[Ally Mcintosh]

Is there a comprehensive list anywhere of every new golf course built since 2010?


We know the number reduced dramatically around 2008/2009 but we only tend to hear about the high profile ones here.


It surely can’t be that difficult to find every golf course built since then… Bound to throw out a few outliers that none of us have ever heard of.

[Tom_Doak]

Ally:


I think you’ll have a lot of trouble coming up with a worldwide list.  The NGF used to keep stats on openings and closings in the USA and I’d guess they still do but I haven’t seen a number lately.


If we are limiting it to new courses on land that didn’t used to be a course, I have only done seven in ten years myself:


USA 4 - Old Mac 2010, Streamsong 2013, Dismal River 2013, The Loop 2016


Overseas 3 - Simapo Island NLE, St Emilion 2015, Tara Iti 2015


Transformations include Medinah #1, Memorial Park, The National Gunnamatta, and St Patrick’s.


Another data point:  Rob Collins is still on zero, since his projects to date were both nine holes.


I doubt the USA total since 2010 is more than 100 and I’d guess it’s more like 75-80 if you exclude transformations.  I could be proven wrong but the majority of “new” things for years now haven’t really been new.

[Ally Mcintosh]

Tom,


Yes I figure the US would be the easiest to log. Then after that all courses from architects within the three main GCA societies… and then pinpoint other well known architects outside the societies… and finally the outliers.


For instance, there’s an Argentinian fellow called Augustin Fontanes who didn’t see the EIGCA course all the way through but I believe has been building golf courses under his own steam since. Lovely guy.


Must be a way of getting this list together. Maybe 200 courses total? Or maybe a lot more and we’d be surprised by the amount of courses that have never, ever been discussed.


I’d certainly be interested.


(For what it’s worth, St.Patricks has to count as a completely new course. The previous 36 weren’t much more than mown out grass that had since partially grown in as they hadn’t been in play for 20 years. I think that’s quite different to re-routing a significant portion of an existing 18).

[Ira Fishman]

The GPS makers probably have a pretty good count. I would wager that it is well more than 200.


Ira

[Tom_Doak]

The GPS makers probably have a pretty good count. I would wager that it is well more than 200.

Maybe so.  I hope Jeff Brauer and Mike Young and Forrest R chime in with their totals.


Whatever the true number, though, I believe it’s outweighed by the number of courses that have closed in the same time frame.

[Ira Fishman]

The GPS makers probably have a pretty good count. I would wager that it is well more than 200.

Maybe so.  I hope Jeff Brauer and Mike Young and Forrest R chime in with their totals.


Whatever the true number, though, I believe it’s outweighed by the number of courses that have closed in the same time frame.

The NGF data show far more closures than openings.


Ira

[Paul Rudovsky]

on fescue.github.io we show the following new course construction projects worldwide (and the USA projects included in each year's total) by year (only info we have is for 2019 forward):


Year.  World.   USA
2019.   24.        6
2020.   40.       13
2021.   63.       16

2022.   76.       27


'19-'22 203.     62


I have a sortable excel spreadsheet listing these 203 projecting giving:
world region
country
location within country (state for usa)
course name
year opened or expected to open
architect
but have never been able to post an excel schedule on here.  if anyone knows how...I can send you the schedule and then you can post it.


some of these for sure will be rebuilds over previous courses (eg...Wynn Golf in NV built on footprint from Desert Inn) but doubt it is that many.    and regarding the impact on closings and the net chance in course numbers...my guess is that from 2010 through probably 2015 or so closings each year outnumbered openings...but things probably switched after that. 


one interesting point regarding the above...usa has something like 45% of total world courses (per R&A report)...but as per above only about 30% of new course construction...compared to USA's 62 projects in these 4 years, Asia totals 64

[Garland Bayley]

Dan Hixson has built Silvies Valley Ranch, which has two 18s when played on separate days. My recollection is that there are 27 greens so 9 greens get reused in the second day. Not a full regulation 18, but there are an additional 9 hole par 3, and 7 hole challenge course. Apparently Bar Run is also finished as they are taking 18 hole tee times on their website. Features include 2 biaritz greens, a boomerang green, a replica of The Pit hole, and on my tour, my tour guide, Slag, mentioned a redan green or redan like green site, but I don't remember the details.

So that's 3 from Oregon's own Dan Hixson.

EDIT: My bad! The website says Bar Run is open for play, and then gives an 18 hole green fee rate. When I look at the following pages of the website it says they are still using only 10 holes, and 18 will open this coming summer.

[Ally Mcintosh]

Paul,


Interesting. Which sources did you get your data from and how confident are you that you haven’t missed anything? e.g. courses designed by one-off amateurs for instance.


I’m also sure there are a number of Augustin Fontanes out there (to use my above example).

[Mike_Young]

The GPS makers probably have a pretty good count. I would wager that it is well more than 200.

Maybe so.  I hope Jeff Brauer and Mike Young and Forrest R chime in with their totals.


Whatever the true number, though, I believe it’s outweighed by the number of courses that have closed in the same time frame.

Completely new since 2010....2.5 and one starting in April....

[Paul Rudovsky]

Paul,


Interesting. Which sources did you get your data from and how confident are you that you haven’t missed anything? e.g. courses designed by one-off amateurs for instance.


I’m also sure there are a number of Augustin Fontanes out there (to use my above example).



Ally--
Tom Brown (of Los Angeles) and I built this list up starting about 15-18 months ago.  I had searched the web trying to get a list of new courses on the way and retros/reno's in the works and there was nothing.  First time I put list together it had about 10 projects...today's has about 800 worldwide (must have opened 1/1/2000 or later...and if you look at the bottom there is a link to the 2019 openings...btw in early January we will move the 2000 openings to another archive with a link at the bottom).

No way is this complete...we try to scour things like Adam Lawrence's mag and posts on GCA...but who know what we are missing.  Also, some of these projects will fall thru or be stopped midstream.  NO way can we possibly do the research to keep this accurately up to date.  We were hoping that others would let us know corrections additions et cite and eventually go to open source but no sign of people stepping up yet.

Your thoughts and ideas more than welcome.

[Ally Mcintosh]

Thanks Paul,


When I get a moment I’d be happy to help… Adam does tend to know most of what’s going on right enough… but what truly interests me are openings that fall under the radar. Outside the “industry” of golf.


One 2019 miss I did notice was the Stuart Rennie designed Kings course at Torvean in Inverness, Scotland. Opened in July 2019.

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