Ibom Hotel Golf Resort, Nigeria
Steve Ritson was appointed as golf course architect to design a new 18-hole, par 72, championship standard golf course of over 7,000 yards for Le Meridien Ibom Hotel Golf Resort near Uyo in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria.
The course was constructed by Jardin Nig. Ltd, with Guy Bouman Golf Course Contractors and was opened in March 2007 by Colin Montgomerie, Retief Goosen and Nancy Lopez and is now a premier location for top golf professional tournaments in Nigeria. The golf course is situated on a hilltop ridge, with spectacular views over the surrounding rain forest stretching to the mountains of Cameroon. For an aerial view of the golf course click here.
The course was the first major golf development in Nigeria over the last 20 years and in 2012 was recognized in Golf Weeks magazine’s Best Resort Course, the first in Africa and it continues to host top pro tournament events.
Please see the Ibom Hotel and Golf Resort website.
The Lakeside Golf Course, Wales
This 9-hole academy style golf course in the beautiful Welsh county of Powys was designed by Steve Ritson on behalf of RGA Associates and Steve also directed the construction of the course.
The course is played from two sets of tees to create an 18-hole course with a number of full-length and challenging golf holes, including par 3s, 4s and one par 5 which is designed to test all levels of golfers with well-placed bunkers and undulating putting surfaces but the course is also designed to be fun for all the family to enjoy.
The course layout takes the golfers on a route that makes the most of the dynamic terrain on the site, with fantastic views with the backdrop of the surrounding hills and wooded valleys. The course was constructed with minimal disturbance to the shape of the existing land and only tees, greens, bunkers and landing zones were re-shaped and is a good example of sustainable golf course.
The course opened for play in March 2010 and has continued to prove to be a very successful golf venue and you can see more of the golf course in a flythrough for yourself by visiting the Lakeside Golf Club website.
Porto Sokhna Golf Course, Egypt
This will be a stunning new 18 hole championship golf course at Porto Sokhna, on the Red Sea in Egypt, designed by Steve Ritson for the Amer Group and with Frank DiNenna as Project Manager, taking on the awesome task of taming the mountainous site to create what could be one of the best new golf courses in the world.
Watch this space for updates and plans. Note that as the project is developing the client is putting in place some temporary parts of the golf course to give clients just a taste of what the course will become in the future.
Pytchley Lodge Golf Course
The 9-hole executive style golf course, was an addition to an existing driving range which opened for play in August 2000 and has since proved very popular indeed.
The design is aimed at fun golf all the family with generous fairways and few bunkers but with new ponds and undulating greens providing a challenge if taken head-on even for accomplished golfers.
This was Steve’s first golf course design acting as consultant to Roger Griffiths Associates. The course was designed with USGA Standard Greens which have performed very well, allowing the course to remain open throughout the year even in the worst of winters.
The golf course was constructed by Land Unit Construction with Tompkins Robinson as Quantity surveyors and Samuel Rose as planning consultants.
Click the link here to visit the Pytchley Golf Lodge website.
Brookfield Golf Course, Cheshire
This 18 hole par 70 golf course near Crewe at 6,100 yards was designed by Steve Ritson on behalf of Roger Griffiths Associates and was opened in 2002.
A beautiful parkland golf course was laid out on the farmland with as little disturbance to the existing ground as possible and the landowners building the course under direction from Steve for setting out and shaping the course.
The course closed in 2017 due to the financial lure to build houses but you can see here why the members really miss this beautiful part of the world.
The Obijackson Acropolis Golf Course, Nigeria
This 9 hole golf course is located in South Western Nigeria, in Anambra State near the village of Okija and was designed by Steve Ritson for Dr Ernest Obijackson of Nestoil Ltd and now part of Acropolis Gardens Development.
The course benefits from fantastic views over the surrounding areas and was formerly an old palm plantation.
Steve designed the routing to carefully avoid removing any of the larger existing trees and introduced a number of lakes which serve to collect the surface runoff which is filtered through a series of vegetation filled ditches and reused for irrigation to this paspalum course.
The course is private and is being developed along with the rest of the estate which includes helipad, banqueting hall and in time a large golf clubhouse designed by ACCL Architects.