Reports last week suggested that Annika Sorenstam has won the design contract for the new Olivion golf resort in the tourist town of Belek in Turkey. What’s worrying about this news, is confirmation that Annika’s course design work is actually being done by European Golf Design – Sorenstam yet another celebrity golfer apparently happy to put her name on a new golf course, but unable to commit fully to actually handling the design work  herself or with a dedicated in-house team.

Golf Course Architecture magazine confirmed the news with the following;

“The new Olivion golf resort in Belek, Turkey, will be be branded as an Annika Sorenstam design. Stan Eby of European Golf Design will be lead architect on the project. EGD announced its involvement on the project last month.

Olivion is located near Belek, 45 minutes from the city of Antalya. The Belek region is among Europe’s fastest growing destinations for golf tourism, but, up to now, all the courses have been built on land leased from the government, and thus do not have an associated housing component.

Sorenstam is visiting the site this week to walk the course area and work with developers to review all elements on the golf course’s design. Course routing is underway, and construction is due to start in the spring of 2011 for a 2012 opening.”

Golf Course Architecture also note that Sorenstam will be awarded the Golf Entrepreneur of the Year award at the KPMG Golf Business Forum in Turkey – a worthy award for such a wonderful golfer – we just hope the Swedish star takes her design career seriously and in Belek can work closely with Stan Eby from EGD to produce a decent course for this disappointing region.