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Peter Thomson will be joining Sir Michael Bonallack on stage for an interview on their experiences of St Andrews and how the game has changed in the last generation of golfers. Don Riddell of CNN will be doing the interview and it should be a fascinating session for those in attendance.

Peter Thomson in front of R&A, St Andrews

Peter Thomson has a long relationship with St Andrews and has been visiting and playing there almost continually since the early 50s. The culmination of Peter’s love for St Andrews came when he won the 1955 Open Championship by 2 shots over John Fallon.

Peter Thomson teeing off at the 1st on The Old Course, St Andrews

Have a great conference all.

Tim Lobb + Guy Bouman near the clubhouse location onsite.

The first five holes of the golf course layout meanders through an existing and stunning rubber tree plantation. The terrain is pretty gentle and we hope an exciting start to the golfers round.

The start of the golf journey through the rubber tree plantation.

Once we get to the sixth hole we open up in the longer views of the site and start to play down some of the long valleys found onsite. We carefully routed these holes in the valleys to give their own identity but also to connect the golfer to the Calabar River with its beauty and importance to this region.

Guy Bouman looking down what will be the picturesque downhill par 4, 6th hole.

In the coming weeks Bouman Golf will start mobilising onsite and staking out our golf course onsite. Tim Lobb and Andrew Goosen of TPL will be assisting with the tree clearance process, in the first instance, to ensure that the beautiful Nigerian landscape will be an everlasting memory for golfers.

We look forward to keeping our readers up to date with this exciting project as we continue through this construction process.

26^th February 2013 – For Immediate Release

Egyptian golf market regains some vigour

The Egyptian golf development market has regained most of the vigour it possessed before the revolution of 2011, according to two golf industry professionals who are working on a number of projects in the country.

Tim Lobb, principal of global golf architecture practice Thomson Perrett & Lobb, and Tad King of Connecticut-based contractor King Golf International recently returned from a week-long visit to the country, and report that local developers are confident about the future and looking to push forward on their projects as quickly as they can.

TPL’s first course in Egypt, El Ein Bay at Ain Sokhna on the Red Sea, which he designed for local developer Galalah Touristic Investments, and which was built by King’s firm, recently celebrated the grand opening of its full eighteen holes. Now, the duo are hard at work on a second course, part of the NEWGIZA development, located only 6km from the Giza necropolis, a World Heritage Site that includes the Great Pyramid of Khufu, and the Great Sphinx. And a third project, on behalf of giant Qatari developer Barwa, is also progressing.

Earthworks progressing well on the 10th hole at NEW GIZA

“Although the political uncertainty caused by the Egyptian revolution inevitably put development on the back burner for a time, the economic fundaments underpinning golf and real estate projects in the country have always been extremely strong, so I’m not surprised to see developers wanting to move forward,” said Lobb. “What has surprised me is the level of confidence our clients are showing. The message we are getting is that they want to have product they can sell as soon as possible. So we are going full steam ahead.”

“Touring some of the key development sites around Egypt, it’s clear that real estate sales are moving forward strongly, and the resorts are very busy,” said King. “Although the political situation remains complex, development companies are clearly taking the view that Egypt is now on solid ground, and open for business.”

TPL’s eighteen holes at El Ein Bay are now part of a 27-hole complex known as Sokhna Golf Club, which includes another nine designed by American architect John Sanford. The course, which is aimed at Cairo residents and expats that use the Red Sea resort town as a weekend getaway, has been designed to be playable for the widest number of golfers possible. Already, a visiting German golfer has set a course record of 64!

Tad King and Tim Lobb at the newly opened El Ein Bay

At NEWGIZA, King’s team had started the first tranche of bulk earthworks before the revolution caused the project to be shut down. Now, the contractor is back on site with a large fleet of earthmoving equipment, helping to make TPL’s design come alive in the shortest possible time.

