Benjamin John Defensor, president and chief executive officer of Hanafil Golf & Tour, Inc., said the firm’s multi-million development commitments include putting up additional nine holes, constructing a hotel and some villas, and improving the driving range at the Subic Bay Golf and Country Club.
Defensor said the project is scheduled for completion within six years as the redevelopment would be done in phases following requests by club members to keep open the existing golf course while additional holes are being constructed.
"We’re aiming for a full-blown country club concept," Defensor told reporters in a press briefing.
"The fairways would have to be reconstructed from scratch and some of the holes would have to be relocated," he said. In re-designing the course, Defensor said his company is planning to engage the services of topnotch golf architects like Arnold Palmer or Robert Trent Jones II, who have both designed some of the world’s most exciting courses.
Palmer’s best courses include those at the Bay Hill Club in Orlando, Florida; the Classic Club in Palm Desert, California; and the Four Seasons Resort in Liberia, Costa Rica.
On the other hand, Jones’s masterpieces include the Spanish Bay Links in Pebble Beach, California; the Prince Course in Kauai, Hawaii; and the Cabo Real Campo de Golf in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority Administrator Armand Arreza said that Hanafil’s golf course project is but one of three leisure complexes to be established in the Subic Bay Freeport area within the next few years. (BCM)
Arreza further said that SBMA has also approved a 400-hectare site at Cawag in Subic’s Redondo Peninsula for a golf course and resort project by Neocove, another Korean company, while a third golf course would be established at the Morong area, which is being eyed as a resort and convention complex.
The location of the three golf courses are planned in such a way that they won’t compete with each other, but instead ensure adequate facilities for the growing number of golf enthusiasts and visiting professional players, Arreza said.
The Subic Bay Golf Course redevelopment project was awarded by SBMA to Hanafil after conducting a public bidding early this year.
It could be recalled that SBMA took over the operation of the facility last year after it terminated the lease agreement of the previous operator due to its ballooning debts that ran to some $ 150 million.
Atty. Von Rodriguez, officer in charge of the SBMA Legal Department, said the Regional Trial Court in Olongapo City has affirmed the validity of the SBMA takeover last year.
The Supreme Court has also upheld in 2000 SBMA’s rights to take over the operation of the golf course when it did so in 1997 due to the failure of the previous operator to honor its development commitments.
Defensor clarified, meanwhile, the firm has retained the services of some 70 workers who were employed by the previous operator and would employ more local workers upon the start of construction and re-development activities.(BCM)
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