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Tom_Doak

  • Karma: +2/-1
Where would you go?
« on: May 23, 2012, 10:50:13 PM »
I just had a meeting with a potential client in Asia canceled for early June.  Problem is, I've got visits to our project in New Zealand and China locked in with four days in between, and neither client can switch dates ... so I have four days free somewhere in between.

Early June doesn't seem like the best time to have this problem.  It's too cold in Queenstown to go see the new courses there [snow in the forecast], and it's sticky summer weather with thunderstorms in all the places between NZ and China.

Anyone have a cool idea of somewhere to go and see a golf course or two?  I will most likely stick to the north island of N.Z. unless someone offers a brilliant suggestion, but I would go very far afield for a good idea.
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Kyle Henderson

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Where would you go?
« Reply #1 on: May 23, 2012, 11:15:00 PM »
Japan is a bit out of the way, but perhaps you have yet to see all it has to offer golf-wise?
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Guy Nicholson

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Where would you go?
« Reply #2 on: May 23, 2012, 11:17:23 PM »
Bali?
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Michael Whitaker

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Where would you go?
« Reply #3 on: May 23, 2012, 11:23:23 PM »
Vietnam?
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Patrick_Mucci

Re: Where would you go?
« Reply #4 on: May 23, 2012, 11:24:04 PM »
Tom,

Hong Kong/Macao

Nice resorts/casinos and perhaps new clients
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JLahrman

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Where would you go?
« Reply #5 on: May 23, 2012, 11:30:30 PM »
Quote from: Michael Whitaker on May 23, 2012, 11:23:23 PM
Vietnam?

Everyone I know who has visited Vietnam says it is a wonderful place to visit. Don't know about the golf though.
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Jim_Kennedy

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Where would you go?
« Reply #6 on: May 23, 2012, 11:43:18 PM »
Nice travel article on Indonesia and its golf courses:

http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/05/06/travel/06journeys.html?pagewanted=all
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Colin Macqueen

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Where would you go?
« Reply #7 on: May 23, 2012, 11:55:40 PM »
Tom,

Brisbane in June is almost paradise. Blue skies, low humidity, 22-26*C. Hang out on the Sushine coast an hour by car from Brisbane. Crystal clear water, gentle, warm  surf, great food and wine. Many direct flights from N.Z. to Brisbane takes about 3.5 hours.

Twin Waters, Pacific Harbour, Pelican Waters not necessarily your cup of tea but a base line!

Cheers Colin

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The Hielander

Scott Warren

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Where would you go?
« Reply #8 on: May 24, 2012, 12:11:11 AM »
Come to Sydney and see Ogilvy Clayton's new holes at Bonnie Doon, The Lakes if you haven't seen it since its dramatic reno, have a look at the changes Greg Norman's firm has made at NSWGC...

Perfect flight link between NZ and China, too.
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David_Elvins

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Where would you go?
« Reply #9 on: May 24, 2012, 12:11:29 AM »
Have you seen every good course in Australia yet, Tom?  It's on the way.

Happy to show you around Leongatha GC.
« Last Edit: May 24, 2012, 03:21:21 AM by David_Elvins »
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Stephen Davis

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Where would you go?
« Reply #10 on: May 24, 2012, 12:17:22 AM »
I lived in Hong Kong for a while and June there and Macau can be pretty sticky like you said. I think I would love to get to spend a few extra days in NZ, but I have never been there and you have probably seen most of the sites. Have you ever been to Tibet? I know June is supposed to be a great time to go there. Not many golf courses, but maybe that is where the future #1 might be located :D
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Ben Sims

  • Karma: +1/-0
Re: Where would you go?
« Reply #11 on: May 24, 2012, 12:22:45 AM »
Tom,

I took the liberty of looking at flights from Hainan to Abu Dhabi and then on to Auckland.  I don't know if you are out of Sanya or Haikou, but they both came out within 100 bucks of each other.  About 19-23 hours each way.  

Kyle Phillips has built what will in all likelihood stand as the best--or at least most unique--golf course in the entire gulf region, Yas Links.  In 30 years--once golf takes hold there a bit more--it will probably be thought of in the same way that we think of some of the early groundbreaking designs in Phoenix.  

Yes it will be hot, but Ferrari World is next door.  The only Ferrari theme park on the planet!

If none of that appeals, screw golf.  Go relax in Singapore.  Your golf course itinerary of late has been too good.  
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RJ_Daley

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Where would you go?
« Reply #12 on: May 24, 2012, 12:38:53 AM »
Well if inland Queenstown is too cold w/possible snow for you.... maybe you should get out of Traverse City MI!!!  ::) :o  Why not just spend the time in Auckland and tour Titirangi (or have you done so in the past when exploring Dr. MacKenzie's work?)  And, go see if Royal Auckland, designed by the reknowned FG Hood, in 1900, is any good.  The average daily high is about 60 and low around 45 according to weather website.  Are you going soft?  ;D
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Ben Sims

  • Karma: +1/-0
Re: Where would you go?
« Reply #13 on: May 24, 2012, 12:40:40 AM »
Been to Perth?

Lake Karrinyup
Cottesloe
The Cut
Mount Lawley
Joondalup
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Dan King

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Where would you go?
« Reply #14 on: May 24, 2012, 12:43:43 AM »
Vietnam would be high on my list, but not for the golf.

Cheers,
Dan King
Quote
All the wrong people remember Vietnam. I think all the people who remember it should forget it, and all the people who forgot it should remember it.
 --Michael Herr

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Ash Towe

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Where would you go?
« Reply #15 on: May 24, 2012, 12:54:26 AM »
Tom,

I think a look at Kinloch near Taupo on your way to Auckland could be worth the effort. 