“We have been working on this project for eight years in total, so it is terrific to see the course moving ahead at such speed,” said the architect. “Thirty apartment blocks have already been built, and the first village of houses is under construction, so we are under pressure to get the golf course done quickly. We will be grassing the holes by the end of this year, and an opening in 2015 is likely.”

View from proposed 4th tee (par 3) at NEWGIZA with Pyramids in background. Going to be special.

Medhat El Dewary, chief executive of the development team behind both El Ein Bay and NEWGIZA, said: “Confidence is returning quickly to the Egyptian economy, and so we are moving forward strongly with our projects. With its unmatched views over the iconic pyramids, NEWGIZA is a remarkable location, and we’re confident it will provide a great experience for golfers and residents alike.”

ENDS…..

Notes to Editors:

Thomson Perrett & Lobb

Thomson Perrett & Lobb is the golf course design firm founded by Peter Thomson (five times Open Champion) based in Surrey, UK. The principals of Thomson Perrett & Lobb have more than 80 years of experience in golf course design and a portfolio of more than 200 projects in more than 30 countries worldwide.

It is a multi-disciplined organisation actively involved in golf course design, course restorations, master planning, architecture and landscape architecture. The firm’s experienced design team have been involved with some of the most highly rated and successful golf projects around the world.

King Golf International

King Golf International is a golf course construction company based out of Westport, Connecticut, in the United States.

Building golf on four continents has given King Golf the necessary expertise to deliver quality golf courses on schedule, and on budget.

The Golf Industry Show in the US is an annual event and attracts mainly course managers and superintendents from around the world to participate in product awareness and high level education seminars throughout the week.

This year, Tim Lobb of TPL was invited to attend the show and partake in a factory tour of Hunter Industries irrigation research and development lab and manufacturing plant, found just out of San Diego.

Travelling to California in February is an enticing prospect given the freezing temperatures in the UK over this winter. With that in mind I decided to travel a few days earlier with host Mark Ganning of Hunter Industries and meet up with fellow golf course architect, Christian Lundin, who was also in the group. For the first few days we stayed at La Costa Resort just North of San Diego. The resort was originally built in the 60s and recently completed a full renovation of the facilities and golf courses. The resort had a great vibe and a very relaxing place to be.

We did manage to play the Championship Golf Course, which had undergone a $10m upgrade. This level of upgrade immediately started to show us the difference between the US golf market and our more familiar European one. Golf in the US is a totally different ball game than what we are used to. The level of investment and service really is quite remarkable.

Golf at La Costa. Liked the non over seeded natural look

Part of the experience of going to the Golf Industry Show is meeting colleagues within your discipline and learning about the markets they work in. One such colleague is Mexican golf course architect – Agustin Piza. Augi as we know him here in Europe is a great friend and proud Mexican. As San Diego is on the busy Mexican border Augi planned for Christian and myself to go down to Mexico for the day and play golf. Playing at Baja Mar was quite an experience and lived up to its billing of  the ‘Pebble Beach of Mexico’.

Golf in Mexico was a thrilling experience

Of course Augi wanted to show us some of the fine food in Mexico too so we stopped off at ‘Lobster Town’ for a small dinner on the way back. Wow what a treat – 6 lobsters between us.

Lobster Mexico style with fellow golf course architects Christian Lundin and Augi Piza.

The Golf Industry Show exhibition ran for two days and we spent some time meeting with industry contacts and learning about new products. I guess the exhibition is more directed towards the course managers or superintendents but it is still very interesting and it is well represented with delegates from around the world.

Torrey Pines Golf Club is just North of San Diego and we were lucky enough to play the South Course, which had just weeks before hosted a PGA Tour event and in the past the 2008 US Open. The course was in great shape as you could imagine. But I could not stop thinking if the routing really took advantage of the dramatic landscape in which it sat. Still pondering that now.

Torrey Pines – what a dramatic landscape

Andy Haggar and Steve Clement from Faldo Design also joined our group hosted by Hunter Industries and on the Friday we went to their Head Quarters just out of San Diego. Having not been to many manufacturing plants in the past it was quite amazing to see a raw product, be it steel or plastic, be moulded into a highly tuned part for one of their sprinkler heads. The group was joined by other golf industry people and it demonstrated Hunter Industries passion to be a major player in the golf course irrigation market.

