6 | AUSTRALASIA NEWS
Fair way to go for The Dunes
Norman opens China office
Golfing great Greg Norman and developers of The Dunes Port
Hughes residential and resort precinct are confident delays
and slow block sales will not stop the project from fulfilling its
potential, reported newspaper Adelaide Now. Norman visited
Yorke Peninsula to survey the golf course he is designing at
The Dunes and to spruik the development. There is little to see
at the site, where construction was granted approval in early
2007, except for excavation work to shape the first nine holes of
the Norman-designed course that is the project’s centrepiece.
But Norman and The Dunes Port Hughes chief executive officer
Andrew Martin said the project was shaping up well.“A lot of
people around the world don’t know where Port Hughes, South
Australia, is but a lot of people here should be very proud about
what’s going on here.” Norman, 55, said golf took a hit when the
global economy was battered but demand for a quality course at
Port Hughes still existed. “The growth of this area indicates that
golf is an amenity, it’s a necessity, and fortunately I’m involved
with it in a small way,” he said. Mr Martin said that after some
delays, development was now accelerating, with the first nine
holes expected to be open by next Easter and the entire course
by the end of 2012.“We had some issues with water which
we’ve worked through and we also had some issues with dust
which we didn’t know were going to happen at the time we
started,” he said. Despite only 100 of the 2000 blocks being sold,
Mr Martin was confident sales would pick up once people see
the golf course taking shape.“We are really hoping that with
the completion of the first nine (holes), we will then really pick
up speed,” he said. Mr Martin said he expected all blocks in the
development to be sold within five to 10 years.
Golfer Greg Norman has closed his only Australian office as he
pursues golfing business interests in China. Greg Norman Golf
Course Design shut its Sydney office in recent weeks, with at
least three staff made redundant, the Daily Telegraph said. The
Telegraph said the design company has opened a new sales
and marketing office in Beijing, signalling Asia as its key area
of growth. The office closure comes a year after Norman’s chief
Australian course architect for 22 years, Bob Harrison, parted
ways with the two-time major winning golfer. A company
spokesperson told the Telegraph that Norman’s main golf course
architects will now be based in the company’s West Palm Beach
headquarters in Florida. Norman’s spokesperson, Bart Collins, told
the newspaper that the company had “retrenched two or three
executives” in Sydney.
“But we still have people who are full-time employees of us in
Australia, who work from home right now,” he said despite no
longer playing golf regularly on the circuit, Norman remains
Australia’s highest-earning sportsman, with a business magazine
recently estimating that he earned $15 million last year, largely
because of his success in golf course design. First established in
1987, Greg Norman Golf Course Design says on its website that it
has completed more than 70 golf courses on six continents.
Dean Murphy to head NZ Golf
New Zealand Golf has announced
the appointment of Dean Murphy
as the new Chief Executive Officer
for the organisation. Mr Murphy
has been the organisation’s
C