One of the more hotly contested redesign jobs in Australia was awarded to the newly formed Ogilvy Clayton Design team last week, the company appointed by the Royal Canberra Golf Club to prepare a Masterplan for major course works, post the 2013 Aussie Women’s Open. Back in October the clubâ€

It was announced over the weekend by the organizing committee for the 2016 Olympic games that eight finalists had been selected for its golf course design contest. As readers will no doubt be aware, golf is returning to the Olympics in Brazil in five years after an absence of more than a century,

Earlier this week, the Bonnie Doon Golf Club welcomed defending Australian Open Champion Geoff Ogilvy back to the club to inspect the works being carried out by his design company Ogilvy Clayton Golf Design. Ogilvy Clayton began work on a major redevelopment of the Bonnie Doon GC in May, and with St

Observing from afar, the lashing dished out to Cog Hill and its redesign architect Rees Jones during the recent BMW Championship seemed astonishing. I’m not suggesting the criticism was unwarranted in any way, but I am surprised at the tone of some of the vitriol and, more importantly, the qua

Ever since Golf Australia announced changes to our local handicapping system, including the implementation of the United States slope rating system for golf courses, I have feared for what might happen to some of our great layouts once their slope numbers were computed and announced. It was during

Those who follow developments in Asia closely, will be aware that shortly after assuming the mantle of the World’s highest ranked professional golfer, England’s Luke Donald bowed to the inevitable and announced he was designing his first course, in Danang, Vietnam. The project is known

In what is claimed to be an attempt to shake a stuffy image of golf as a game for your Dad and his retired friends (does it really even have that image?), the Australian PGA recently embarked on a bold, new marketing campaign to give the game a youthful, fresher appearance. The results can be seen h

The organizers of the Asia Pacific Golf Summit announced yesterday that Gary Player was returning for the third straight year, this time to accept induction into the Asia Pacific Hall of Fame, which is administered by the group that runs the annual Summit. For Player this is yet ‘another disti

News out of Asia this week, that the 2011 Asia Pacific Golf Summit in Pattaya will feature British legend Tony Jacklin as one of its keynote speakers. Following from the ‘love-fest’ of previous years, where the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Peter Thomson, Greg Norman and Annika So

Staggering reports overnight from the Arabian Business magazine, which claims to have seen documents confirming the fee paid to Tiger Woods by developers of the stalled Tiger Woods Dubai project. The magazine claims that Woods has already received more than $55 million from UAE developer Tatweer, de

In May the venue for the 2018 Ryder Cup in Europe will be announced, and among the contenders is the yet-to-be built Comporta Links course in Portugal, to be designed by Tom Fazio in collaboration with European Golf Design. What’s telling about recent announcements from Portugal, is not that T

Reports recently have confirmed golf’s worst kept secret, that Tiger Woods Dubai – the former World No. 1’s debut golf design project – was in financial trouble and being put on hold. Tiger Woods Dubai was first floated back in 2006, but struck trouble the following year when

Long ago I accepted the fact that I was unlikely to be able to hit a golf ball like Jack Nicklaus, nor putt with his complete assuredness under the most extreme pressure. After studying more than 40 of his golf courses worldwide, I’d also assumed that we were unlikely to ever share the same views

Though it may surprise some, our Planet Golf Architect of the Year for 2010 is American Jim Urbina. Having started in the design business working for Pete Dye in the mid-1980s, Urbina left Dye in 1992 to join an unknown novice named Tom Doak, whom he worked with successfully for more than 17 years.

As many will be aware, tens of thousands of Queenslanders have suffered through weeks of unprecedented flooding, with more than three-quarters of the state flooded to some degree. While nothing compares with the loss of a loved one, we should remember that across the state golf clubs and course supe

For years my gripe with golf in China, was that moderately talented designers were prolific in the country while the really gifted architects were unable to get their foot in the door. The worm has definitely started turning, with good architects winning plum jobs and the best new Chinese courses mu

I’m continually bemused by reports of young PGA Tour stars, in the prime of their playing careers, being paid exorbitant sums of money to apparently collaborate on the design of a golf course. Across Asia this is a regular occurrence, with developers often trying to hoodwink us into believing

The World’s largest golf club’ Mission Hills in China, has announced plans to offer armchair architects the opportunity to design three holes on its forthcoming Icon Course, which will be built in 2011 at the incredible new 5-star Mission Hills Resort on Hainan Island. Lead architect

For more than 20 years Bob Harrison was lead architect for Greg Norman Golf Course Design in Australia, working on projects like the Moonah Course at The National Golf Club, Ellerston, The Glades, Brookwater, The Grand, The Vintage, Stonecutters Ridge and Pelican Waters. Since departing Norman’

Earlier this year I was given the opportunity to interview Greg Norman one-on-one about his burgeoning design business, and philosophies on the game of golf. Our forthright and, at times, lively discussion covered issues such as the closure of his Australian design office, the health of the local i