Schmidt-Curley Renovates Venerable Hong Kong Golf Club

Schmidt-Curley Design – the full-service golf-course architecture, master-planning and construction-management firm – today announces that its renovation of the historic Hong Kong Golf Club will be exhibited during the PGA European Tour’s UBS Hong Kong Open, November 15-18.

Schmidt-Curley has been performing renovations and general maintenance on the 54-hole club’s Old, New, and Eden courses for the last five years. Their work has included green replacements, bunker repairs, building a new par-3 hole on the New Course, and converting the Old Course’s fairways to the revolutionary salt-water tolerant Paspalum grass while installing a network of engineered cart paths.

“The club is located in a hot, humid valley, making it a really difficult place to grow grass,” says Brian Curley. “Due to less-than-ideal turf conditions, the Old Course wasn’t getting very much member play prior to the change to Paspalum. But it’s been a completely different story after the introduction of the new turf and cart paths. They now love it.”

The UBS Hong Kong Open will be played on the club’s Composite Course, a par-70, 6,749-yard compilation of holes from the New and Eden Courses known for its narrow fairways and small greens. The Composite Course includes the aforementioned 144-yard par-3 hole designed by Schmidt-Curley.

“It’s an honor to have that hole integrated into the Composite Course,” continues Curley. “The UBS Hong Kong Open has been played on the Composite Course for many years and has been won by some of the game’s greatest players. The inclusion of our hole is a testament to the many hours we spent making sure that it would seamlessly fit with the established layout.”

The UBS Hong Kong Open dates back to 1959 and is the longest-running sports event in Hong Kong. Past champions of the event include Greg Norman, Peter Thomson, Tom Watson, Jose Maria Olazabal, and Padraig Harrington. The defending champion is Jose Manual Lara of Spain.

For more information about Schmidt-Curley and its full suite of masterplanning, design and construction services, visit www.schmidt-curley.com or call 480-483-1994.

About Schmidt-Curley Design, Inc.

Founded by partners Lee Schmidt and Brian Curley and based in Scottsdale, Arizona, Schmidt-Curley is a full-service, international golf-course architecture and master-planning firm with more than 100 layouts in 24 countries, including the U.S., Thailand, China, Vietnam, Mexico, Egypt, Sweden, and Korea. The tandem is responsible for crafting 10 of the 12 courses at storied Mission Hills Golf Resort in Shenzhen, China – the largest golf complex in the world.

Schmidt-Curley teamed with long-time partner Nick Faldo, as well as Ernie Els, Jose Maria Olazabal, David Duval, Annika Sorenstam, Vijay Singh, David Ledbetter and Jumbo Ozaki to create a golf experience unlike any other globally. High profile, award-winning projects from Schmidt-Curley include Bali Hai and Siena Golf Clubs (Las Vegas), Amata Spring Golf Club (Chonburi, Thailand, host of the Royal Trophy), Terra Lago Golf Club (Indio, California, site of the Skins Game for four years), Twin Creeks Golf Club (Cedar Park, Texas), and Crosby National Golf Club (Rancho Santa Fe, California).

Schmidt-Curley has also worked extensively with golf’s biggest names – including Jack Nicklaus, Pete Dye, Fred Couples and Faldo on numerous high-profile projects. Producing demanding yet beautiful and enjoyable courses, Schmidt-Curley strives to create golf experiences that stir the senses and elevate golfers’ appreciations for the land and the game. By balancing classic golf course architecture with ever-changing contemporary technology, Schmidt-Curley places an emphasis on site-adaptive courses, memorable and enjoyable for all levels of play and always designed for cost-efficient maintenance and operations.