A very informative tour to Hunter Industries HQ

The week in San Diego was memorable for so many reasons, be it, the comradeship between our group, the sights and sounds of California and Mexico or the knowledge that the golf market seems to be coming back onto its feet. Throughout the week and chatting to fellow golf industry leaders it became apparent that we are all starting to get busy. Isn’t this great news after a few years of heart ache.

A big thank you must go to Mark Ganning and all his colleagues at Hunter Industries for hosting us in San Diego last week. It was a great experience.

Tim Lobb

Mark Ganning (middle), Tim Lobb (left), Andy Haggar (right)

Looking forward to catching up with industry friends and meeting some new ones.

If you would like to meet up with Tim email him on tlobb@tpl.eu.com

Will send a report once back.

As we prepare for the festive season and New Year ahead it is always interesting to review the calendar for the year just past, and to remind ourselves what we have achieved.

Here at our HQ in Surrey, UK, we have noticed a steady – and pleasing – increase in project enquiries, as well as seeing a number of projects that had been put on hold during the economic downturn starting up again, and getting ready to move into construction in 2013.

In January we were delighted to attend the opening of our El Ein Bay course in Ain Souhkna, Egypt. The first nine holes are in play, and the second half of the course will open in the new year. We had a blast playing the course, which was in fantastic condition bearing in mind its youth.

2012 started with the opening of El Ein Bay in Egypt

In Cairo, Egypt we have also been working with US-based architects RNL to masterplan an 18 hole golf course within an integrated residential development of 850 hectares – design work has been progressing all year on that project. More news from Egypt is that mass grading has started at the  long anticipated New Giza course, in the shadow of the Pyramids. Final construction and grassing work for our exciting course, set in a limestone quarry should start in the second half of next year.

January was a great start to 2012: we also signed an agreement to design a new course in Calabar, Nigeria. We’ve been busy with other masterplanning studies for projects in North Africa, the Caucasus Region and the Middle East this year, and we hope to be able to make more concrete announcements about several of these early in 2013.

Tim Lobb and Andrew Goosen onsite at the dramatic site in Calabar, Nigeria

Nearer to home, we have been very busy working with existing golf clubs to help improve their facilities. At Woking Golf Club (founded 1893) we were appointed to design and oversee construction of a new sixteenth hole, which will open in the Spring. We are in the midst of an extensive project with St George’s Hill Golf Club (1912), one of master architect Harry Colt’s greatest works, to advise on improvements to its Green nine. At Royal Jersey Golf Club (1878), we’re continuing to implement our course improvement plan, and works on holes 10, 15 and 18 have been overseen by TPL this year. We completed the two-year rebunkering of The Richmond Golf Club (1898) and the full TPL philosophy is now in play there. Golf Monthly wrote of our work: “Richmond now has the best of both worlds – all the history and tradition you could wish for, and a course ideally equipped to challenge and entertain the 21st century golfer”.

TPL bunker works completed at The Richmond Golf Club

At Wimbledon Park Golf Club (1898) we will complete the second and final phase of rebunkering work in early 2013. Our ongoing consultation on the Old Course at Burhill Golf Club (1907) saw holes 11 and 12 rebunkered: these will be open for play in the Spring. Finally, this year we agreed new renovation projects at Bury St Edmunds (1924) and The Buckinghamshire Golf Club (1992), which is the home of the Ladies European Tour.

TPL is very proud to be working with the LET and The Buckinghamshire GC

We’re looking forward eagerly to 2013 as our masterplanning work should see some new course developments going into construction in various locations around the world. It is always exciting to build new golf course and next year should be busy for that. On the home front we really enjoy working with existing clubs to improve their facilities for members and guests alike. It is a true honour to work at such clubs and we take our role of preserving the integrity of these golf courses very seriously.

