Troon plans Maldives floating course

30 April 2011

Golfers would walk between holes through underwater tunnels

Troon Golf has been appointed as technical advisor to the proposed US$500 million floating golf course project in the Maldives.

Developed by the Dutch Docklands company, the project is slated for completion by 2015. The Maldivian government has leased five areas around Male Atoll, close to the islands’ international airport, for a fifty year period, and proposes to build a series of five floating islands that will incorporate a convention centre, hotels and golf course. Troon says that the project will be ‘scarless’ and include opportunities for sustainable development such as watercooling, salt water collection and the use of floating solar blanket fields. Dutch architect Koen Olhuis of Waterstudio is leading the design.

The Maldives, whose highest point is only two metres above sea level, has committed to becoming the world’s first carbon neutral country by 2020. The nation already includes one artificial island, Hulhumale, which was completed in 2004, and covers an area of 180 hectares. The island was built to reduce overcrowding on Male, which has over 100,000 people living in only one square mile.

The potential scale of the proposed golf course is not yet clear, although government minister Mahmood Razee has previously admitted it may not be a full sized eighteen holes.