Asian Golf Quiz

[Emil Weber]

1. 3,500 rupees
2. 57 properties
3. 3 years
4. 1 course
5. 850.000 US$
6. 4 years old
7. 1.275 carts

[Tony_Muldoon]

A prize, well here goes then.


1.  What are the monthly dues for members at Delhi Golf Club, the oldest club in Delhi, right in the city?

5000 rupees  (£66)

2.  How many pieces of property did the developer of Golden Greens Golf Club (on the outskirts of Delhi) have to buy in order to build his course?

101.

3.  What is the average number of years it takes to get planning permits for a new project in Vietnam?

<1.  

4.  How many golf courses does Greg Norman's firm currently have under construction in China?

19.

5.  What is the cost of a full Platinum membership at Mission Hills China, allowing access to the two private courses as well as the public ones?

CNY 3,000,000.00  (Approx. £275 000 US)

6.  How old is the youngest full member at Mission Hills?

61.

7.  How many golf carts does Mission Hills have on site?

1300

[Tom_Doak]

Okay, thanks to the miracle of jet lag, I'm up at 3:00 a.m. here in L.A., so it's time to close the competition.

The correct answers are as follows.

1.  What are the monthly dues for members at Delhi Golf Club, the oldest club in Delhi, right in the city?
Twelve U.S. dollars; six dollars for seniors.

2.  How many pieces of property did the developer of Golden Greens Golf Club (on the outskirts of Delhi) have to buy in order to build his course?
224.  The small land holdings make it exceptionally difficult to put together a golf course project in India.

3.  What is the average number of years it takes to get planning permits for a new project in Vietnam?
Twelve to fifteen years.  And in many parts of the country it takes three hours to drive sixty miles, so tourism development is limited.

4.  How many golf courses does Greg Norman's firm currently have under construction in China
According to my source -- one.

5.  What is the cost of a full Platinum membership at Mission Hills China, allowing access to the two private courses as well as the public ones?
This one is a matter of some dispute.  My source (the former director of golf) told me it was $240,000.  But perhaps that was an old figure, since some of you have apparently looked up the amount online.  This was really just a set-up for the next question ...

6.  How old is the youngest full member at Mission Hills?
Two months old!!!

7.  How many golf carts does Mission Hills have on site?
2,000.  Some of them are for staff and for shuttling people around.

[Tom_Doak]

More importantly, what did you take away, architecturally from the areas and courses you hadn't seen before?

JC:

Actually, I only looked at three golf courses on the Asian part of my trip:  two in India and one in Japan [the one we are redesigning].  We caught the back end of a typhoon in China, so the weather wasn't too nice; and I was in lots of meetings.  So, I didn't take away much at all architecturally from my trip.

What I did take away was a better understanding of the different cultures and of the potential for further golf development in these various markets.  I also spent an evening in Hong Kong, which was spectacular -- for a New York City boy, it felt very much like home.

[Tom_Doak]

Okay, I've gone over the results.  You receive three points for a correct answer; two points if your answer was within 25% of the actual number; one point if you were in the same order of magnitude; and zero otherwise.

I threw out question #5 because of the different numbers and because some people looked it up.

There were three entries with nine points each:  Mike Wagner, David Moriarty, and Patrick Hodgdon.

Tiebreaker question:  How many courses am I negotiating to build in Asia over the next three years?

[Emil Weber]

Yesyesyes - i got one right. Do I get a prize?

[Bryan Izatt]

Regarding the answer to question 3 about Vietnam, in searching for information I came across the following article  http://english.vietnamnet.vn/social/2009/05/846587/ which describes a conference on developing a national plan for golf course development in Vietnam.  Mostly it seems to be about controlling the development citing the usual concerns about pesticides, deforestation and destroying rice fields.

Re your question, there is one statement that suggests there is no planning permit process currently, so I wonder about the 12 to 15 years answer.

According to Huyen, Vietnam does not yet have an overall golf course development plan. Their construction has so far been unregulated and haphazard, subject only to investor initiative and market forces.

Also, on question 6, the Mission Hills web site indicates that children under 21 can have "supplementary memberships".  Does the 2 month old have an independent "full membership"?

Sadly I didn't get my answers in, in time, but it was interesting looking for answers.

[Patrick Hodgdon]

Tiebreaker-
Not including the aforementioned redesign in Japan, I am going to guess 3 different courses.

[DMoriarty]

5.

[Jonathan Cummings]

Damn, I didn't get even one right!

[Mike Wagner]

Ooooh, tie breaker!  I'll say 3.

Thanks Tom!

[Tom_Doak]

Mr. Moriarty wins the tiebreaker.  We are currently under contract to do one course in China and one major redesign in Japan; but we have tentatively agreed to do a second job in China, and we have a proposal in to design 36 holes in Korea.  So I guess I'll be banking a lot of air miles next year, too.

[Cristian]

I remember you mentioning that you would visit Benelux as well on your round the world trip. Might your Benelux visit have lead to a prospective design project? There is some rumours here that an ambitious project is about to be announced in the Netherlands, so just wondering whether this coincidentally coincides with your travels to these parts........

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