Special Places - Plantation Course - Kapalua

An exciting new year in golf kicks off this week with the Hyundai Tournament of Champions in Kapalua on the US PGA Tour and the Africa Open at East London Golf Club on the European Tour.

The PGA winner’s only event takes place on the Plantation Course at Kapalua on the beautiful island of Maui in Hawaii. The layout was designed by Tour stalwart Ben Crenshaw along with Bill Coore, and is 6800 metres long playing to a par of 73 with just three par 3’s. The signature hole is the gloriously long downhill 18th, the home hole - although it is over 600m in length the prevailing trade winds usually make it reachable in two blows for all but the shortest hitters. A measure of how receptive the course can be in benign conditions is the tournament record 261 – 31 under par – shot by Ernie Els in 2003. This year’s event sees the return of Stuart Appleby after a three-year hiatus. Appleby’s history-making final round 59 to win the Greenbrier Classic secured him a berth in a tournament he once owned, with three consecutive victories here in 2004-2006. The field will also include reigning US Open champion Graeme McDowell, who just received an MBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List in recognition of his outstanding achievements over the past season.

The European Tour’s 2011 calendar begins with the third playing of the Africa Open, a co-sanctioned event with the Sunshine Tour. East London’s 6200 metre par 73 course hosts the tournament that will see current Open champion Louis Oosthuizen forego the opportunity to play the two US PGA Tour season openers in Hawaii and instead tee it up with fellow major winner Retief Goosen on home soil. This historic golf club bordering the warm Indian Ocean boasts a lush natural setting that incorporates elements of both links and parkland design. Peck and Hotchkin’s unique layout offers beautiful views from many of the holes, and its kikuyu fairways with bent grass greens have hosted six SA Open championships. The signature hole is the 9th, a tough 425m par 4 played from an elevated tee to a narrow green protected by three strategically placed bunkers.

For the first time in many years, this upcoming season presents the mouth-watering prospect of numerous and frequent changes in golf’s coveted number one position, with up to half a dozen players having realistic chances of rising to the top of the rankings.