 |
Up-and-Coming Global Golf Destinations
Jeff Wallach February 21, 2008
10 unlikely spots where the links are lighting up
Possibly your notion of the perfect golf destination includes rolling seaside links, lands abloom with gorse and heather and a bagpiper playing on a distant hill. Sure, golf started in Scotland, but it’s currently played in approximately 200 countries on six continents. In some of the hottest new destinations, there may not even be a specific word for “golf” in the local language.
Picture tee shots arcing high in the shadow of The Great Wall, or celebrating your round at a nineteenth hole caressed by trade winds and serving fruity rum drinks (rather than single malt). From Cancun to China to Canada, many of the world’s best up-and-coming golf destinations are places not normally associated with the Royal and Ancient game. And by the way—Scotland qualifies all over again, with four of the golf world's most anticipated new course openings scheduled for 2008.
Article Controls
See our slideshow of Up-and-Coming Global Golf Destinations.
Perhaps the most exotic and unlikely of new golf nirvanas is China. Joe Passov, a senior editor at GOLF Magazine and author of the Travellin’ Joe column, says, “Golf in China is still in its infancy, but with an influx of dollars from within the country and beyond its borders, there’s an unqualified boom going on.”
The attraction of an offbeat destination, government support of tourism and an emerging middle class are helping the sport’s growth. The mega-resort at Mission Hills, award-winning layouts by Nicklaus and Jones II at Spring City, and the longest (and one of the highest) golf courses in the world (Jade Dragon Snow Mountain, outside Lijiang) are making Chinese golf hotter than Szechuan cuisine.
Gordon Dalgleish is the founder of PerryGolf, an international golf tour company that recently added a Chinese golf trip to its offerings. He says, “China is interesting on a whole range of levels—economic, cultural, for its curiosity value; and the golf is surprisingly good, with a Chinese spin. With the Olympics coming that just adds to the overall excitement.” David Baum, publisher of Golf Odyssey, a premium golf travel newsletter, and golf travel guru at www.golfvacationinsider.com, suggests that the best up-and-coming destinations host high-profile professional tournaments.
“This year, the new stop on the PGA Tour is Punta Cana, in the Dominican Republic,” Baum says. “The DR has great weather, a tremendous amount of new, upscale development, and Cap Cana is the ultimate resort. They’ll have six courses there eventually, the first of which is already one of the great courses in the Caribbean. And at least for the time being, the price to value can’t be beat.”
Baum sees the entire Caribbean as hot for golf—and he’s not just talking about the weather. The reason? “In a funny way, it’s technology,” he says. “Between the development of heat and salt-tolerant strains of grass, such as seaside paspalum, and advances in salt water desalination technology, you can now find PGA Tour-quality conditions throughout the Caribbean.”
Of course, a tropical climate and benevolent political and tax policies make it an attractive destination for golf tourists as well as folks desiring a second home.
Also on a Caribbean shore, Mexico’s Riviera Maya is heating up. The Mayakoba Resort south of Cancun recently hosted that country’s first PGA Tour event. Although some may think of the long sweep of Caribbean beaches as a spring break haven, high-end luxury resorts including Paraiso de la Bonita, Bahia Principe and others are attracting a more upscale crowd that demands great golf. While existing courses such as Greg Norman’s El Cameleon (which hosts the new Mayakoba Classic) and Jack Nicklaus’s 27 holes at Moon Palace Resort are already quite good, several new venues from the likes of the Toms (Fazio and Weiskopf), Robert Trent Jones II and others are underway.
Hopping continents, golfers might enjoy the traditional local massage after a round of golf in Europe’s hottest new golf locale: Sweden. Says Joe Passov, “It took a long time for golf to catch up with tennis but the stoic, affable Swedes have found a perfect match in the sport. Not only are more courses turning the country into a legitimate golf destination, but they’re courses of high quality.”
Among them are two Arthur Hills designs (Hills Golf Club and Sand Golf Club ), and a Robert Trent Jones II layout, Bro Hof Slott, just awarded the number-one ranking in the country and considered a strong possibility to host a future Ryder Cup.
Passov, Dalgleish and Baum all agree that Scotland—the original, 500-year-old golf destination—is suddenly poised on the forefront of new development again. A Scotsman himself, Dalgleish observes, “For the past 20 years or so, Scotland has languished behind Ireland as a golf destination. But now we see…a compelling reason to visit again.”
That reason includes four huge openings slotted for 2008, including David Mclay Kidd’s Castle Course (the long-awaited seventh layout at St. Andrews); Macrahanish Dunes; Castle Stuart; and the Renaissance Club at Archerfield.
Back in the U.S., the Pacific Northwest seems to be experiencing a warming trend. Say David Baum, “Bandon Dunes, on the Oregon Coast, has become one of the great golf destinations anywhere, with three world-class courses and a fourth coming soon.”
Joe Passov adds, “Outside Seattle, Bandon’s neighbor to the North, the State of Washington made a huge splash with the debut of the nation’s top new public course: Chambers Bay. What Robert Trent Jones II accomplished in resurrecting the formerly degraded site is truly amazing.” Chambers Bay presents a dramatic dunescape of hills and hummocks, sprawling waste bunkers, and elevation changes all tilting toward the edge of Puget Sound, with the Olympic Mountains in the background.
We've got 10 destinations where you may be surprised to find golf clubs sitting on the baggage carousels.
See our slideshow of Up-and-Coming Global Golf Destinations.
