Golf Courses seldom get credit for heritage conservation but there is this golf course in Switzerland that has successfully accommodated both. The entire course was designed around the historic city of Fribourg and when you've completed the 18th hole, you basically complete a tour of the city too.
In Malaysia, golf courses are popping up everywhere swallowing precious virgin jungles and poisoning our rivers. When the Old Subang Airport was handling international flights, it was not uncommon to have pilots cursing out loud the bright lights from the golf courses adjacent to the runway. Apparently the lights made the pilots confused and fortunately there was no untoward incident.
An urban golf course makes an excellent choice to strike a balance between heritage, tourism and sports. Imagine teeing off from Merdeka Square to Bukit Nenas Reserve Forest and finally landing on the green at KLCC park.
For a game of golf, players will discover the historical square where Independence was declared, then make a nature visit at one of the two urban rainforests in the world. Finally the golfer can putt in the final hole in the manicured garden besides the world's tallest twin towers.
A win-win situation for all. Golf tourists from all over the world will pay top dollar to enjoy a game of lifetime and the tourism folks can claim that they have helped to promote Malaysian history and its many tourist attractions. It is also a great way to promote golf and make it a truly people's game.
Related Readings - The Star Friday May 2, 2008
A Swiss city gets urban golf down to a tee. By WILLIAM FRENCH
FUNICULAR railways, bridges and cobbled streets are not typical features on a golf course but they form the backdrop to a new course in a Swiss city hoping to attract fresh tourists.
“Urban golf” is the brainchild of Celine Curty, a former business studies student who hit upon the idea while working as an intern in the tourist office of Fribourg, a pretty university town that marks the frontier between French- and German-speaking Switzerland.
Each ‘hole’ consists of one small patch of astroturf from where you tee off, aiming for a separate piece of turf no more than a few metres away.
The plan formed the basis of her final year degree project, and impressed her bosses at Fribourg so much that they decided to turn it into a reality. “I’m very pleased with how it turned out,” said Curty, though she admitted she hasn’t played the whole course yet.
The 18 “holes” are dotted around the medieval Old Town, many offering fantastic views of the Gothic cathedral, the old city walls and the Sarine river.
It’s more than just a stroll. Doing the full round involves crossing the town for a good four hours, even if you do take advantage of Fribourg’s funicular railway to get down from the first hole to the riverbank.
And if there’s no clubhouse for the traditional “19th hole” relaxation over a gin and tonic, there are plenty of cafes and bars dotted around the city for thirsty players to take a break.
The hole is not marked by a traditional flag but a fixed red marker.
“It’s the perfect way to discover the town,” said Nicolas Zapf, Fribourg’s tourism director.
Urban golf exists in many forms, proving particularly popular in the late 1990s in London’s trendy Shoreditch district, where golfers tired of the sport’s conservative image literally took their clubs to the streets and set up impromptu contests, improvising the holes as they went.
The Fribourg approach is slightly different as the location of the holes is fixed, with the aim of giving players the best possible views across the town. But any budding Tiger Woods or Nick Faldo hoping to perfect their swing will be disappointed, as “urban golf” differs greatly from the traditional variant.
For a start, you have only one club for both swinging and putting – a relief no doubt to any potential caddies who would otherwise have to scale Fribourg’s cobbled, winding and hilly streets.
The ball is also much lighter and made of squeezable rubber, which is probably just as well given the number of pedestrians passing by seemingly unaware of the course in their midst. Each “hole” consists of one small patch of astroturf from where you tee off, aiming for a separate piece of turf no more than a few metres away. The hole is not marked by a traditional flag (too tempting for light-fingered passers-by) but a fixed red marker.
The aim is to sink the ball within seven shots, though of course there are no fixed rules and indeed you’re not forced to play every hole. “We’re not aiming it at golfers, just ordinary tourists,” Zapf said.
Urban golf has been up and running since April 1 and has already attracted a lot of interest in Switzerland as well as neighbouring France and Germany, but is not yet targeting golf-mad Asian tourists.
The holes are surprisingly discreet and not heavily signed – so you need to keep your map with you at all times.
Hurrying after two eager young boys with clubs in hand, one local grandmother said she was all in favour.
“I’m from Fribourg but the kids are from France – it’s a great way for them to get to know the place,” she said. – AFP
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