Latest news with #golfresort


BBC News
14-07-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
President Trump to meet Prime Minister on Scotland visit
Sir Keir Starmer will meet Donald Trump when the US president visits Scotland later this month, Downing Street has Trump is expected to travel to his golf resort at Menie in 10 said Sir Keir had accepted an invitation to meet during the "private" trip to Scotland confirmed last week that is was preparing for a presidential visit. It is understood there will be no private meeting with King Charles. However, Trump will make a full state visit to the UK later this year. The US president will be hosted at Windsor Castle from 17 to 19 will be his second state visit, having been hosted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2019 during his first term in second state visit is unprecedented, with second-term US leaders typically invited for tea or lunch with the whose mother Mary was born in Lewis, last came to Scotland in 2023, when he broke ground on a new 18-hole course at his Aberdeenshire golf president's company also owns the Trump Turnberry golf resort in South has often spoken of his affection for the country but his last presidential visit, in 2018, prompted large protests in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen.


National Post
02-07-2025
- National Post
Casa de Campo's Dye Fore course is ready to shine ... and ready for Canadians
Standing on the first green high atop cliffs looking down into the serpentine Chavon River from the 27-hole Dye Fore golf course, you feel a world away from the trademark tropical paradise of Casa de Campo. Article content Variety and vastness might be the secret of this 7,000-acre golf resort that started it all in the Dominican Republic. I frequently get asked about my favourite spots in the world of golf, and I usually break my answer up into sun destinations or, well, rain destinations (because Old World links golf is just different), and Pete Dye's Casa de Campo has for years been at the top of my sunshine list. Article content Article content Article content Last year, Casa de Campo celebrated its 50th anniversary, and the resort just keeps getting better. Since 2023, as part of a $90-million expansion, it has added an absolutely world-class 18,000 square-foot spa and wellness centre that is already winning awards, as well as a new Premier Club complete with 58 new suites and a dedicated reception building with exclusive bar and lounge areas. Article content The elephant in the room for 2025 at Casa de Campo is that the world-famous Teeth of the Dog course is closed for restoration, and we'll get to that in a minute. But what it means for the golfers is that this finally should be the year that the resort's tremendous Dye Fore course gets its due. Article content Meanwhile, the elephant in the room for some Canadian golfers is that they are looking for somewhere other than the U.S. to travel this year. That's a personal decision for everyone, but if that's you, checking out Casa de Campo is a great idea. And there are special rates for golfers this year with Teeth of the Dog closed. Article content Article content Article content Dye Fore's Chavon-Marina combo (the third nine is called Lagos) was the 18-hole mix for our first round, and it's an absolute stunner. With five-cliffside holes featuring 300-foot drops to the river, more than one PGA pro at the resort has told me that the Chavon nine is their favourite stretch of golf onsite, and that includes Teeth of the Dog. Article content Article content The wide, rolling fairways and dramatic landscape of Dye Fore's Chavon nine have a Kapalua vibe, although the river below adds some intrigue and mystery which makes sense considering it was the scene for the famous helicopter raid in the Francis Ford Coppola classic, Apocalypse Now. Article content During the Teeth of the Dog restoration, Casa de Campo still boasts the 27-hole Dye Fore course as well as the 18-hole Links course, and a 21-acre learning and instruction facility. I'm currently reaping the benefits from an excellent lesson with swing coach Jose Junquera. Article content The Links course doesn't boast the same dramatic views as Dye Fore or Teeth of the Dog but it's wonderfully designed by Pete Dye and provides the stiffest challenge of the bunch.


