Arnold Palmer Signature Course for Cambodia

Arnold Palmer Joins Cambodian Golf Boom 14th August 2008 Golfing great Arnold Palmer recently confirmed his company will build a 36-hole golf course in Cambodia. Arnold Palmer Design Company had been retained to build the course at the new 1-billion-dollar resort development by the Sokha group at the former French colonial Bokor Hill Station Resort. The Sokha Group's Project Manager said, "He is the best in the US and we want the best golf course in Cambodia. The plan is for the course to cover 200 hectares with 36 holes, but we will start by opening an 18-hole course so we can assess and observe the conditions. Construction is due to begin in 2009". Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen is perhaps the only world leader to list his golf scores on his personal website, and the Cambodian elite, as in most of Asia, is golf crazy. There is even a Korean-managed public putting range in the centre of the Cambodian Senate's grounds. Cambodia is also aggressively chasing the high-end tourist dollar, and golf courses have mushroomed across the country in the past five years as the country enjoys peace and economic stability. Palmer, 78, is among the great golfers of all time, winning seven major championships during his career, which began in the 1950s, and being inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974. His successful design company has designed 300 golf courses to date, according to his website, and prides itself on being in tune with the environment - an attractive trait for Bokor, which lies in a national park, around 200 kilometres from the capital. From: Asia Adventures

Energized by a two-day visit to Siem Reap and after playing his new 18-hole design near to the famous temples of Angkor Wat, Nick Faldo said: “I am certain that this site and this golf course will become world renowned. We have designed and built a golf course that challenges all standards of golfers, from the casual weekender through to the seasoned professional. It is a golf course that will offer enjoyment to everyone and will hopefully have them coming back to be challenged by this strategic layout time after time.” Under glorious skies, the six-time Major winner received a blessing from local monks and then conducted a golf clinic, passing on golf tips to the attending masses and showcasing his precision ball striking on Angkor Golf Resort’s 300 meter long driving range. This was followed by an 18-hole exhibition round to view his latest masterpiece. Faldo continued: “Overall, I believe that we have created a course that offers great variety through all 18 holes and the fact that we have been working alongside such remarkable surroundings has been a real inspiration; the result is a strategically testing and very engaging round of golf. I believe that our course at the Angkor Golf Resort will help to put this part of South East Asia firmly on the golfing map.” Our fairways are typically generous, but our bunkering style is impressively bold. The greens have plenty of subtle undulations and they reward and encourage a variety of approach shots." - Nick Faldo. Adam Robertson, Operations Manager of Angkor Golf Resort, added: “Befitting a golf course designed by a master, Angkor Golf Resort has been built and constructed to the highest standards with every contour painstakingly shaped to meet Faldo’s discerning eye. But what is special about this course is that we, with the help of Nick’s expertise, have created something that will take golf to a whole new level in this country and the region.” The next phase of construction at Angkor Golf Resort will see an integrated resort and luxurious residential community. The resort will offer a relaxed and secluded lifestyle in the heart of Cambodia’s most popular tourist destination.

Gil Hanse's recreation of the lost, legendary Lido to open in August 2021 Gil Hanse has already made waves designing courses abroad, making his South American debut with the host layout for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. He wasn’t necessarily looking to compete with that when making his Asian debut, however the concept was bound to create headlines: A recreation of the lost, legendary Lido Club. Now that long-discussed course, the Ballyshear Links just outside of Bangkok, has an opening date: August, 2021. The course will be hosted at the Ban Rakat Club — a highly-exclusive establishment, reportedly with only 400 members —which is chaired by Takeyasu Aiyama. Aiyama is also the chairman at Yokohama Golf Club. Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw had done renovations at that club, and Aiyama was looking for inspiration for the property to become Ban Rakat. Interestingly, Coore recommended Hanse. Hanse and Wagner arrived at the property in Thailand and did not necessarily find anything evocative in the terrain. In fact, it was almost pancake flat. That opened another door, however, allowing Hanse and Wagner to apply their “caveman” personas and move more dirt than usual to create a bolder concept. Few concepts could be as bold as recreating the iconic Long Island club. Charles Blair Macdonald and Seth Raynor were known for their template-based approach to golf course design, which resulted in some of the world’s greatest golf courses, including the National Golf Links of America, Fishers Island, Chicago Golf Club and more. Although legend helps create hype, some hypothesize Lido may have been superior to all of them. Ballyshear 12th green Macdonald and Raynor were not at all “minimalists,” and Hanse and Wagner saw fit to emulate that historic pair’s approach with this piece of land. “Normally...we feel strongly that a golf course should be the product of its surrounds. But in the back of our minds, my partner Jim Wagner and I have often wondered what we would do with a completely flat site — what can you do to distinguish it?” Hanse said. “The most famous example of a manufactured golf course from The Golden Age was The Lido. Jim and I had always wanted to do a MacDonald/Raynor, angular grass-faced bunker design. We pitched the idea to the owner at Ballyshear and he loved it.” Ballyshear 14th tee The name “Ballyshear” is derived from the name of Macdonald’s own estate on Long Island. As with almost all of Macdonald and Raynor’s designs, template holes based on Macdonald’s travels in the UK were the basis for Lido’s design. If you’ve been keeping up with Top 100’s template architecture series, you’ve already learned about a few holes at Lido. The most famous hole at the course was the “ Channel,” based on Littlestone’s No. 16 hole. At the Lido version, players had the option to significantly shorten a long par five by first making a bold drive from the tee over the title “channel” to a rightward fairway, followed by another long, quality approach. It is near the ultimate in risk/reward, requiring two near perfect shots or else penalty will ensue. Ballyshear 17th hole Another example you’ve seen on this site is “ Narrows.” Although there is some debate whether the opener at Lido qualified, Macdonald did make a comparison between the two holes, with their respective fairway bunkering pinching the fairway. Other history was made at Lido as well. Although Alister MacKenzie no doubt would have found some success eventually as an architect, Lido represented his “breakthrough” moment. Country Life magazine held a contest for design submissions, which MacKenzie won with an entry that has come to be known as the “Lido” template. Macdonald and Raynor were so impressed by this multi-fairway par four that it ended up being used as the closing hole. The Lido also marked the debut of the minor template known as “Raynor’s Prize Dogleg,” a long par four requiring a long, precise tee shot to get home in two to an undulating green. Although named for the famous architect, it was actually an adaptation of another entry into the Country Life contest. Not that anyone reading this post will have played the original Lido, but if the golf historian gets the chance to play at Ballyshear, they will notice the routing is almost a perfect replica. “Almost,” as the property required the second and sixth holes to be switched to make the concept work. A small detail, probably not to be mourned by architecture enthusiasts. Ballyshear 18th tee For what it’s worth, Hanse is most keen on the final pair of holes, based on the “ Long” template and of course MacKenzie’s contribution, respectively. “At Ballyshear, I think the 17th and 18th, with their shared waste bunker between them, came out extremely well,” he said. “The scale of those two holes at Lido was impressive and we were able to capture that at Ballyshear.” Ballyshear will be the first Lido recreation to market, but rumors abound that Mike Keiser is looking to build a similar project near his Sand Valley Resort (albeit a private course in this case) in Wisconsin, with Tom Doak at the helm. Keep your eyes on Top100GolfCourses.com for updates on both projects.