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

PRESS RELEASE

TPL host industry leaders to talk bunkers

(London, United Kingdom – March 5, 2010) Thomson Perrett & Lobb, the golf course design practice founded by five-times Open Champion Peter Thomson, hosted golf industry leaders for a seminar on bunkering, embracing the three disciplines of design, construction and maintenance.

The seminar, held at Burhill Golf Club, Surrey, brought together golf course architects such as Dr Martin Hawtree (Hawtree Ltd), Martin Ebert (Mackenzie Ebert), Gary Johnston (European Golf Design) and Greg Letsche (Els Design) and golf course managers from Sunningdale, Wentworth, The Berkshire, Walton Heath and The Emirates Golf Club to name but a few.

The 29 delegates joined TPL’s Tim Lobb and Andrew Goosen to discuss the various aspects of bunkering, and listen to presentations from companies specialising in the bunker construction.

Representatives from bunker lining manufacturers (BunkerMat, Sportcrete, On Course Solutions) were given the floor to explain their products and the benefits of bunker liners, while Nigel Wyatt of MJ Abbott discussed bunker construction techniques and Charles Henderson from the Sports Turf Research Institute explained the importance of particle size and shape in bunker sand.

Presentations from industry experts were educational and topical

A lengthy round table open discussion brought proceedings to a close, with a number of important topics debated, including the merits of bunker maintenance, bunker renovation and course length.

Tim Lobb, who chaired the seminar, said: “We wanted to bring golf industry leaders together, and the subject of the seminar is one close to every course architect, developer and manager. Bunkers have to be designed, built and maintained and to have such knowledge in one room discussing the subject so deeply, intensely and passionately was great.’

“Everyone was quite open in the discussions so we could really go into depth on the issues brought up.”

Craig Haldane, The Emirates Golf Club course superintendent, travelled from Dubai to be at the seminar.

He said: “It was amazing to have so many industry experts sitting around a table talking about a simple hazard, it was well worth the trip.”

TPL are planning to host similar seminars on various topics of golf course design and management in the future.

Delegates of the TPL bunker seminar in front of Burhill's magnificent clubhouse

In these times of glossy magazines and seductive/ touched up photos of exotic golf courses it got me wondering – has golf lost its ‘fit for purpose’ importance. Is the golf industry really creating golf courses that fit into each and every golfing environment that they are found in?

On a recent trip to Australia via Malaysia the need for diversity of mindset to produce a golf course that is 100% fit for it’s purpose was exemplified. Malaysia has torrential heavy rain to cope with while in Melbourne, Australia the golf courses are facing severe and prolonged drought conditions.

Hopefully the pictures below will help to explain.

Silty soils and torrential rain greets golf construction in Malaysia

The above picture was taken from the re-construction of the Bunga Raya course at Saujana Golf & Country Club, just out of Kuala Lumpur. The old firm I used to work with, E & G Parslow are undertaking the works and have to contend with very difficult conditions to produce a golfing product that is ‘fit for pupose’

Next on the tour was a visit to Yarra Yarra in Melbourne. Yarra Yarra is in the famed sandbelt region and ranked in the top grouping of Aussie courses. Recent design work has been undertaken by Hawtree Limited and the 10th green complex re-built to produce a fine example of a subtle renovation blending into the existing course.

The new 10th greensite at Yarra Yarra

On the Mornington Peninsula, just an hours drive from Melbourne there is some of the best golfing territory around. Rolling landform, deep sands and sea views make the perfect foundation for some of the best golf courses in Australia.

The natural and dramatic bunkers on The Ocean Course, National Golf Club

The silky swing of a 5 times British Open winner - Peter Thomson

Thomson, Perrett & Lobb enjoying a round. We all love playing golf. Some are better than others of course.

Last week also saw the hosting of the Nationwide/ Australian Tour event, The Moonah Classic on The Open Course at Moonah Links. The course was designed by our Melbourne office (Thomson Perrett) and has the good fortune of being built in perfect golfing land within the Mornington Peninsula.

18th green of The Open Course, Moonah Links, what drama

6th West at Royal Melbourne, natural terrain for a great hole.

Richard Forsyth, Course Superintendent at Royal Melbourne Golf Club was kind enough to show me around the West and East course to inspect the ongoing re-grassing activities. A major re-grassing exercise has been undertaken in preparation for next years Presidents Cup and it looks as if Royal Melbourne will be back on top of the perch once all grown in.

The final course visited was Riversdale Golf Club, 20 km out of Melbourne. It was my old home course and it brought back alot of memories to go back there.

Hole 10 at Riversdale Golf Club, a tempting short par 4.

