Press

Above: JCB CEO Graeme Macdonald (left) with designer Robin Hiseman of EGD

JCB has announced a new wave of investment in Staffordshire with plans for a £30 million golf course next to its World HQ to help boost sales and build global awareness of its brand.

The proposals for a spectacular 18-hole, 7,150 yards, Par 72 championship golf course centre on 240 acres of rolling countryside to the south of its Rocester headquarters. When completed in 2018, it is expected that up to 100 people will be employed in groundcare and hospitality roles.

The course will be designed by European Golf Design – the golf course design company of IMG and the European Tour – best known for the 2010 course at Celtic Manor in Wales, host of the 2010 Ryder Cup. It will be built to tour-quality standard and could potentially host a major tour event, attracting competitors and spectators from all over the world.

The plans have been conceived by JCB Chairman Lord Bamford and follow an announcement in early December that JCB will invest £150m to build two new factories in Staffordshire and significantly increase production to meet an anticipated growth in demand for its products.

At the heart of this premier golf development is Woodseat Hall, an 18th Century mansion currently in ruins, but which will have a new lease of life under plans to renovate it as the course clubhouse, complete with a new luxury spa, leisure facility and five-star hotel-style accommodation for visiting JCB guests from across the world.

Lord Bamford said: “JCB is a global manufacturer with a successful track record in growing sales in overseas markets. As part of our plans to increase manufacturing capacity and grow sales, we need to build an even stronger awareness of the JCB brand around the world.

“Golf is a truly global sport and is a perfect fit for JCB as a global manufacturer as we look to develop strong relationships with customers and dealers worldwide. I’m not a golfer myself but I’m excited by the opportunity it presents us in driving our future plans for business growth.”

JCB Chief Executive Officer Graeme Macdonald said: “The golf course will be the biggest marketing tool available to JCB in its history, helping grow sales and create jobs. If the course were to host a major tournament, the television coverage would certainly put the JCB brand firmly on the world stage. It would also help to raise the profile of Staffordshire and promote the county as a tourist destination to millions of people around the world.”

European Golf Design’s course architect for the JCB course, Robin Hiseman, said: “We were asked to create a premier tour-proven golf course to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the very best contemporary golf course designs in the UK. We are very confident that our design meets this requirement, taking full advantage of a rich landscape that includes deciduous woodland, classic English farmland and historic parkland with many arboretum-standard specimen trees.

“The course design, which is burgeoning with imaginative design concepts, will twist and turn around the natural contours of the site, dipping in and out of the woodlands and involving the existing water features in a range of exciting ways, including the spectacular and unique Par 3 17th hole, which plays onto an existing wooded island in the South Lake.

“We are looking forward to building this JCB course, and as you might expect, JCB machines will be doing all of the work in what will be a 240-acre shop window for its product range.”

The new golf course, which is subject to planning consent, will be made available mainly to JCB’s network of 770 global dealers. It will be used to drive business growth, helping to build relationships with new customers and strengthen relationships with existing customers. Upon completion, golf days will become a feature of the wider JCB visitor experience, which already includes factory visits, the ‘Story of JCB’ exhibition and machine demonstrations.

ENDS

For further information contact: Nigel Chell JCB Press Office

Tel: 01889 590312 Fax: 01889593455 E-mail: nigel.chell@jcb.com Web: www.jcb.com

(Sunningdale, UK – June 12, 2013) Prince’s Golf Club will host the Amateur Championship next week, following a major renovation of the golf course by European Golf Design.

The Championship, which will be played over the historic links, represents an important landmark in the renaissance of one of Kent’s finest courses. Prince’s famously staged the 1932 Open Championship, won by Gene Sarazen, but the original course layout was subsequently destroyed during the Second World War and completely redesigned in 1950 by Guy Campbell and John Morrison to create the current 27 hole layout.

Prince’s Golf Club has recently redeveloped their facilities. As part of this project European Golf Design was commissioned in 2010 to oversee a number of improvements ahead of the course hosting both the Final Open Championship Qualifying in 2011 and the 2013 Amateur Championship, which the club is co-hosting with Royal Cinque Ports.

European Golf Design’s role was to carry out a strategic review of all 27 holes and oversee a total bunker restoration programme. A number of new tee complexes have been constructed and two fairways relocated to restore the original design intent and improve strategy.

