Laguna Lang Golf Resort
at the Pacific Links Championship at Bear
Mountain, Victoria, British Columbia. Kismet
I suppose, as we were connected on our end
from the Victoria Golf Resort in Sri Lanka.
Faldo Cup This Spring
He is most excited today about his new
event for juniors, the Faldo Cup to be held
next spring on his championship course at
Bella Collina in Orlando, Florida. It is an
intriguing event in that Sir Nick has invited
all his fellow major champions to name
four players (two boys and two girls) to
represent them in the competition. The
players, between fifteen and twenty one
years old can come from anywhere on the
globe and will wear the name of the Major
Champion who is mentoring them. The
mentors will stay in touch through social
media and other outlets so that the public
can follow the off the course interactions.
So far Major Winners who have committed
to fielding teams are Henrik Stenson, Anika
Sorenson, Ernie Els, Jordon Spieth, Adam
Scott, Rory McElroy, Davis Love, and Justin
Thomas. Nick says that hopefully Phil
Michelson, Bubba Watson, and a few others
will participate as well. The event will take
place just before the Bay Hill Tour event so
it is highly possible that you will find several
major champions coming over to cheer
their players on. I can only imagine what
it would feel like for these young players to
have a Major Champion in their corner for a
competition. It is going to be interesting to
follow this one.
Sir Nick loves golf design and his body of
work shows it. But in talking to him about it,
you get a sense it is the adventure of it that
gets his creative neurons firing. A perfect
example is his recent course at Laguna Lang
Co in Vietnam. A peek at the raw YouTube
link at the end of this article will leave you
with a sensation that only a few lovers of
golf and design ever get to experience. On
this site he channeled Indiana Jones as
he forged through some very dense and
challenging terrain uncovering what was to
become one of Vietnam’s best. He describes
it as “finding the course” and he did so
spectacularly. With a gorgeous mountain
backdrop, he routed the course over rice
paddies, along a river, through sand dunes,
along the beach, and back through the
jungle. In these days of so many as Nick
says, “bunker right, bunker left” cookie cutter
designs, the variety of holes and strategic
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