It is always great to meet up with golf industry leaders in various golfing regions and environments. The underlying key to success for each and every region is that the individuals involved with the golf courses, whether it be the design, the construction or the maintenance of the golf course is that they produce a golfing product that is fit for the purpose.

That purpose will be environmental, financial, social and cultural considerations.

Back to the UK next week to enjoy some cold weather again.

TPL appointed to modernise Emirates Golf Club’s flagship Majlis Course

Bunkers to be repositioned and reconstructed for 2011 Dubai Desert Classic

(London, United Kingdom – December 7, 2009) Thomson Perrett & Lobb, the golf course architecture practice founded by five-times Open champion Peter Thomson, has been appointed by Emirates Golf Club to modernise its flagship Majlis Course, home of the Dubai Desert Classic.

Majlis Course, Emirates Golf Club. Host to the Dubai Desert Classic

TPL will carry out an audit of the course’s bunkering as part of a wider modernisation programme, overseeing the repositioning and reconstruction of bunkers to upgrade the course for professional events, including the Dubai Desert Classic and Dubai Ladies Masters, and day-to-day club and visitor play.

The 7,301-yard, par-72 layout, which opened in 1988 and was the first grass golf course in the Middle East, was ranked among the Top 100 golf course outside America by Golf Digest magazine in May 2009.

The stunning 8th hole

Rod Bogg, Special Advisor to Dubai Golf, and who oversaw construction of Emirates Golf Club 22 years ago, said: “We selected TPL to oversee the modernisation of the Majlis Course because of its experience in designing prestige golf courses in the Middle East and its expertise in bunkering.

“Our bunkers are out of date and, due to modern equipment, out of play. Some of the players are hitting the ball 60 or 70 yards past the fairway bunkers during the Dubai Desert Classic. While that is only one week of the year, we need to ensure that the course remains the enjoyable challenge that it is for professionals and amateurs all year round.”

Andrew Goosen (TPL), Rod Bogg (EGC), Tim Lobb (TPL), Craig Haldane (EGC), Chris May (EGC)

Mr Bogg added: “We are not redesigning the course and not adding additional bunkers to the course, but we are looking at relocating, reshaping and reconstructing the bunkers we do have to bring the course up to the highest modern standards, as well as making some improvements to the aesthetics of the course.” The new look course will be in play for the Dubai Desert Classic in 2011.

 TPL is already busy in the region, with its multi-course design for Dubai Golf City under construction, as well as a golf course for the landmark New Giza development in Egypt.

 Tim Lobb, TPL Principal, said: “As with all of the bunker work we do at important, established courses, we are taking a subtle approach to Emirates Golf Club, treading softly and respecting the much loved design that is already in play.

The Majlis course is ranked in the Top 100 outside of USA (Golf Digest, May 2009)

“What we are doing is reviewing the bunker positioning to ensure that professionals and amateurs alike will require a clear golfing strategy to plot their way around the course. The course needs to stand up to the challenge of the world’s best players, while also remaining an enjoyable challenge for the club’s members and visitors. This is an exciting project and we are delighted to be working with the team at Emirates Golf Club.” 

(www.golfcoursearchitecture.net)

A sustainable approach to golf and the cultural landscape

Tim Lobb of Thomson Perrett & Lobb, the golf course design practice founded by five-time Open champion Peter Thomson, shares his ideas on how a correctly used natural landscape can transform a golf course design.

It’s an exciting time in any golf course architect’s life when you venture on to the site of a new golf course for the very first time and glimpse the topography and landscape that lies before you.

 The creative juices always start flowing and lots of ideas begin to buzz around in the head – I guess it’s the same for anyone involved in ‘making things’, whether they be fashion designers, leading chefs or even artists.

 For us, the starting point in the creative process begins with the cultural aspects of the area we are to work. What I mean by ‘cultural’ are the features and any flora or fauna that has naturally developed in the area over time.

 Perhaps the best way to explain what I mean is to take a course my colleague, Ross Perrett previously designed, as an example. When he walked onto the site of Finna Golf Club in Indonesia he was greeted with something which, at first, looked like a huge obstacle to the development of the course, but in the end became a trademark for the property and a turning point in the design of golf courses in the region.

 The natural landscape seen was rice paddy fields, which had been used by locals to grow rice and had become an important economic and cultural symbol for the area.

Golf blending into the rice paddies of Indonesia at Finna Golf

After much head-scratching and thought the conclusion was only one real option, and that was the design the golf course, incorporating the paddy fields into the layout of the holes. At this particular time – 15 years ago – this type of approach was rarely used in any golf course design, but now, looking back, it proved to be the most significant part of the course’s design and became its calling card over the following years.