Andrew Goosen reports from our Cape Town office

After spending much of the year dealing with design work for the New Calabar Golf Club in Calabar, Nigeria, we ended the year by issuing the construction tender and overseeing the appointment of a contractor. We are delighted to say we’ll break ground in January, and expect to complete construction before the end of 2014. It’s been a challenging design exercise on a dramatic piece of land, and we’re certain it will be one of West Africa’s most enjoyable golf courses, and a key asset for the city of Calabar and the Cross River State.

The design for the New Calabar GC is completed. Construction to start early 2013

In Mauritius, we have been involved in a yearlong exercise to develop both physical and financial models for a publicly accessible golf course and real estate project. The client, one of the country’s powerful sugar consortiums, plans to convert some lower yielding cane fields and an old dairy into an affordable property development aimed at local people. The project, which includes golf, a golf academy, commercial areas and housing, is currently under the financial microscope, and we hope to announce more early next year.

Rob Richardson, Andrew Goosen and Claus Mischker surveying the site in Mauritius

2013 promises to be an exciting year. With Calabar in full flight, we shall be targeting existing South African golf courses with a refreshing outlook on renovation and indigenous landscape regeneration. We await exciting news about possible work in Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique and more in Nigeria.

Compliments of the season to all our readers and we look forward to seeing you in 2013.

Peter Thomson, Ross Perrett & Tim Lobb

Ladies European Tour home course hires TPL

The Buckinghamshire Golf Club in southern England has commissioned design firm Thomson Perrett & Lobb to undertake a strategic review of its golf course, with a view to implementing proposed changes over a two to three year period.

Located in Denham, to the northwest of London, Buckinghamshire is the home of the Ladies European Tour, and plays host to one of its flagship tournaments, the ISPS Handa Ladies British Masters, won this year by Wales’ Lydia Hall. The course, which opened in 1992, was originallydesigned by legendary golf coach John Jacobs’ and developed by KajimaUK.

The lovely but demanding 12th hole

“Our key goal at Buckinghamshire is to improve the playing experience for the members, and help the club attract new ones,” said TPL principal Tim Lobb. “Obviously, though, we have to take into account the fact that the course is the home of the LET, and is hosting the Tour regularly. The owners are especially keen to increase the number of women among the membership, and we will consider playability for lady golfers very carefully during our review.”

Lobb said a key issue was the course’s bunkers. “The Buckinghamshire has many, many bunkers – in total, they amount to 1.4 hectares of sand,” he said. “Naturally, that creates a lot of work for the greens crew, and we will be focusing on bunker strategy closely. We don’t want to reduce the challenge of the course, but we do want to give maximum bang for the bunker!”

Lobb cited the short par four eighth, which offers a direct route to the green over a lake, or a safe layup and pitch option, as one of the course’s standout holes. “The eighth is a terrific hole, but it needs to be made more enticing for golfers,” he explained. “We’re considering adding a little more fairway on the direct line to the green, to encourage more people to have a go at it.”

Risk and reward 8th hole

Former Ryder Cup player John O’Leary is director of golf at the Buckinghamshire. He said: “We have a terrific golf course, as anyone who saw this year’s Ladies British Masters will know, but we believe that, with TPL’s help, we can make it better still, and we look forward to seeing their proposals.”

Tim Lobb and Stuart Rennie undertaking design studies at The Buckinghamshire GC

ENDS

The double page spread is found on pages 16 and 17. Some of the quotes from the article include:

‘Despite its rich history, the club has realised that it must continue to move forwards. With scope for extra length limited, it has instead embarked on a major re-bunkering programme under the guidance of Tim Lobb, of golf course architects Thomson Perrett & Lobb’ 

The Golf Monthly feature on our work at The Richmond Golf Club

It continues saying ‘New hazards have been added to make the club golfer think about strategy, while others that were unneccesary hazards on already tough holes have been removed. The rough-egded styling with wispy surrounding grasses, has enhanced the courses visual appeal, too, beautifully framing the holes, Finally, costly and time-consuming maintenance issues have all but eliminated – several bunkers had previously been located at natural low points, placing a strain on resources after wet weather.’

