A
SGCA elected four new associate
members and advanced four existing
associates to regular member status
during its recent Annual Meeting at Reynolds
Plantation in Georgia.
Ian Andrew, Jim Cervone, Jerry Lemons
and Cal Olson all progressed to regular
member, having been an associate for
at least three years. Andrew, based in
Brantford, Ontario, has just opened the
new course at Laval-sur-le-Lac in Quebec,
which he designed along with Canadian
professional Mike Weir. Pennsylvania-based
Cervone has recently been working mostly
in China, where he has built a number
of new courses, including the Ordos
International club in Inner Mongolia, along
with fellow ASGCA member Brian Ault.
Lemons, who works out of Tennessee, has a
number of recent remodeling projects to his
credit, while the California-based Olson’s
recent work includes the acclaimed Agalarov
Estate course in Moscow, Russia.
Golf architects Bill Bergin, Patrick Burton,
Joe Obringer and Taylor Zimbelman were
elected as new associate members at the
meeting. Their election brings ASGCA’s
membership roll to almost 180 practicing
golf architects.
Bergin, who runs his own practice in Atlanta,
is responsible for remodeling Donald Ross’s
course at the Chattanooga Golf and Country
Club, as well as new courses including the
Foxland Course at Fairvue Plantation (now
named Foxland Harbor) in Tennessee and the
Heritage Plantation Golf Club in Florida.
Burton is a Senior Design Associate at
Schmidt-Curley Design. His courses include
Golden Mountain Golf Resort, Liaoning
Yingkou Gold Time Golf Club and Jingshan
Lake Golf Club, all in China.
Obringer is the owner of JFO Design in
Georgia. His courses include Beijing South
Woods Golf Club and the Agua Kun Ming
(a Phil Mickelson signature project), both
in China.
Zimbelman is a principal designer with
Dye Designs Group in Englewood, Colo. His
list of representative courses includes The
Black Pearl at Pristine Bay in Honduras and
the Lykia Links in Antalya, Turkey.
Additionally, three regular members achieved
Fellow status with ASGCA, having been a
member for at least ten years and reaching the
age of 70. They are ASGCA Past President Rees
Jones, San Jose-based Mike Poellot and Lindsay
Ervin, who works out of Edgewater, Md.
DIGEST
New members for ASGCA
Mandell plans golf design family tree
ASGCA
Golf design
Richard Mandell, ASGCA
Associate, has begun work
on what he hopes will be
the most comprehensive
directory of golf course
architects yet created.
With the support of the
ASGCA, Mandell intends
to reach out to architects
around the world, looking for
information on their practices,
their mentors and the people
that have worked for them
over the years. Using this data,
he will then draw up a ‘family
tree’ of golf course design,
showing who trained with
who, and where, connecting
many of today’s architects back
to the birth of the profession.
Mandell said: “I began
my career working for Dan
Maples, who trained with his
father Ellis, who in turn got
his start with Donald Ross.
Although our profession has
expanded across the world,
it remains fairly small and
tightly knit, and I expect most
architects will have similar
links back to some of the
great names of the past.”
Anyone with information for
Mandell is asked to contact
him via email at
.
Rounds on the rise
in Abu Dhabi
Figures from the Abu Dhabi
Tourism and Culture Authority
have revealed that a record
number of overseas rounds
were played in the first quarter
of 2013, prompting global
golf tourism industry experts
to suggest the destination is
becoming one of the most
lucrative in the field. Abu
Dhabi Golf Club, Saadiyat
Beach Golf Club and Yas
Links all recorded their best
quarterly figures for overseas
rounds in 2013’s first quarter,
and recorded an 89 per cent
growth compared to the same
period last year.
Kirby designs ‘a
Hole in Heaven’
An exclusive mountain
retreat in the Italian Alps has
unveiled an innovative golf
facility at 1,200m altitude.
Named ‘a Hole in Heaven’,
the course is the work of
ASGCA Fellow Ron Kirby
and Italian architect Paolo
Gueltrini, and sits high up
in the Dolomite mountains.
The lodge lies on the site
of a 16th century hunting
lodge, transformed into
a four-bedroom mountain
residence. The course is
comprised of nine flag
positions and six tees,
with three flags of different
colours positioned on the
green. The green is a replica
of the Valley of Sin from
the home hole on the Old
Course at St Andrews.
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ASGCA members gathered for the 2013
Annual Meeting at Reynolds Plantation, Ga.
