Golf
Course Architects’ Work at Course on Island of Borneo Wins Four
Awards
TravelGolf.com
Staff Report
MILL VALLEY, CA (MARCH 21, 2001) -- Golf course architect Robin
Nelson today announced that his international design company --
Nelson & Haworth, Golf Course Architects -- received four awards
at the inaugural Asian Golf Monthly Awards program for the design
of Shan-Shui Golf & Country Club.
The awards program took place during the opening ceremony of the PGA Show of Asia, held Feb. 22-25 at the Singapore Expo Hall. Asian Golf Monthly is Asia’s leading industry publication.
Shan-Shui, located on the island of Borneo in the East Malaysian state of Sabah, was recognized for the following accolades:
• Best Course in Asia
• Best Course in Malaysia
• Best Par 4 in Asia (15th hole)
• Best Par 5 in Asia (5th hole)
The awards were bestowed based on votes cast by the publication’s readers.
“When we first saw the site for Shan-Shui we knew we could design a special course there,” said Nelson, Chairman and Director of Nelson & Haworth, which provides international design services, and sole proprietor of his U.S. company, through which Nelson designs courses in North America.
“The site had everything designers look for -- wonderful vegetation, undulating terrain, a superb river meandering through its 365 acres, plus an excellent client with whom to work,” said Nelson & Haworth President Neil Haworth.
A private club owned by a Singapore-Malaysia consortium, Shan-Shui opened in 1997. It features the 7,365-yard, par-72 course, which hosted the Asian PGA Tour’s 1998 Sabah Masters.
The aptly named “Crocodile River” meanders through the site, home to a former rubber estate, and comes into play on nine holes. The banks of this small river are natural rainforest and contain spectacular flaura, including protected “Honey Bear” trees, which stand more than 200 feet high.
The course winds through rubber tree areas, rare “Strangler Fig” trees, and coconut groves. The site’s highest point provides views of the Suluwesi Sea and across Borneo.
“We wanted a natural golf course,” says Dato Kour Nam Ngum, a member of the ownership consortium. “I saw other Nelson & Haworth designs, and I knew they would supply exactly what we were looking for.”
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The par-5 15th hole at Shan-Shui is a classic risk-reward design. A double fairway -- and decision -- awaits golfers from the elevated tee.
A perfectly executed drive to the narrower fairway provides an opportunity to reach the green in two. Miss it, however, and bogey -- at best -- awaits.
The other award-winning hole is the par-4 5th hole, with its teeing area on a ridge adjacent to the Crocodile River. Accuracy off the tee is required on this hole, with a well-aimed shot finding a plateau set in a cocoa plantation. From there, players must find the green nestled below among coconut palms and guarded on the right by a babbling stream.
About Robin Nelson
Nelson & Haworth is an international company that provides golf course design outside of the United States by Robin Nelson and his partner Neil Haworth.
Nelson, 50, also works solo on projects in North America from his company headquarters in Mill Valley, Calif., near San Francisco.
Named by a panel of judges in January as golf-industry publication BoardRoom Magazine's "Golf Course Architect of the Year," Nelson had eight course designs or redesigns open in 2000, including five in the U.S. -- two in California (Dragon at Gold Mountain near Reno/Taho, and Mare Island along the San Francisco Bay); one in Alaska (Creek Course at Moose Run near Anchorage); one in Florida (Casa Linda Oaks in Jacksonville); and one in Virginia (Oceana in Virginia Beach).
Nelson’s Dragon at Gold Mountain and Creek Course at Moose Run new-course designs are being considered for “best-of” status by leading golf publications.
His work at Mare Island added nine holes to the oldest nine-hole track west of the Mississippi (opened in 1892), as well as unveiled previously unseen panoramic, breathtaking views of the S.F. Bay.
