News:

Welcome to the Golf Club Atlas Discussion Group!

Each user is approved by the Golf Club Atlas editorial staff. For any new inquiries, please contact us.


Kevin_Reilly

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Could a minimalist course be successful in Asia
« Reply #25 on: April 04, 2010, 11:29:12 PM »
Joel, there was a thread about it a couple of weeks ago:

http://golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php?topic=43660.0
"GOLF COURSES SHOULD BE ENJOYED RATHER THAN RATED" - Tom Watson

Tom_Doak

  • Karma: +2/-1
Re: Could a minimalist course be successful in Asia
« Reply #26 on: April 04, 2010, 11:38:12 PM »
Joel:

I suspect it's unlikely for minimalist design to catch on in China anytime soon.  However, there is no telling what may come from setting a good example ... and the nice thing about China is that there is a lot of good land for golf that's still untapped, as opposed to Japan or Korea where you can't build on good land.

Ryan Farrow

Re: Could a minimalist course be successful in Asia
« Reply #27 on: April 05, 2010, 02:30:48 AM »
I take back what I said......a few years ago? yikes.


There are good sites in China. In fact, there are terrific sites in China. The coast of Hainan Island is really starting to explode with new projects. As far as minimalism goes, yes, there will be some, some will be successful, some wont. But there is a trend of owners wanting new/unique site specific designs. I believe golf is gaining more importance in the development world here, rather than just becoming a necessary amenity like it has been treated in the past.

And I guess its OK for bunkers to look like this now:






Rob Miller

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Could a minimalist course be successful in Asia
« Reply #28 on: April 05, 2010, 07:16:12 AM »
After living much of the past decade in China and Japan, I have some thoughts...  ;)

Asia is a pretty big and diverse place and it's hard to generalize the region as a whole.  Japan and Korea are each unique.  Development in Guangzhou and Hainan have different driving forces and investment dollars than Shanghai and Beijing.  In China, development firms and membership are made up of a diverse group and mainland Chinese are often the minority.  Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea, Japan, Taiwan firms all have stakes in most developments in China. 

I guess the better question now is will there be designs in China that will stand with the great courses today that don't include the Pirates of the Caribbean theme park that come with most developments.

I hope so. 

You'll need a few great pieces of property and a developer who is interested in golf for golf, not for the villas that line the courses and the bubble in values that membership will create.  An architect who is not on the PGA tour or on IMG's payroll that spends a good chunk of time on site would probably help as well. 

Despite good land available, I believe there is still a risk in developing on arable land in China (and Vietnam) because at least in theory government policies are agriculture first.  I may be underestimating the power of money and guanxi (relationships) but it feels like it's still a factor.

 

Gary Slatter

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:Could a minimalist course be successful in Asia
« Reply #29 on: April 05, 2010, 10:07:56 AM »
One of the posts above touched on this, but let me bring it up again.  How do various Asians take to TOC, or the other famous old links courses?  

If they like/love these courses, they might go for minimalist-type courses in their home turf.
Jim, they love the \Old Course.  IMHO as soon as they figure out how to produce acceptable handicap cards they will buy the majority of the Links times that are presold to the Golf Tour Operators.  The GTOs are increasing their asian business to replace the NA decrease the past two years.   
Gary Slatter
gary.slatter@raffles.com

Tags:
Tags:

An Error Has Occurred!

Call to undefined function theme_linktree()
Back