Heard the one about the two new courses, the new resort and the stellar renovation? It’s not going to bring the house down at the Edinburgh Fringe, but it does provide some tasty courses news.
And the work carried out on them means four of our Top 100 rankings will be affected in the next 18 months…
Prince’s shows off renovated nine
If you think we’re so shallow we would run a story on Prince’s just so we can use the new images they’ve had taken of the Himalayas course, you are absolutely bang on.
Just look at it!
There was good reason for the fresh pictures (by Jason Livy) though; the Himalayas nine has undergone a significant redesign by the feted architect Martin Ebert of Mackenzie & Ebert.
They illustrate how the open sand-scrape areas and natural wetlands – preserved as natural habitats for rare coastal species of flora and fauna – on this loop, which was previously regarded as the weakest of the three.
The club is so pleased with the results that the Shore and Dunes nines are also being renovated and will be open in Spring 2020.
Expect a similar ‘golf porn’ article about the same time next year then…
- Related: Open Championship venues
New course in Abu Dhabi
When we come to revise our seminal Middle East Top 25 in 18 months’ time, we will have a new contender.
Yas Acres is being built in Abu Dhabi and the first nine will be complete by late summer 2020, with the course to open in early 2021.
Located close to our Middle East No. 1 Yas Links on Abu Dhabi’s main tourist island, it is being designed by Dana Fry and Jason Straka and will eventually become a full 18.
If it’s half as good as the first Yas course, it will be special.
New course opens in Scotland
We’ve also got a new course for our Scotland Top 100 panel to consider after the King’s course in Inverness – the new home of the renamed King’s GC, formerly Torvean GC – opened.
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The course replaces an existing 18 holes that will be lost to the construction of the new Inverness West Link road and is the first new build by Scottish architect Stuart Rennie.
King’s occupies land to the north-west of the old Torvean course, which opened as a nine-holer in 1962 and was extended to 18 in 1988.
The 1st and 18th are on land that hosted three holes of the old course, with the remaining 16 on new land.
“The old course was pretty flat, but now we have a nice, undulating site,” said Rennie.
“I was only 32 when I was appointed to design the course, very young to win such a job, and, let us be honest, there are not that many new golf course projects around at the moment.
“So obviously this has been a hugely important project for me, and I have put my heart and soul into it.”
New resort in England
Oh, and we will have a new contender for next year’s GB&I Resorts Top 100 too, because Feldon Valley has added a £6.75 million hotel to its course.
The 13-bedroom hotel in the Cotswolds has been accompanied by four woodland lodges to provide accommodation for up to 50 guests, as well as an extension and remodelling of the existing clubhouse.
