Thomson Perrett busy around the world
Despite the fact that golf course development in Australia and around the world is experiencing a general slowdown, Thomson Perrett continue to be busy.
Thomson Perrett Managing Director Ross Perrett says “that while golf development may never reach the heights of the 90s, the future for Thomson Perrett and golf course architects remains positive”. Ross says “Admittedly times are now tougher for golf course architects but we have a good book of active projects and a strong pipeline of future work so there is still plenty of work to do.” To highlight this, Ross has just returned from two weeks in Asia where he visited 7 projects in 4 countries. He visited two projects in Thailand, an 18 hole new course near Pattaya and a short course for a hotel developer. Ross then flew to Hong Kong where Thomson Perrett are working on some upgrades to the beautiful Clearwater Bay Golf Course. From Hong Kong he flew to Nanning, China to inspect the progress of the first nine of their Qinzhou golf course and then on to Xian where their Xian International Golf Club is nearing completion. Next stop was Shanghai where the firm has a 36 hole course under construction at Wujiang and then on to Dalian China where another Thomson Perrett project is about to open. As if he he hadn’t fit enough in to his trip, Ross stopped in Beijing to visit the site of a prospective project and then Singapore to visit a project where Thomson Perrett together with Karrie Webb have reached the final stages of design selection for a full rebuild of an existing course.
On the home front, Ross and his team are working on the design and master plan of the second course at St Andrews Beach, monitoring the construction of their new 18 holes at Mandalay and working with several clubs on course upgrades. In a market which is experiencing tough times, Thomson Perrett continue to be in demand. Making the final of the Rio2016 Olympic Golf Design competition has clearly helped raise the profile of the Thomson Perrett brand.
Ross Perrett at Clearwater Bay with Shanshan Feng, the first player from China to win an LPGA major championship. Also pictured is CWB Superintendent Darry Kosta and Australian Head Professional of CWB, Grant Gibson.