Also Scott McPherson's work at Royal Wellington is under way.

Check out any potential sites for a course near Auckland and on the way to Kauri Cliffs.
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Joel_Stewart

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Where would you go?
« Reply #16 on: May 24, 2012, 01:13:54 AM »
For golf, Stone Forest in China

For food, Vietnam or Thailand

For culture, Bali

For an amazing hotel experience,
http://www.fourseasons.com/goldentriangle/



Wish I had your problems...
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Rich Goodale

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Where would you go?
« Reply #17 on: May 24, 2012, 01:30:12 AM »
Foulpointe.
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Life is good.

Any afterlife is unlikely and/or dodgy.

Jean-Paul Parodi

Tiger_Bernhardt

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Where would you go?
« Reply #18 on: May 24, 2012, 01:35:39 AM »
Dan Some things do not change. Nice play there.
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Matthew Mollica

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Where would you go?
« Reply #19 on: May 24, 2012, 03:13:57 AM »
Lord Howe Island
Norfolk Island
Melbourne
Sydney

And remember Tom, a great man once said of Kiwiland - 

Quote from: Tom_Doak on December 14, 2008, 02:12:52 PM
If you are going to do a New Zealand-only trip, I would recommend playing Titirangi, Kinloch (though I haven't seen it), Rotorua, Cape Kidnappers, and Paraparaumu in the North Island, and Arrowtown and Chisholm Park in the South Island.  There is another little "sheep ranch" nine-holer down near Cape K. which my crew loved ... I'll get the name for you.  The only one where I really disagree with Ash is Wairakei, which is eminently skippable in my book.

If you want to go to Kauri Cliffs, you should also go and check out Kaitaia which is a links course not that far away.  I've never been there, but Ran once rated it highly.

P.S.  Anybody who goes to New Zealand and plays golf more than half the days is misguided.

MM
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"The truth about golf courses has a slightly different expression for every golfer. Which of them, one might ask, is without the most definitive convictions concerning the merits or deficiencies of the links he plays over? Freedom of criticism is one of the last privileges he is likely to forgo."

Adam Lawrence

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Where would you go?
« Reply #20 on: May 24, 2012, 04:16:31 AM »
Quote from: Ben Sims on May 24, 2012, 12:22:45 AM
Tom,

I took the liberty of looking at flights from Hainan to Abu Dhabi and then on to Auckland.  I don't know if you are out of Sanya or Haikou, but they both came out within 100 bucks of each other.  About 19-23 hours each way.  

Kyle Phillips has built what will in all likelihood stand as the best--or at least most unique--golf course in the entire gulf region, Yas Links.  In 30 years--once golf takes hold there a bit more--it will probably be thought of in the same way that we think of some of the early groundbreaking designs in Phoenix.  

Yes it will be hot, but Ferrari World is next door.  The only Ferrari theme park on the planet!

If none of that appeals, screw golf.  Go relax in Singapore.  Your golf course itinerary of late has been too good.  

Yas is cool, but it is a long, long way from Auckland and I can't imagine there's a non-stop flight. I'm liking Scott's Sydney idea best at the moment, or alternatively Vietnam. Everyone tells me that there is a ton of great coastal property in Vietnam - who knows, you might find a cool new site? The Norman course at Da Nang looks interesting, and I would also like to see Dalat Palace, the course originally built for the Vietnamese emperor in the 1930s and supposed to have been designed by Hugh Alison during his Asian trip (caution: even if this is true, I can't imagine much of his work survives to today. But I'd still like to have a look).
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Adam Lawrence

Editor, Golf Course Architecture
www.golfcoursearchitecture.net

Principal, Oxford Golf Consulting
www.oxfordgolfconsulting.com

Author, 'More Enduring Than Brass: a biography of Harry Colt' (forthcoming).

Short words are best, and the old words, when short, are the best of all.

Mike Sweeney

Re: Where would you go?
« Reply #21 on: May 24, 2012, 04:49:20 AM »
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Adam Lawrence

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Where would you go?
« Reply #22 on: May 24, 2012, 04:54:59 AM »
Quote from: Brian Sheehy on May 24, 2012, 04:22:01 AM
Abu Dhabi in early June = misery.

Yeah, that too. I played Yas in late September, it was about 38C and on the limit of what I could cope with. Would like to go back in the winter and walk the course - it's one of the few places in the Middle East that I think would be a really nice walk.

When Robin Hiseman was building the Royal course in Bahrain, I visited the construction site. It was August, and it was about 47C. I said to the guys on the construction team 'This is unbearable, how on earth do you cope?'. They laughed, and told me it had been 55C the previous week!
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Adam Lawrence

Editor, Golf Course Architecture
www.golfcoursearchitecture.net

Principal, Oxford Golf Consulting
www.oxfordgolfconsulting.com

Author, 'More Enduring Than Brass: a biography of Harry Colt' (forthcoming).

Short words are best, and the old words, when short, are the best of all.

Rob Miller

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Where would you go?
« Reply #23 on: May 24, 2012, 05:16:32 AM »
Tom,

Lhasa
Delhi
Rangoon
Da lat
Kyoto
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Sean Remington (SBR)

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: Where would you go?
« Reply #24 on: May 24, 2012, 07:33:14 AM »
How about Brunei ?   Many years ago I met the man who was in charge of maintenance for the golf courses the Prince played.  I believe one of them was set up with lights so it could be played at night.  This was way before the "Skins Game".

Brunei is just about in the middle of your two destinations

http://www.lifestylechoice.com.au/ArticleDocuments/110/Brunei-Golf-lrg.jpg
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