Some new bunkering at par 5, 17th hole

‘The short par -5 11th typifies everything thats good about the new bunkering. Take the hole on by all means, but beware, the fairway is only 15 paces across by the perfectly placed and eye catching left hand bunker complex. Classic risk – reward golf.’

The vintage looking bunkers created at Richmond Golf Club

Finally Golf Monthly writes: ‘The Richmond now has the best of both worlds – all the history and tradition you could wish for, and a course ideally equipped to challenge and entertain the 21st – century golfer.’

A rich history at The Richmond Golf Club, founded in 1891

The short par 5, 7th hole offers risk and reward options

TPL is very proud to have been involved with this project at The Richmond Golf Club

All photos were taken by Kevin Murray in the summer of 2012.

New sixteenth hole for historic Woking

Woking Golf Club in Surrey, one of the world’s most architecturally significant golf courses, has begun work on a complete rebuild of its par three sixteenth hole.

The oldest of the heathland courses of Surrey and Berkshire, Woking is widely believed to be a key  birthplace of strategic golf design, thanks to the work carried out on the course by members Stuart Paton and John Low around the turn of the twentieth century, notably the famous central bunker complex on the fourth hole.

Now, the club has hired local design firm Thomson Perrett & Lobb to create a new-look sixteenth hole, as the existing green, which was extended backwards in the 1960s, has always had agronomic problems, as well as being rather close to the boundary of the property.

TPL principal Tim Lobb admitted the prospect of redesigning any part of a course as historic as Woking was a daunting one. “For golf architects, Woking is something of a temple, one of the places where our profession was created,” he said. “So to work here makes us proud, but is also quite intimidating.”

New 16th hole for Woking Golf Club

Unusually in this day and age, TPL’s new hole will be shorter than the existing sixteenth, around 140 yards from the medal tee, and 130 from the yellow markers, roughly fifteen yards less than the current hole. The tees are moving slightly to the right, while the new green will be to the left of the existing one. It will still play over a pond.

“I know it is more normal to lengthen holes, but in this case, designing the best hole in the location called for a slightly shorter one,” said Lobb. “Actually, though, I think it will strengthen the course as a whole by creating more variety. Woking lacks a true short par three, which the new sixteenth will become.”

Woking is famous for its greens, some of which are among the most severely contoured in Britain. “The new green will be in the Woking spirit, with significant contour and separate pinnable areas,” said Lobb. “The right third will slope away from the player, and create a challenging pin for competition days.”

Course manager Jon Day, along with Woking’s agronomist, Bruce Jamieson, and contractor MJ Abbott, who are handling the build, has sourced a special rootzone for the new green, designed to match closely the soil profile of the course’s existing greens. The green will be grassed with turf grown on the club’s own nursery area, speeding the grow-in process. Construction should be complete by the end of September, and the new hole is expected to be in play by spring 2013.

Club captain Edward Luker said: “The rebuild of the 16^th hole is the latest in a range of improvements to the course that the Club has undertaken over recent years. It was critical that the redesign of the 16^th maintained the fine heathland traditions of Woking Golf Club and we are very excited by the proposed design.”

ENDS

http://www.tpl.eu.com/news-14.php

Introduction

It’s been a fair while since our last newsletter, but that doesn’t reflect a lack of activity on our part – quite the reverse in fact! Thomson Perrett & Lobb has been busy working on new course designs across Africa and on the island of Mauritius, as well as making improvements at some of the UK’s most famous clubs.
Working in developing golf regions is a privilege, but it brings challenges and responsibilities to help grow the game. We were pleased to be able to arrange for CNN’s flagship Living Golf show to visit Nigeria recently, and very grateful that the Royal & Ancient has supported our efforts in that country by donating sets of clubs to enable new golfers to take up the game.

http://www.tpl.eu.com/news-14.php