Gary Johnston, lead designer on the project for European Golf Design, said; “Our role wasn’t about toughening the golf courses, it was more about reviewing the strategy of the holes to take account of the advances in technology. In all we relocated about 22 bunkers and built a further 19, whilst also removing a number of other bunkers which were redundant. The biggest change came at the 6th hole on the Himalayas where we have moved the fairway 30 yards to the left to improve the alignment of the golf hole and bring a new wetland into play.”

“It has been a long term project which was broken into phases and mostly carried out over the last three winters, which is actually the best time to build revetted bunkers. It has been hugely rewarding to work on the restoration of such a historic course and I am looking forward to seeing how it is tackled by the world’s best amateur golfers.”

The Amateur Championship is taking place between the 17th and 22nd of June. The 288 player field play one round each at Prince’s and Royal Cinque Ports, after which the 64 players with the lowest scores go forward to compete in the match play stage of the competition.

We are very proud that three of the golf courses designed alongside 2010 Ryder Cup captain Colin Montgomerie will be hosting upcoming tournaments on the European Tour.

The Maxx Royal course in Turkey set to host the 2013 Turkish Open
Turkey is one of the fastest developing golf nations in the world and the 78-man field tournament will be played from November 7-10, 2013, the week before the DP World Tour Championship, Dubai – the climax to the Race to Dubai. The Montgomerie Maxx Royal is set within 104 hectares of picturesque, mixed pine forest and sandy ridges, the feel of the natural environment has been maintained, thereby enhancing the particular characteristics of the golf course. The par 72 Montgomerie Maxx Royal measures 6486 metres.

http://www.maxxroyal.com/en/The-Montgomerie-Maxx-Royal

The 2013 Irish Open will be hosted by Carton House
Carton House, which has twice hosted the Irish Open, most recently in 2006 and the Seniors Open in 2010. The vast Kildare estate is also the home to the Golfing Union of Ireland and has two of the east coasts finest courses, The Montgomerie and The O’Meara. The Mark O’Meara designed classic parkland course may lull you with it’s beauty whilst the Colin Montgomerie course is an adventure from the 1st to the last hole and is proud to have hosted the worlds finest golfers at the 2005 and 2006 Irish Opens.

http://www.cartonhousegolf.com/

The Dutch in The Netherlands will host the KLM Open from 2016 to 2018
Opened in 2011 The Dutch is a private members Inland Links Golf Course set in the beautiful rural area on the outskirts of the Lingebos near Gorinchem. European Tour tournament director Miguel Vidaor commented,”The Dutch is an excellent layout with a very strong back nine, especially the finishing holes All which are very challenging. The greens offer a variety of pin positions a hole That can change from one day to the next. This makes the course very interesting to the players.”

http://www.thedutch.nl/

European Golf Design’s 7,000-yard Sultan Course at Antalya Golf Club introduces Woods, McIlroy, Westwood and Co to the layout that helped put Turkey’s Belek region on the golfing map

European Golf Design (EGD), the golf course design company of the European Tour and IMG, was an early pioneer of golf in Turkey when its Sultan Course at Antalya Golf Club opened nearly 10 years ago…today it welcomes the world’s best, playing for $5.2million in the Turkish Airlines World Golf Final.

Threading its way through pine and eucalyptus, up and over sandy ridges and around clear water lakes, The 7,000 yard Sultan Course typifies why the Belek region of Turkey has become one of Europe’s fast-growing golfing playgrounds.

Boasting 14 golf courses, Turkey’s Mediterranean coast has already established itself as an award-winning international golf tourism hotspot, hosting the International Golf Travel Market in 2011 and with ambitious plans for more golf resorts.

Since the Ministry for Tourism designated the Belek region for development, due to its outstanding beauty and consequent appeal to golf tourists, EGD has been at the heart of golf course design in the region, and is responsible for three 18-hole layouts – The Sultan and Pasha Courses at Antalya Golf Club, plus The Montgomerie at Maxx Royal.

Jeremy Slessor, EGD Managing Director, said: “Turkey has made great strides as an emerging golf destination and it is rewarding for EGD to play such a significant role in its development and, once again, witness the world’s best players competing over an EGD design this week.”

