The pressing need for public access courses across the region will be among the topics of discussion at December’s Asia Pacific Golf Summit in the oil-rich Sultanate of Brunei.
Award-winning Royale Jakarta Golf Club can act as a model for golf course projects in Asia in the years ahead.
That’s the belief of JMP Golf Design Group partners Brian Costello, Mark Hollinger and Bob Moore, who sculpted the Indonesian facility that has quickly established itself as one of the region’s outstanding new courses.
Moore, together with Costello and Hollinger who will speak and sit on panel discussions at the sixth edition of the Asia Pacific Golf Summit at Brunei’s Empire Hotel & Country Club from December 11-13, said: “Public access is the future for the majority of golf courses.”
Citing Royale Jakarta Golf Club, winner of the Best Course in Indonesia in the 2011 Asian Golf Monthly Awards and host to last month’s CIMB Niaga Indonesian Masters presented by PNTS on the Asian Tour, Moore described the club as ‘a shining example of a public access course’.
Moore said: “Royale Jakarta has a limited number of founding members. The great majority of tee times are open to the public. The club is doing over 110,000 rounds of golf per year on 27 holes.
“Green fees are substantial. The club is a huge financial success. This model has the potential to work almost anywhere in Asia.”
JMP Golf Design Group, which has been stamping its indelible imprint on Asia’s golfing landscape for the best part of three decades, also has an exciting project under way in China.
Hollinger said: “We are in the process of completing one of China’s very first kids-oriented, nine-hole, par-three pitch-and-putt courses in the capital city of Beijing, called Aoyuan Mini Strokes.
“This will be the forerunner for future public access golf in other cities within China, and is designed specifically for young people to learn golf and have fun getting into the game, on a course tailored specifically them.”
All members of the American Society of Golf Course Architects, Costello, Hollinger and Moore have nearly 75 years of collective experience in golf course architecture.
Costello said: “We committed ourselves to Asia more than a quarter century ago and we have been consistently active in the region throughout that entire period. Our level of experience in Asia is significant.”
To date, JMP’s Asian portfolio includes course designs in China, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, all of which are based on the company’s aim of ‘environmental sustainability and golf designs which are responsive to site conditions and existing landforms’.
*Note: The Asia Pacific Golf Summit was inaugurated in Singapore in 2007. In 2008 it was staged in the southern China Province of Guangdong at Mission Hills Shenzhen before moving to the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur in 2009 and onto Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, in 2010. Last year it was held at the world-class Pattaya Exhibition and Convention Centre. Full details on 2012 programme content, speakers and event registration are available at www.golfconference.org
**For further enquiries, please contact Alice Ho on +65 6323-2800 or via email at alice@asiapacificgolfgroup.com
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