New Faldo course in Pakistan set for official opening

Rumanza Golf Club in Multan, Pakistan, will officially open its new Faldo Design course this week. 

The club, part of a new 9,000-acre community developed by the Defence Housing Authority of Multan, will also have a six-hole par-three layout and a practice range. 

“The course should challenge the top players from the back tees but be eminently playable for all other standards of golfer from the other tees,” said Andy Haggar, lead architect at Faldo Design. “The forward tees will make the course short enough for beginners and juniors. Fairways are quite generous to help golfers keep the ball in play, whilst at the same time, the shaping of the fairways and placement of the hazards challenge the better players to put the ball in the right place. 

“The greens are designed within the entire strategy of the hole they belong to. Often the strategy of the hole is created with the green’s design as the starting point. Here, each green features a range of pin placements that will be either hard, medium or easy. There is noticeable movement in the greens, but the surface areas are large enough to accommodate that movement. As with the fairways, it is about being in the right place on the green to give yourself the best chance of a good score.” 

The layout, which is over 7,500 yards from the back tees, has three distinct sections, characterised by desert, trees and water. The latter revolves around a water storage lake at the centre of the course. 

Faldo Design has worked with GEO Foundation to make the development sustainable. The design team has for example, retained existing fruit trees and deras (mud brick dwellings) to ensure the course has a strong local identity. 

Read more: “The closing three holes will be spectacular,” Haggar told GCA during construction in 2020. 

“On the playing side, we wanted to create an interesting, strategic and memorable golfing experience,” said Haggar. “Once we had scraped off the top surface of material on this very flat site, we found pure sand. That moved us towards creating something of an inland links-style golf course. Alongside some links-like shaping, revetted bunkers seemed the obvious choice. 

“The bunkers are revetted in traditional style using EcoBunker, with turf rolled down over the edge. We also used EcoBunker to create a revetted edge to certain sections of the waste areas adjacent to the fairways, which provides another nice feature of the course, and which complements the bunkering.” 

Sir Nick Faldo will, along with tour pros Rafa Cabrero-Bello, Charley Hull, Graeme McDowell and Mel Reid, attend the official opening event on 25 February. 

Alice ChambersAlice Chambers

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