Bandera, Texas-based Southern Golf Properties assumed management of all aspects of operations at Casa Blanca Golf Course in Laredo earlier this month. The term of Southern Golf Properties’ contract to operate the course is for five years, with a three-year and then a two-year renewal. Southern Golf Properties, which already manages five courses in South and West Texas, earned the right to operate Casa Blanca after a protracted evaluation of 10 applicants by the Commissioners’ Court of Webb County, which developed and owns the facility.
International golf course architecture practice Thomson Perrett & Lobb has unveiled its design for a golf course in the most dramatic landscape the company has worked with yet, on hills overlooking the ancient Pyramids. New Giza, Egypt, is to be built on desert hills with spectacular views to the ancient monuments and includes at least one tee shot where golfers will be required to line up with the Pyramids.
Schmidt-Curley Design’s Plantation Course at Siam Country Club in Pattaya, Thailand, will host LPGA stars in a yet-to-be-named tournament, February 26 to March 1. Opened in February 2008 and located on the site of a former pineapple and tapioca plantation, the course's Seashore Paspalum fairways snake around large ravines dotting the property. Significant elevation changes abound, offering several spectacular vistas of Pattaya's beaches and the Gulf of Thailand approximately seven miles to the west.
St. Helena Island, S.C.-based Dataw Island Club’s Cotton Dike and Morgan River golf courses have achieved designation as a Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary through the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses, an Audubon International program. Dataw Island Club is the 23rd club in South Carolina and the 663rd club in the world to receive the honor.
The University of Texas Golf Club’s new 16,400-square foot clubhouse – built at a cost of more than $8 million – opened the last weekend in October, ten months after the structure burnt to the ground while it was in construction.