Demand for land in Singapore is bad news for golfers

[Steve_ Shaffer]

Courses are shrinking or closing to make way for concrete and steel..

Golf in the city-state has had powerful champions. Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s first prime minister, loved it. (Golf was his “principal recreation and passion,” said his son, Lee Hsien Yang, in 2015.) The royal and ancient game was once a symbol of middle-class aspiration, says Harvey Neo, a geographer at the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities. During the 1990s and 2000s Singaporeans were said to covet the “5cs”: cash, car, condominium, credit card and country-club membership.
Yet in 2013 the government, which owns most of the land in Singapore, announced that it would gradually reallocate much of the space taken up by golf courses to public housing and infrastructure. The ruling party, stung by its disappointing performance at elections in 2011, felt it needed to respond to critics who said that it was out of touch with ordinary Singaporeans and who argued that it had overcrowded the tiny island by welcoming too many immigrants
https://www.economist.com/asia/2020/08/01/demand-for-land-in-singapore-is-bad-news-for-golfers

[Jeff Schley]

I have been to Singapore several times and land is at a premium for sure. When your options are reclaiming land via dredging or other creative engineering feats, I think a 100-125 acre golf course is probably going to lose out to the public good.

[Adam Lawrence]

Timely. Here's a piece I wrote last month about the Seletar CC in Singapore, which touches on the general issues for golf in the country.


https://www.golfcoursearchitecture.net/content/seletar-country-club-space-invaders

[Thomas Dai]

An example of how land use to cater for an ever rising population is at odds with the greater distance modern golf balls and equipment have achieved over the last few decades.
The game of golf and the planet it’s played on are more important than the golf equipment manufacturers.

One day hopefully the authorities in charge of the RoG might appreciate this and actually do something about it. Fingers crossed but breath not being held.
Atb

[Jeff_Brauer]

Way back in 1990-92, I built a course (with Larry Nelson, who showed up once) on Batam Island, Indonesia, across the Singapore Straight for use by those in Singapore.  I think they had a land problem back then and knew it would come someday, although they had also just invested in a few complete redos on Singapore itself.


Couldn't resist looking at it on Google Earth.  Still there as Palm Spring CC, and still 36 holes. It appears they hired someone else to finish the old nine, which was terrible and we left it.  They also took out my only ocean front hole for more development.  I haven't looked at the scorecard, but it appears they jammed several short holes into it, so they feel the land squeeze themselves.  Also, can't believe how big the bunkers have grown, as if every time they edge, they move it out a few inches and over now 30 years, it adds up!

[Thomas Dai]

Golf in Singapore is a classic example of how the game has changed over the decades.
Once upon a time even SICC at both its two locations, the premier club on the island by far, was ground game based, baked with occasional hard pan or wet depending on the season, slow greens etc. And the other courses at Kepple, Changi, Warren, and Sambawang, which were former mainly ex-British forces courses and some only 9-holes, were more basic.
Then things moved forwards, for example land reclaimed, previously jungle covered islands flattened, and the new courses built were modern generation green is god, lots of water and manicuring etc. And now there isn’t enough land for people and housing.
The rest of the world and the authorities that oversee the game should take note.
Atb

[Lou_Duran]

David,


Read up on confirmation bias.  Again, of all the issues facing golf today, how far the ball is travelling is rather minor.  The Merions of the world can easily resolve what you perceive as a problem- don't bother to contain the 150 or so pros who get into the US Open.


The issue of urbanization is largely political and hardly new.  It is much less a matter of overpopulation and the scarcity of land.  Any number of areas throughout the world like my father's village in northern Spain have been experiencing large population losses for decades.


Here is an excerpt from a recent the WSJ article:


A new University of Washington study published in the Lancet argues that conventional population statistics don’t account for ongoing and projected future improvements in health care and education for women around the world. More literacy and better access to information about contraception are, along with urbanization, associated with declining fertility rates as women gain better control of their reproductive lives.[/i][/b]
Looking at the impact of these forces, the study predicts some startling changes over the course of the century. Instead of the global population reaching between 9.4 billion and 12.7 billion by 2100 (as [/color]estimated in the 2019 United Nations World Population Prospects report), the new study suggests it will peak at 9.7 billion in 2064 and then decrease to about 8.8 billion by 2100. If the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals for education and contraceptive use are met in full, the researchers estimate that population could be as low as 6.29 billion in 2100. That would be 33% lower than the lowest current U.N. projection, and around 1.5 billion fewer than the Earth’s population today.[/b][/font][/size]
Even under the less aggressive scenario, the consequences would be far-reaching. China, where the University of Washington study expects population to decline by 48% to 732 million, would fall to third place, behind India and Nigeria, in the world population ranking. Population in 23 countries and territories, including Japan, South Korea, Italy, Portugal and Spain, would fall by 50% or more from their peaks. America, where continuing immigration is expected to offset declining fertility, would slip from third to fourth place with 336 million, barely more than today.


https://www.wsj.com/articles/snooze-the-climate-alarms-11595889568


Golfers from Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, and other parts of Asia have been travelling to places like Hawaii and the UK for decades.  Golf courses have been closing near the CBD of cities for the better part of a century.  The first time I visited Preston Trail in 1979 it was out in the country- cars parked in empty fields around the course for the Nelson.  Today it is mostly surrounded by homes on land that could sell by the square foot.


It may not be a concern in your part of the world, but getting people to work on golf courses is becoming a problem here with all the stimulus and unemployment incentives underwritten by the federal government.  I am aware of a highly-regarded club whose hourly labor costs are up over 40%.  My home club, which probably still operates in the middle of the pack for maintenance and service, had a major greens and fairway aeration project this past month that didn't get done for a lack of staff.  This may play up your alley, but not for many golfers here, especially when one considers the worsening effects of deferred maintenance.