Breaking news from Gary Player Design last month - the legendary major champion is hoping to design a golf course somewhere in Australia.

It was announced recently that Gary Player Design has appointed a local marketing agency as its Australasian representative; in an effort to ‘explore new golf course design projects Down Under.’

Despite having built more than 300 courses across the globe, Player’s design company has yet to build any in Australia and the seven-time Aussie Open champion is now looking to rectify this by pushing for new work in the region.

Player commented that he has “always wanted to design a course in Australia.” And that he has “been visiting and playing in Australia for nearly 60 years and absolutely love it.” Presumably that was true prior to these recent announcements, and it would be fair to assume that this push to find work in Australia is part of a larger strategy for the signature design company to increase its already bulging portfolio of worldwide golf projects.

Despite saying all the right things – Player noted that “Australian people are fantastic, the land is incredibly diverse and I can’t wait to find a great project” - the market in Australia is more sophisticated than in Asia and it is going to be difficult for a moderately successful signature firm like Player’s to establish a strong presence there. At least that’s what those who have played his South African courses hope.

Perhaps disingenuously, the media release about Player’s push into Australia described the heart of the signature company’s philosophy as ecological and their corporate ethos as being about reducing maintenance areas and therefore operational running costs. The President of Player’s signature company, Scott Ferrell, declared that “maintenance costs are what is hurting the golf course industry world-wide.” He added, “a typical 18-hole course has about 150 acres of ‘green’ that needs to be maintained and the costs are rapidly rising. Imagine the same course with half of the ‘green’, but with no loss in playability or beauty.”

Experienced golfers may be able to imagine such a golf course, but they will find it difficult to picture such a layout being built by the signature company that created the likes of Sun City, Fancourt and Leopard Creek. Like other large signature firms looking to take advantage of the current green movement, Player’s actions (in building 320 + courses) speak louder than his words about how he now believes golf courses should be arranged.

We wish Player well with his push into the Australian market, but don’t believe his signature company will provide serious competition to those qualified local architects competing for the few new course projects in the works. That despite being ‘widely’ recognised, according to Player’s own company, as ‘the world’s most successful golf course architectural firm’!

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