Here is what I am hearing and seeing in my travels throughout the southern cone of South America. Brazil
Nothing much new on the Olympic course. The supposed leading site contender has some environmental issues I am told as do all sites in Brazil now. Every heavy brand name architectural groups are doing their heavy politicking trying to land this project and gain more name recognition. Like always there are lots of other projects being talked about and land plans and web sites and visits from leading architectural firms but little construction or projects actually going forward. If they had it together in reality as good as they have it together on paper, they could be developing minimum ten courses a year for the next ten years but it most like will be in a couple a year and that will be after years of environmental approval process. The Nicklaus group had a project there and at one point in time was also associated with the Trump group but from what I understand the project is dead for failure to get environmental approvals. We have a project that was started around the turn of the century and after five holes were constructed it shut down for problems between partners. We recently got involved with the master plan and the development changed from an eighteen hole residential to nine holes and more residential. These last new four holes are scheduled to start construction around Sept-Oct.
Chile
Remains slow since the turn of the century, they had a lot of movement from 95-2000 but it doesnīt take long to saturate a 6,000 person golfing market. Recently construction has been completed on the second nine of Santa Martina and they are in the seeding stage and grow in process. The owner continues to be a little hard to understand as there are seven hundred current golfing members for nine holes and he wants to take it up to two thousand for the eighteen holes. Personally, I can see future gun fights for Saturday morning tee times. I will post a few pictures in the near future. I reconstructed three greens to USGA specifications and made some design improvements on the putting surfaces and surroundings, near the house at a club called Sport Frances during January and February and they are now open for play.
ARGENTINA
Donīt cry for me Argentina! Still lots of movement but I doubt it will turn into the hot spot that many think or maybe we should say, stay hot. They have a history of major crashes after a few good- up years! I also worry about how much time does it takes to saturate a market of 130,000 golfers. Much of their past courses were developed throughout the country during the rail road construction era. Now everybody wants a new modern course but once again almost every major city has one or two and I donīt see demand for three or four. Insecurity and high crime continues to provide the demand for gated communities and a golf view from those home sites should continue to provide some future development but not at a high income level. Here is the latest golf development gossip!
Angel teamed up with Gary Player more than a year ago but have not signed anything as of yet. Player had one on his own before that in the Mendoza area, which he exchanged his feeīs for land but I have heard the project is dead for either environmental reasons or lack of water, not sure which. The Nicklaus group recently signed a new course in the Mendoza area. They also have a project about forty miles from Buenos Aries in a second home community area called Pilara. This is the groupīs first signature project in Argentina and I believe South America. They have nine holes open and have had so for more than two years but the construction stopped shortly after or before the opening of the first nine. In the last month or so they have started up construction and apparently everything is in order now to finish the eighteen. They also opened up nine holes in the Cordaba area and are nearing completion of the second nine. I got to see the project a couple of months ago and I liked it a lot more than some of their other works. . Los Canales de Piottier is a project in the South of Argent6ina also of the JN group and I believe is open now or was, maybe closed for winter, who knows. Greg Norman has one under construction after three or four years of planning, El Desafio located in San Martin Los Andes, right in front of JN first design in Argentina, Chapelco. I was fortunate enough to get a tour last week and it lookīs excellent. Built on a mountain and winding through the pines this will be a great addition to Argentine golf. They have nine holes rough shaped in hope to plant in the spring which is October for us down here and the other nine will start at the same time. Mark Adams an architect based in France recently opened up his first eighteen holes in South America around the Mendoza area. I saw some photos and the course looked great and comments coming from local golfers are very positive. Bob Cupp also opened his first eighteen hole design in South America a year or so ago in the Salta area but I have not heard much about it. Ernie Els group has teamed up with a local individual and are trying to get their first project and may have it but I have seen nothing published official as of yet. Faldo also has a similar representation with another individual but they have yet to sign anything. Last but not least, we here at Armerican Golf, have recently opened nine holes in Escobar a suburb of Buenos Aires, a residential project called Canton. The second nine is in grow-in and should open around November. We have another eighteen in construction in Escobar with the rough shaping progressing nicely. Villa Maria a development near the airport in Buenos Aires is starting to make some noise like they may actually start construction after being on hold for more than three years. We have nine holes in construction in Cordaba, called Pueblo Nativa. The course will offer alternative pars on five holes in order to mix and match parīs according to oneīs liking or the amount of time which one has allocated. Four holes are already planted and the other five are being rough shaped. The project will have a five star hotel and a couple of hundred home sites. At the present we have two in the design stage, a nine hole, par three course for Buenos Aires Golf Club to be associated with the Prestena hotel chain based out of Portugal. Beside the hotel, the development will also include residential villaīs and townhomes. We are also designing eighteen holes in the Patagonia in Villa Angustora called Villa Angustora Golf Club. The development will be built on the backside of a ski resort mountain and be combined with an extensive high end residential product. The site is incredible!