Faldo Signs ‘Stunning’ Indian Course Design Project
Nick Faldo has announced details of a new golf course design project being undertaken by the six-time Major winner’s company, Faldo Design, at the Lavasa hill city near Pune, western India.
The 25,000 acre development – which straddles seven hills and is built along more than 60 kms of lakefront – will incorporate several pioneering residential and commercial initiatives, a varied collection of hotels and resort activities, as well as numerous centres of education and sporting excellence. Lavasa will be India’s first hill city based on the principals of New Urbanism and Faldo Design will contribute an 18-hole championship standard golf course, which will form an integral part of this exciting and ambitious new project. The company has been given a large and very diverse site on which to route their course and detailed design work is planned to start later this year.
Faldo commented: “I’m very excited to be working on what promises to be an absolutely stunning project – a real benchmark for golf in India. This dramatically rolling site is topographically very interesting with large changes of elevation and an abundance of different flora and fauna. We’re still at the early conceptual stages, but we certainly plan to create a golfing journey that takes in all of the various elements and distinct features on offer. Part of the course routing will play towards the striking Lake Warasgaon and we’ll incorporate the many extraordinary backdrops and vistas that stretch all the way towards Mumbai. With areas characterised by rocky outcrops, rice paddies and gently cascading streams, there is so much to offer a course designer in terms of inspiration here and I’m sure that we’ll be able to make use of these features to great strategic and aesthetic effect.”
Commenting on the occasion, Mr. Ajit Gulabchand, Chairman, Lavasa Corporation Limited, said, "We are delighted to partner with Nick Faldo to create this championship-standard golf course and to set up what we believe will be India's most sought after golf course academy in Lavasa. This tie-up is yet another testimony to forging best-in-class global partnerships at Lavasa. Faldo Design’s golf course will be a natural fit for Lavasa and will further reinforce Lavasa as the ideal destination for spirited people with varied tastes as well as an ultimate year-round recreational destination. The golf course will meet the highest standards with every contour painstakingly shaped to meet Faldo’s rigorous benchmarks."
The company’s project at Lavasa will sit perfectly within Faldo Design’s very diverse global portfolio of golf course design projects. With courses soon to be opened in such contrasting places as Montana, Northern Ireland and the Dominican Republic, Faldo is fast earning himself a reputation as one of the best player-designers in the industry.