Golf courses around the world are more and more turning on to the idea that to be truly successful they need a residential development alongside the greens and fairways. The other feature many seem to be unable to dispense with is a PGA professional-designed golf course and the two seem to go hand in hand.

It is hard to say who is leading the pack as far as golf professionals, but Jack Niklaus is one of the most active. Nicklaus rarely competes in competitions nowadays but appears to be very busy on golf course design, including a course at The Cliffs golf community in Carolina. In fact Niklaus design has over 300 golf courses currently open for play and almost 100 golf courses under design. A full list is available here. One of the more spectacular courses is the Great Waters course on The Reynolds Plantation golf development, which was voted among the “Ten Best New Courses,” by GOLF magazine. This is a video of their development courtesy of Fairway properties, a residential golf property sales portal.

Graham Marsh and Vijay Singh are two other PGA pros now involved in course designs on residential development, collaborating on the Al Houra Luxury Golf Resort in Tangiers, Morocco.

Tiger Woods has now “designed,” several courses, one notable course being the Tiger Woods Dubai, a massive development with over 100 villas on the course. More often than not, the courses are combined with residential golf communities, not all of them as large as the tiger Woods Dubai, but many pundits are seeing this as the only way to make modern golf courses profitable.

According to Monte Stewart of Ontario’s Business Edge,

“The days of Canadian golf courses being built without housing projects around them are coming to an end.”

Mr. Stewart quotes Ken Fulton, the general manager of Baxter’s creek Golf Course near Peterborough as saying,

“You do need a real estate component if you’re spending multi-millions of dollars. At the millions that we’ve spent here, you can reap the benefits through green fees and make money at it.”

Graham Marsh and golfing great Vijay Singh have combined forces to design the golf course for Qatari Diar’s Al Houra Luxury Golf Resort in Tangiers, Morocco

The eighteen hole course will be the highlight of Diar’s luxury development, which is located on the Moroccan coast. This will be the first time the two golfing legends have collaborated on a course design.

Al Houara Golf Course has been designed as two returning nines with the 9th and 18th greens located below the clubhouse. Most of the holes are situated on the eastern part of the site on a large and slightly undulating plain.

Five holes are located on higher land that will play down to, and then back, from the sea, providing a scenic setting for golfers. Among the holes are the 12th, 13th and 14th, which will become the ’signature’ holes of the course. Golfers will play down to the dunes behind the beach surrounded by views of the sea. “We are very excited to have two of the world’s most successful golfers, Vijay Singh and Graham Marsh, designing such a beautiful golf course for us in Morocco,” said Qatari Diar Deputy CEO, Ahmed Al Mazroei.

“Al Houara is very special to Qatari Diar and this new international golf course is just one of many attractions being created within this magnificent development to create a unique and glamorous travel experience for business travelers and tourists alike,” he said.

There will also be a large driving range with an adjacent practice green and chipping area, and a short nine-hole par three course on the southern side of the main entrance road.

The Al Houara project will be a $660m luxury tourist resort, covering almost 600 acres of seafront land. the development will include two 5-star hotels, a public beach club, residential apartments and villas and retail and entertainment facilities as well as a residential club. There will be a convention centre, club house, casino, forest stables and a variety of sports facilities. The larger villas sell for around $1.6 million, and are being marketed by Sotheby’s International.

Al Houara Golf Resort
Qatari Diar
Sotheby’s International Realty
Buying property in Morocco