Golf Industry Central GIC Winter 2018 | Page 30

Course Development GOLFPLAN TO BREAK GROUND ON SINGAPORE RENOVATION, AT SELETAR S eletar Country Club has selected Golfplan to direct a sweeping, $20 million renovation to begin this summer — no surprise, as few if any course architecture firms better understand the physical and market terrain here the highly regulated island nation. Led by partners Kevin Ramsey and David Dale, Golfplan (www.golfplan.com) are the original designers at Singapore’s top track: The Serapong Course at Sentosa Golf Club. The firm has also led separate renovation efforts at the nation’s largest golf property, Singapore Island Country Club. “It was a competitive design competition for the Seletar job — a dozen different firms put in for it,” Ramsey says. “I’m sure that we were chosen in part because we are so familiar 30 with the unique parameters of course design work here. I can’t imagine anyone is more comfortable with the baroque government regulation process — we’ve been through it so many times. “But ultimately, we got the job because our design solutions were the most artful and efficient. We can’t wait to get started.” Built in 1991, Seletar CC sits quite some distance from Singapore’s central business district, high in the island’s interior near Seletar Airport and directly beside the Seletar Reservoir. All golf courses in Singapore exist at the pleasure of the government, on leased property. In 2017, authorities announced that they would reclaim a 5-hectare strip of land along the reservoir to make way for new hiking and bike paths. The Golf Marketing Professionals I www.golfindustrycentral.com.au