Forbes
20-06-2025
- Forbes
Stunning New Golf Course At USA Today's Best Golf Resort In America
July 4th is America's birthday, and American golfers are getting a great present this year. For the past several years, Big Cedar Lodge in the beautiful Missouri Ozarks has continued to improve and expand its golf offerings, to the point where for the first time, back in April, USA Today readers voted it the nation's Best Golf Resort for 2025 (as a longtime but not current USA Today contributor I was asked to be one of several panelists on the nominating committee but did not vote in the competition). Just a month later, the crew at Forbes Vetted named Big Cedar the 'Best Golf Resort in the U.S. for Families' and one of the nation's '8 Best Golf Resorts.' But those awards, as impressive as they are, both came when Big Cedar 'only' had five courses. On July 4th weekend it will officially open its sixth and most unique layout, Cliffhangers, which has been 'soft' opened for limited preview play the past few weeks, and I was able to go and see it. Here is your first look at a stunning new golf course at USA Today's best golf resort in America. There are more than 38,000 golf courses on earth, making it extremely hard to do anything in golf course design that has literally never been done before. I have not played every course, but I have been covering golf travel, courses and design in deep detail for over 30 years, and I have played many of the very highest rated ones on every inhabited continent. So, I am pretty sure that the third hole at Cliffhangers is the only one on any course where golfers tee off from inside a cave and hit their tee shot through a waterfall cascading over the mouth of the cave to a green far below. There's a course in Idaho with a movable island green in a lake that changes locations daily, an ocean island hole in Mexico you have to take an amphibious cart to putt out, and a 19th hole in South Africa that requires a helicopter to reach the clifftop tee. Cliffhangers instantly joins this pantheon of crazy, unforgettable, one-of-a-kind golf. Or as Big Cedar Lodge owner Johnny Morris calls it, 'Adventure Golf.' Morris is the founder, owner and CEO of outdoor retail giant Bass Pros Shops (which also owns outdoor retail giant Cabela's) and has been called 'the Walt Disney of retail' for his elaborate, theatrical and sometimes interactive in-store displays, which involve everything from live alligators to fishing boats docked in the water—inside one of the world's largest pyramids. Morris is famous for his vision, for seeing things others do not and then sparing no expense to turn them into reality, and the 4,600-acre Big Cedar Lodge resort is his personal pride and joy. He grew up in this part of the Ozarks, loves it, and want you to love it too, and he has done a tremendous amount of work to make sure that happens. While his other courses have involved the world's most famous designers (more below), Cliffhangers was the work of Morris and his son John Paul, who looked up at the precipitous, rocky, cliffside terrain and thought what no one else would: why not build a golf course there? 'This is golf on the edge—literally,' said Morris. 'We wanted to create something that celebrates the natural wonder of the Ozarks while delivering an unforgettable adventure for every golfer.' John Paul added, 'Cliffhangers reflects everything we love about nature, adventure, and golf. It's wild, fun, and unlike anything in the game of golf today' He is right about that. Golfers traverse steep cart trails and drive through creeks, past waterfalls, and through the signature cave. And Johnny Morris so wants visitors to go home with a hole in one as a memory that he built extra tee boxes on holes one and ten and greens fee include a shot from each so you get 20 bites at the apple. That's because Cliffhangers is a par-3 course, which as traveling golfers know, is all the rage in golf right now. The best resorts, from Pebble Beach to Pinehurst to Bandon Dunes, along with Streamsong, Cabot Citrus Farms, Sand Valley and many others have been rushing to introduce new par-3 courses, but none of those are as memorable as Cliffhangers, which is meant to be super fun for both the most seasoned golfers and those new to the game (though with all the water features it is entirely possible to lose more balls here than on one of the resort's three championship eighteen hole courses—all of which are ranked in the nation's Top 100 You Can Play by Golf Digest). Also, while many of the new short courses popping up across the country are only nine holes (or random ten or twelve), this is 18-20, the full deal. Not your usual golf course cart path. Big Cedar Resort Like most of the current crop of par-3 courses, born from the tradition of pitch and putt layouts, holes are on the shorter side and I got through Cliffhangers hitting northing more than an eight iron. But the visual variety is staggering, with an island green, peninsula holes, huge elevation changes, and exposed rock and water everywhere—it is built into and on top of cliffs, after all. The cave tee box and waterfall combo make three an instant de facto signature hole, but really just about every hole out here could be one. I mean, just look at the pictures. All of this overlooks Payne's Valley, my favorite course at Big Cedar and a drop-dead visual stunner with more lakes, more greens, more waterfalls, and beauty as far as the eye can see. Another person who previewed the course in advance was golf personality Lauren Thompson, host of The Morning Drive on The Golf Channel. She said, 'I've played many great courses around the world, and Cliffhangers is unlike anything I've ever seen. It's breathtakingly beautiful, incredibly challenging, and the best thing to happen to golf in years.' Years. Aerial view of the new Cliffhangers course. Big Cedar Resort The resort is so big that it has an extensive free shuttle system to move guests around, as lodging options include a hotel, lakefront cabins, rental homes, a safari-style glamping resort, and new luxury golf cabins out at the Mountain Top clubhouse by Payne's Valley and Cliffhangers. I rode to dinner in a shuttle with a group of retired bank executives who had been doing an annual golf trip together for 31 years, and had been all over the place, to many regions and golf resorts. They told me they had just played Cliffhangers and one of them confided, 'It was as much fun as any 'real' course I have ever played.' I loved it too, and it is a perfect short 20-holes to get in before tackling one of the bigger courses at Big Cedar, because in addition to getting you in a great mood, it will help dial in your short game, as the fast bentgrass greens are similar in speed to those on the full-sized layouts. Short courses do not need to have grass this good, but Morris does not cut corners, and those playing Cliffhangers even get to stop into the fancy Payne's Valley halfway house during their round, where all the snacks are free, including the signature premium bison hot dogs, from a herd he raises in a nature reserve near Big Cedar. I recommend you try to make a morning tee time at Cliffhangers before a round at Payne's Valley, for a near-perfect day of golf. As good as it is, golfers are not likely to make a trip to Big Cedar just to play the new par-3 layout, but they might be curious how it became the Best Golf Resort in the U.S. So here's the Big Cedar golf overview in a nutshell. The highest rated course in Missouri is Ozarks National, by the legendary design duo of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw. The second highest rated course in Missouri is Payne's Valley, the 19-hole effort by Tiger Woods. It is the only public eighteen by Woods in the country, and it is fabulous. I think the magazines always favor Coore and Crenshaw designs, but I firmly believe the Woods course is even better. I played it the day it opened in 2019, I have played it since, and wrote this story here at Forbes, 'Tiger Wood's First Public U.S. Golf Course is Awesome.' It is fun, extremely playable, has some great risk/reward holes so it appeals to all caliber players, and it is visually stunning. It is telling that they sell more tee times at Payne's Valley than on any other course. The third highest rated course in Missouri is Buffalo Ridge, a Tom Fazio design that has bison grazing next to its fairways (not the ones that make the hot dogs). All three eighteens are ranked in the Top 100 in the U.S., a feat only a handful of resorts have ever achieved. On top of this, the facilities, service and conditioning are first rate, and the concept of standout Midwestern hospitality is very much evident. Big Cedar also has caddies, forecaddies and extensive practice facilities, including a putting course inspired by the Himalayas in St. Andrews, Scotland and designed by 8-time Major Champion Tom Watson. Then there are two stunning 'regular' par-3 courses, not shortened versions, but all full-length holes, up to 221-yards. The Gary Player designed Mountain Top is a walking-only 13-hole stunner carved through rock formations and rolling terrain. The Jack Nicklaus Signature Top of the Rock 9-holer is the only par-3 course ever used in competition in a PGA Tour sanctioned event, the Bass Pro Shops Legends of Golf, which used to be played here and on Buffalo Ridge. These par-3 courses are so good that you could make a trip to Big Cedar just to play them and Cliffhangers, though I would not pass up the 'big' courses. But as one-shotters go, both Mountain Top and Top of the Rock are as good as anything I have seen on earth. Golf Magazine finally added a ranking of short courses to its more famous Top 100 in the U.S. and Top 100 in the World lists, before Cliffhangers. It ranked the 25 Best Par-3 Courses in the World, but unlike the Top 100, courses were not ranked in order, just the best 25. The vast majority are at the world's top ultra-private clubs, like Augusta National, Pine Valley and the Olympic Club. Less than ten of the world's courses on the list are public, and both Mountain Top and Top of the Rock made the cut. That means until Cliffhangers opens July 4th, every one of the five golf courses at Big Cedar has made the most important 'Best' lists in the industry, and that is no coincidence. In addition to the stunning new golf course, for fishing fans, Big Cedar Lodge sits right on 43,000-acre Table Rock Lake, host of a professional bass tournament and renowned as one of the best fishing spots in the country. Being owned alongside Bass Pro Shops, it is no surprise that Big Cedar has two different state-of-the-art marinas equipped with the newest boats and gear, and it is arguably the best freshwater fishing resort in the country as well, though USA Today does not rate those. Yet.


