[Steve Okula]

Vipingo Ridge, Mombasa Kenya, on the coast of the Indian Ocean. Designed by David Jones from Northern Ireland, and shaped by Dan Cain from somewhere in Texas, the first golf course on the gorgeous Kenyan coast opened 18 holes in the past year.

As the name suggests, it is set on a ridge providing panoramic ocean views. It plays firm and fast, with some fabulous green undulations and chipping/recovery areas in the surrounds, and it's spiced up by a brisk wind off the sea. At 4° south of the equator, you can count on year round play.

This is a real estate driven development, attracting mostly local buyers to date, but it is open to green fees, in case anyone here ever gets down that way. To date, the lots have sold well, the infrastructure is in place, and they presently have about 200 members, but there is not yet a lot of house construction. It is a huge property, and there are plans to eventually expand to 36 holes.

I've got a few photos, but I seem to be having trouble remembering how to post the images from photbucket. I would appreciate anyone's help to remind me. Meanwhile, you can click on the links to view.

<img src="http://i453.photobucket.com/albums/qq258/Sokula/Vipingo%20Feb%2010/DSC_4864.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

<img src="http://i453.photobucket.com/albums/qq258/Sokula/Vipingo%20Feb%2010/DSC_4874.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

<img src="http://i453.photobucket.com/albums/qq258/Sokula/Vipingo%20Feb%2010/DSC_4880.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

<img src="http://i453.photobucket.com/albums/qq258/Sokula/Vipingo%20Feb%2010/DSC_4881.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

[Randy Thompson]

Looks good especially the first picture. Looks really well maintained and I am sure that was a challenge for the area.

[Anthony Gray]

  Hakuna Matata


  A

[Tim Nugent]

Looks like U.S. circa 1985.  I was expecting something else from a son of the old sod.

[Matt_Cohn]

[Joe Hancock]

In the bottom picture of the previous post....does that bunker short of the tree serve a purpose?

All in all, I like the look of the place.

Joe

[Anthony Gray]

In the bottom picture of the previous post....does that bunker short of the tree serve a purpose?

All in all, I like the look of the place.

Joe

  It gives us something. Breaks up the visual of the hole. May take the focus off the cup and thus be a mental factor. I love it. Could even be eye candy like a pair of orange knickers.

  ARG

[Philip Gawith]

Thanks for posting Steve - always nice to see some red African soil, and maybe the first time i can ever recall seeing photos of a Kenyan course, whether on GCA or anywhere else for that matter.

[Joel_Stewart]

Is it just me but the course looks like its in the middle of Texas?

Perfectly manicured.
Big raised tee boxes
Huge cloverleaf bunkers
Hideous mounding around the green

I don't see anything redeeming about this at all?  I would have expected something different from an architect from Ireland.

[Bob_Huntley]

Joel,

Fer Christs sake this is Monbasa, Kenya, not Long Island or Monterey. If I was travelling there, I would be delighted to play the course.

I do have fond memories  of Mombasa but even fonder ones of Malindi, seventy milles north. Great fishing, miles of gorgeous beaches and even if they put a dog track there I would make it in a second.

Bob

[Steve Okula]

Is it just me but the course looks like its in the middle of Texas?

Perfectly manicured.
Big raised tee boxes
Huge cloverleaf bunkers
Hideous mounding around the green

I don't see anything redeeming about this at all?  I would have expected something different from an architect from Ireland.

Really? No redeeming qualities at all?

If you're trying to move real estate, or green fees, manicuring sells.

Are raised tee boxes bad design?

The bunkers are neither big nor clover-leafed.

"Hideous" is way over the top to describe the mounds, even if you don't like them.

But if it looks like Texas, maybe so, that's where the shaper comes from.

[Ally Mcintosh]

I'm not sure why you would expect something different from an architect from Ireland...

...I'm not sure who David Jones is actually...

[Steve Okula]

David Jones is a former Europen Tour and European Senior Tour pro now retired from competitive golf.

David sits on the board of the PGA European Tour and does consulting for golf operations both in Ireland and internationally. In the past, he's also done some golf commentating for the BBC.

David's a good friend of mine, a sterling character and admired by all who know him.  I believe that golf design is his real passion. He's contributed to the design of many courses, and has a few to his own name, Vipingo Ridge is one and Kaya Eagles Golf Club in Belek, Turkey is another.

He's presently doing another design in Tanzania near Kilimanjaro, and has some other irons in the fire in east Africa as well, which makes that region one of the few bright spots in golf development (or at least it is for David Jones).

[Bill_McBride]

Joel,

Fer Christs sake this is Monbasa, Kenya, not Long Island or Monterey. If I was travelling there, I would be delighted to play the course.

I do have fond memories  of Mombasa but even fonder ones of Malindi, seventy milles north. Great fishing, miles of gorgeous beaches and even if they put a dog track there I would make it in a second.

Bob

I'll bet there was a more old fashioned course up in the highlands, near the town where "Out of Africa" was set, where British settlers lived and worked the coffee plantations.   Boy that is a fine book although I don't recall any mention of golf.

[Bob_Huntley]

Bill,

You must be thinking of the Karen Country Club which was built on the property once owned by  Karen von Blixen.

Another great golfing venue near Nairobi is the Muthaiga Country Club built some twenty odd years earlier.


Bob

[Bill_McBride]

Bill,

You must be thinking of the Karen Country Club which was built on the property once owned by  Karen von Blixen.

Another great golfing venue near Nairobi is the Muthaiga Country Club built some twenty odd years earlier.


Bob

Something like that, Bob.  When was the course built?  "Out of Africa" seems to have been set before WWII and I'm sure everything was very "pukka sahib" in those days.

[Garland Bayley]

Joel,

Fer Christs sake this is Monbasa, Kenya, not Long Island or Monterey. If I was travelling there, I would be delighted to play the course.

I do have fond memories  of Mombasa but even fonder ones of Malindi, seventy milles north. Great fishing, miles of gorgeous beaches and even if they put a dog track there I would make it in a second.

Bob

Malindi is fabulous. But, make sure you wear a shirt while snorkeling or you will burn your back to a crisp. 

[Garland Bayley]

...
He's presently doing another design in Tanzania near Kilimanjaro, and has some other irons in the fire in east Africa as well, which makes that region one of the few bright spots in golf development (or at least it is for David Jones).

Would that be in Arusha?

[Bob_Huntley]

Bill,

Muthaiga was opened around 1913 and Karen C.C. sometime between 1931-33.

Garland,

When I was last in Malindi  1961/2,  there were only four hotels and right now the only name that comes to mind is Eden Rock, there may have been a Sinbad hotel.

We fished in the morning for edible stuff and then later for sailfish. Cost for the day was twenty pounds which we get for the mornings catch. We had a one eyed Arab skipper who supposedly caught the largest sail fish ever seen in those parts on a hand line.

Speaking of Arusha I take it you climbed the hill?


Bob

[Garland Bayley]

All 19340

Malindi in 1974 had a National Park set up that provided snorkeling from glass bottom boats. I camped at the beach in the park.
I'm not a fisherman, but I believe the best fish I ever had was bought fresh from the market and steamed over a campfire at the beach.

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