 This philosophy, working with the natural features of the area, rather than trying to work around them or, at worst, change them, has always been of primary importance to any design process that we start.

 At the recently opened Carya Golf Club in Belek, Turkey, Ross Perrett, Peter Thomson and myself walked onto the site for our usual ‘what’s good and unique’ conversation and we quickly became aware of some key features that would become hugely significant in the development of the course.

 Unlike most courses in Turkey that are situated around resorts and feature primarily parkland or resort style layouts, we were greeted with 10ha of dense heathland countryside (Erica manipuliflora) growing naturally on the lower end of the site, reminiscent of the great English courses like Sunningdale, The Berkshire or Swinley Forest.

 It was immediately clear we were going to enhance this heathland landscape and attempt to create a course different to the norm by proliferating a beautiful natural landscape that already exists, like the paddy fields of Indonesia, the heather of Carya became the course’s signature landscape feature.

 To enhance this naturally growing heathland we actually propagated heather sprigs from on site in eight greenhouses, creating up to half a million cuttings plants which were planted across the course. This foundation work will in time perpetuate and enhance the sustainability and look of the golf course for years to come.

One of the eight onsite poly tunnels set up to propogate cuttings from the indigenous heather stock at Carya Golf Club

However, one of the biggest challenges in any golf course design project is to get a grasp of the scale of the project when making decisions. It’s not like you are trying to design a garden, golf courses are huge developments that require sustainable features with an over-riding theme that can live on during its lifetime.

 Desert designs bring with them a different challenge but are always very rich in features that link in with the area’s culture. Our New Giza development in Egypt must be one of the most culturally rich environments on the planet, as you can actually see the Pyramids from our site!

 During the initial stages of this project we visited the Professor of Botany at Cairo University to develop a list of plants we could use during the construction that were indigenous to the area. It’s important to plant things which you know are, a) going to look ‘right’ in the landscape and b) grow in the weather and soil conditions of the region.

 It may sound obvious but you would be amazed how many conversations you can have with potential developers who have an idea to develop a course and you immediately know their vision is almost impossible to achieve due to the limitations put on you by Mother Nature. For that reason, you won’t find many lush parkland layouts in Dubai and you won’t find many desert designs in central Europe.

 When it comes to golf course architecture so many people forget about the overall theme to the course, marrying traditions of the area with the challenges of each hole. A golf course is a living organism and the whole package including the cultural landscape must be considered in the design process.

 When we think of the great golf courses of the world we don’t just think about the individual tees or greens that we play on. We think about the landscape that they sit in and how the indigenous/cultural landscape effortlessly blends into the background as if the golf course has been there forever. That in essence is the key to creating a golf course that has it all.

5th November 2009

Construction at one of the Middle East’s most significant new golf and real estate communities – New Giza, Egypt – is underway.

Tim Lobb, principal of Thomson Perrett & Lobb, the international golf course architecture practice founded by five times Open Champion Peter Thomson, has just returned from a site visit with Design Associate Andrew Goosen, and confirmed that staking has been completed and bulk construction on the golf course, on hills with views to the ancient Pyramids, has begun in earnest.

Andrew surveying the staked 12th hole

“With so many golf developments having been put on hold over the past year, it is a credit to the developers and everyone involved with New Giza that the project is moving forward,” said Lobb.

“The site for the golf course is part of one of the most dramatic landscapes we have worked on, with incredible hilltop views to the Pyramids and 50-metre high cliffs, which have been incorporated into the golf course design.”

Lobb added: “The news that there will be an MGM Grand Resort on site underlines New Giza’s status as a landmark development for Egypt. It is a very exciting project to be involved with.”

The community will be part of the 1,500-acre New Giza development which will also include a second hotel, a state of the art Hospital with 540 beds, a medical school, a university, two schools, a sporting club, two mixed use areas with restaurants, shopping malls and office spaces, plus 5,500 villas, townhouses, and apartments in ten  individual neighbourhoods, surrounded by greenery, parks and lakes.

The golf course, which forms a central part of the development, will ride the desert hills, offering spectacular views, and incorporate bold natural features that will help create a unique golfing experience.

“We are fortunate to have such an outstanding piece of land to work with,” continued Tim Lobb. “We are not actually having to move huge amounts of earth to create interest and excitement in this golf course, as the hills, ravines and cliffs are already there. What we are doing, through the design and construction, is bringing the drama of the landscape to life for golf, and we have no doubt that New Giza will be a landmark project for the region.

View from behind 13th green back up to tee on clifftop

The golf course at New Giza is scheduled to open in 2012, while the MGM Grand @ New Giza is expected to open in 2013.