The Turkish Airlines World Golf Final sees eight of the world’s finest tournament professionals (Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy, Lee Westwood, Justin Rose, Charl Schwartzel, Hunter Mahan, Matt Kuchar and Webb Simpson) play in this unique matchplay event, a first for Turkey, and it underlines the country’s growing domestic interest in the game.

Jeremy added: “Turkey has made huge strides in the 10 years that EGD has been designing golf courses in the region and golf is now a high profile sport in the country, a trend that is only going to accelerate in the future.”

In addition to its completed work in Belek, EGD is currently working on a project in association with former World Number One, Annika Sorenstam, at Olivion Golf Resort that will see the construction of an 18-hole golf course, nine-hole par 3 pitching and chipping course, as well as an extensive short game practice area. This will form part of an integrated resort to include a private residential community, five-star hotel, retail plaza and waterside village community.

Ahmet Agaoglu, President of the Turkish Golf Federation, added: “The European golfing community has begun to recognise Turkey as a popular resort for golf tourism and with the Turkish Airways World Golf Final taking place, the whole world will take a view of golf in Turkey.”

Iconic EGD design underpins Celtic Manor Resort’s reputation as ‘most popular golf destination in the UK’

European Golf Design (EGD) has been recognised for its role in creating the iconic Twenty Ten Course at the Celtic Manor Resort, recently rated the most popular golf destination in the UK by a leading golf travel company.

The 2010 Ryder Cup venue tops the list of Best Selling UK Golf Hotels on yourgolftravel.com with the resort reporting a 26 per cent growth in golf revenue in the second year since hosting the prestigious matchplay tournament.

Russell Phillips, Celtic Manor Vice-President of Facilities and Development, who project managed the course build and staging of the Ryder Cup, said: “It was fundamental to the success of the Ryder Cup and the legacy of hosting the event that the Twenty Ten Course be designed for play by both the world’s best and the golfing public.

“As the steady rise in popularity and revenue proves, that is precisely what the design team achieved.”

Owner of Celtic Manor Resort Sir Terry Matthews hired the expertise of EGD in 2001 with the vision of winning the bid to host the 2010 Ryder Cup and bringing the prestigious event to Wales.

The joint venture company of the European Tour and IMG set about designing the first ever purpose-built Ryder Cup venue as part of a £16 million development setting the stage for the dramatic 2010 event.

Describing how to create a course that offers the drama and spectacle required for a Ryder Cup, combined with playability for the golfing public, Ross McMurray, Designer of Celtic Manor’s Twenty Ten Course, said: “With creative design, you can ensure that all golfers can enjoy even the most demanding of tournament courses.

“Our priority was to design a course fit for the Ryder Cup, which would challenge the professionals and create a sense of drama for the viewers, while also catering for the infrastructure around the venue required for the thousands of spectators, the world’s media plus all the event’s staff.

“However, one of the beauties of golf is that the fans can play on the same courses as the tour professionals, so it was also important that everyone could enjoy the course.

“This was achieved by ensuring the landing areas for public golfers are substantially wider than for professionals. We have to be careful that bunkers aren’t so difficult that golfers of all abilities can’t escape from them, while providing enough of a challenge to tour professionals. It’s a fine line, but it is possible.”

Established in 1992, EGD has made its mark on more than 50 projects across four continents, from Ryder Cup venues to nine-hole academy courses and is involved with preparations for both the 2018 Ryder Cup at Le Golf National, Paris and the UK’s first European Tour Performance Institute at London Golf Club, Kent.

Jeremy Slessor, Managing Director of EGD, said: “The most crucial element of any development, golf or otherwise, is sustainability.

“The three Ps of sustainability are: Profit, People and Planet and each is as important as the other.

“At Celtic Manor, the infrastructure required was phenomenal. When you’re anticipating crowds of 40-45,000 people that will travel around the course with only three or four groups you have to know how they’re going to get there, what they’re going to do while they’re there and how they’re going to get out.

“With the event taking place in Wales during October, we could be fairly certain that weather would be a factor and by installing extensive flood defences and fairway drainage we ensured that the course would stand up to the deluge it experienced.

“The success of the event not only for the European Team, but also for the global audience, ensured the longevity of profitability at Celtic Manor as golf fans from across the UK and the world now recognise the Twenty Ten Course as the venue for one of the most beguiling Ryder Cup’s in history.”