Prague, Jan 6 (CTK) – The first golf course with the Professional Golf Association (PGA) licence is to be built on the southeastern outskirts of Prague in the next two years, daily Hospodarske noviny (HN) writes yesterday, adding that the construction will start in a few months.
The idea emerged some ten years ago. It was clear that a golf course will be part of Oaks Prague, a planned large residential complex, the paper quotes Kyle Philips, a renowned designer of golf courses, as saying.
In the past, Philips designed famous golf courses such as London´s Grove, Yas in Abu Dhabi (UAE) and Valderrama in Spain.
Owing to its PGA licence, the Oaks Prague course might host prestigious international golf events.
Primarily, nevertheless, it will be used by the inhabitants of the Oaks Prague complex, which the Arendon developer´s company plans to built for 11 billion crowns.
The luxurious complex for about 200 households has been prepared with the assistance of renowned architects and designers, including Richard Meier, Eva Jiricna and John Pawson.
Philips said the builders will use the local more or less flat landscape, which they will complement with trees, little ponds and flowerbeds.
The chateau in the centre of the course will be reconstructed and serve as a golf club seat, Philips said.
He said the future of the golf course cannot be predicted beforehand.
The constructors expect golf courses to serve a narrow group of clients only, hotel guests, for example, but as a result of circumstances, some courses eventually attract prestigious world tournaments, Philips said, giving the Grove course in London as an example.
As a special advantage, the Oaks course will offer a golf-teaching academy and modern video technology for game analysing, Philips said.
There are over a hundred golf courses in the Czech Republic now. The most renowned of them is Albatross, southwest of Prague, which hosts Czech Masters, the biggest Czech tournament from the European Tour series.
The event´s female version takes place at the golf course in Dysina, near the West Bohemian centre Plzen.
Oaks Park, whose opening is planned for 2018, is to be as quality as the two above courses at least, Philps told HN.
($1=25.145 crowns)
rtj/t/pv