CTV News
20-06-2025
- Health
- CTV News
Water quality advisory issued for Trestle Creek Golf Resort Beach
Alberta Health Services (AHS) has issued a water quality advisory for Trestle Creek Golf Resort Beach due to high levels of fecal bacteria. At current levels, gastrointestinal illness may result from consuming the water. There is also a possibility of skin, ear and eye infection if exposed to the water. People are advised not to swim or wade at the beach area. The Trestle Creek Golf Resort is approximately 92 kilometres west of Edmonton.


NHK
23-05-2025
- Business
- NHK
Vietnam breaks ground for Trump luxury golf resort
A family firm of US President Donald Trump has started developing a luxury golf resort in Vietnam. Hanoi may be hoping for special treatment from Washington amid the threat of high tariffs from the Trump administration. Trump's son Eric, who is Executive Vice President of the Trump Organization, together with Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, attended a groundbreaking ceremony in Hung Yen province near the capital Hanoi on Wednesday. Their plans are for an upscale golf resort, worth about 1.5 billion dollars. Chinh said, "This project will contribute to promoting Vietnam-US relations to go deeper and become more substantial and effective." He welcomed the venture and urged local authorities to give it maximum support. The US's trade deficit with Vietnam is its third largest after those with China and Mexico. Vietnam had been bracing for a 46 percent tariff before it was put on hold. A US civic group has slammed the resort development, saying it illustrates how Trump's administration takes advantage of foreign governments to gain special treatment for his business.