing greats gather at St Andrews for this years Open Championships Peter, Ross and Tim make the annual journey to attend the Championship.

Peter Thomson is captaining the team of Tiger Woods, Sir Nick Faldo and Mark Calcavecchia at Wednesday’s Champions Challenge.

Click on the below link to watch a video on Peters thoughts of St Andrews.

http://www.tpl.eu.com/library-old-course.php

Peter won the 1955 Open Championship at St Andrews.

Tim, Peter and Ross at the famous Old Course in St Andrews

Drop Tim an email if you are attending and want to meet up

tlobb@tpl.eu.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhzjyFSCc4Q

What a swing.

Our electronic newsletter was distributed with news of our current projects.

Please click on below link for review.

http://www.tpl.eu.com/news-11.php

If you would like to subscribe please email us at info@tpl.eu.com