MCBROOM & CARRICK REDESIGNING THE CARIBBEAN

There is a great deal of excitement building for what the future holds for the newest Caribbean hot spot known as the Leeward Islands of St. Kitts and Nevis as we discover in this government article from the capital Bassetterre.

RoyalSt.Kitts (CUOPM) With help from top Canadian course architects Tom McBroom and Doug Carrick, the sister volcanic islands of St. Kitts and Nevis have almost overnight erupted as a force in Caribbean golf. And the best is yet to come. That's according to a Brian Kendal article in the Toronto Globe and Mail, one of Canada's leading newspapers.

In the article, headlined Creating a Green Monster, Kendall wrote that no fewer than four new high-end courses are planned for the jungle valleys and coastlines of a destination that for decades slumbered as one of the backwaters of the West Indies.

Kendall, the author of Northern Links: Canada From Tee to Tee continued: Until recently dependent on the notoriously unreliable sugar-cane harvest, the former British colonies are following the example of Jamaica, Barbados and other popular islands in targeting the world's estimated 50 million serious golfers.

According to statistics, these travelers---ranging from affluent, active vacationers to executives looking to seal a deal or impress a client---spend about 35 percent more per trip, and travel more often than other tourists.

Every one of the new courses is expected to be of championship calibre. This includes a Carrick-designed track on the ruggedly verdant terrain adjacent to the Four Seasons Resort Nevis's existing Robert Trent Jones Jr. layout, which was the only quality course on the islands until the 2004 launch of McBroom's remodeled

Funded by Newfound Developers, a St. John's-based company with projects worldwide, the as-yet-unnamed Carrick course and resort will be carved through mature coconut groves climbing the foothills of Mount Nevis. The course is tentatively scheduled to open in 2008.

I've been trying for years to find a project in the Caribbean, Carrick says. Now, there'll be courses by Tom McBroom and me at the same destination. That might prove to be a pretty good draw, especially for Canadian golfers.

Expected to open for play early next year is the $14-million La Valle Golf Course, located in the Sandy Point area of northern St. Kitts. Designed by American Charles Howard, the links-style layout will feature spectacular views of the Caribbean, the neighbouring island of St. Eustatius and looming Mount Liamuiga. Future plans for the site include the addition of a hotel resort, villas, a marina, a sports complex and, potentially, a nine-hole expansion of the golf course.

California-based Auberge Resorts will soon begin construction of a $295-million resort complex set on a peninsula in the Sandy Bank Bay area of St. Kitts. The project, scheduled to open in 2008, includes a luxury hotel and a championship course designed by Rees Jones, who along with his brother Trent Jones Jr. ranks among the leading architects in the game.

Another name instantly recognizable to golfers, Welshman Ian Woosnam, the 1991 Masters champion, will design the course at Kittitian Heights Resorts at Belmont Estate, a recently announced project in northwest St. Kitts, about 20 kilometres from the capital of Basseterre. That $195-million development, scheduled for completion in 2011, is expected to create 1,000 jobs for locals.

Golf is being counted on to anchor the tourism industry of a destination whose natural beauty remains largely unspoiled. Located southeast of Puerto Rico in the Leeward Islands, St. Kitts and Nevis offer attractions that include hiking trails through tropical rain forests, a scenic railway that connects the old sugar plantations of St. Kitts, and historic Brimstone Hill Fortress, the only man-made World Heritage Site in the Eastern Caribbean.

Resort operators from around the world have targeted St. Kitts and Nevis as the next Caribbean hot spot, with recent sightings of celebrity visitors such as Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey, Mel Gibson and Robert De Niro only adding to its growing cachet.

With our jungles, beach views and dramatic hillsides, St. Kitts and Nevis are ideally suited for golf course construction, says Minister of State in the St. Kitts Ministry of Tourism, Sports and Culture, Sen the Hon. Richard O. Skerritt.

We're going after upscale tourists who expect world-class golf. Our goal is to build a tourism industry that won't suffer too badly from economic and political shocks.

The transition from sugar-cane production to golf tourism was marked by last year's relaunch of the Royal St. Kitts Golf Club at the St. Kitts Marriott Resort at Frigate Bay, St. Kitts.

The links-style layout, which McBroom rebuilt on top of a flat and badly irrigated course of the same name, includes three new ocean-side holes on the back nine that rank among the most exciting found in the Caribbean. At the par-three 15th, McBroom memorably flanked the green on both sides with a cascade of bunkers designed to mimic the waves crashing ashore in the background.

Together with the gorgeous Trent Jones Jr. layout in Nevis, the opening of McBroom's course gave the islands a one-two punch that immediately caught the attention of the golf world.

Golf has absolutely exploded throughout the Caribbean islands in the last decade or so, McBroom says. All the leading designers Tom Fazio, Pete Dye, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Weiskopf, Greg Norman have built courses. But what's happening in Nevis and St. Kitts right now is particularly exciting.