Happy 2009

HAPPY NEW YEAR.

MAY 2009 BE A HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS YEAR FOR EVERYONE.

I wish everyone can live harmoniously in the country without quarrel and fight. Share their happiness and wealth together.

My dogs have decided to make peace with a stray cat and share their food together. Now they live happily. No more dog barking every day.

If the animals can do it, intelligence people like us can surely do it if we try. I wish everyone in the world can live in peace especially the people of Palestinian.

Price Money

Hear from the car radio while driving to work that the F1 organizer is asking the drivers to reduce their pay so that the F1 race can continue during the global financial crisis. Many F1 sponsors are pulling out or reducing the money. Honda had decided to pull out from F1 2 weeks ago.

Many of the big companies particular those in the US are facing financial problem. These companies will have to cut down their sport sponsorship budget for next year.

For the PGA tour 2009 schedule with was released 2 weeks ago, everything is still in order. Car companies are still sponsoring the tour. Mercedes-Benz Championship, Buick Invitational, The Honda Classic, Buick Open and BMW Championship are all scheduled with the same amount of price money. FedExCup is still paying 10 millions dollar for the winner. So the PGA tour players are very lucky I guess.

Don’t know about the European tour and the Asian tour. Are the price moneys still the same?

New Golf Course in Malaysia

New golf course is coming up. It has been a long time since the last golf course is built in Selangor. With the material prices coming down it is now the best time to build if you have the money. By the time the course is completed in 2010 the economic situation in the country might be back to normal.

The Star (Sunday December 14, 2008):

Master of The Mines
EDITORIAL By WONG SAI WAN

Having created two very different and unique golf clubs, Tan Sri Lee Kim Yew is now out to create the biggest golf complex in the country.

As the founder of the ultra-exclusive Mines Golf Resort, one cannot deny that Tan Sri Lee Kim Yew is not only a shrewd businessman, but also a visionary one.

But when he recently announced that he intends to build the country’s biggest golf complex within the vicinity of the Bukit Beruntung-Rasa area, many questioned his judgement, especially doing this in the midst of the financial crisis.

Tan Sri Lee showing the concept drawing of a golf academy that he is planing to build at the Mines Golf City.

“My philosophy is simple - if you want to do something then you must do it big.

“This project - the Mines Golf City - is to get the attention of the world to focus on the country. I want the world to sit up and take notice of us. It is no point doing it too small,” Lee said in an exclusive interview with Stargolf.

He is planning to build a 63-hole, or five golf courses, on a 850ha rubber and oil palm estate which stretches along the Bukit Beruntung-Rasa road.

As announced last week, Lee has signed up Swede legend Annika Sorenstam to design the first course for the Mines Golf City. (See stories on this retired LPGA star on pages 3 and 4).

“I can also now confirm that Pak Se-Ri will design the second 18 holes. We signed her up when she was at the Lexus Cup in Singapore (two weeks ago),” said Lee as a matter of fact.

He also revealed that his company had written to the Selangor government to allow him to take over the Bukit Beruntung Golf and Country Club.

“We have written to the State Secretary Incorporated about taking over the club. If they agree to our proposal then we would have a 99-hole facility instead.

“I don’t know if they will agree, but I am also willing to take over the management and the upgrade the two courses.”

He added that his development would re-focus development in the area as half of the 850ha property would be a high-end real estate development project.

The total Gross Development Value of the Mines Golf City is about RM3bil and Lee has set the average development cost of each hole at RM1.5mil.

Asked why he wanted to build such a massive project, Lee said that golfers when travelling overseas liked to play a variety of courses and the Mines Golf City would be able to cater for such requirements.

“Those who come to stay in our city for a three-day-two-night package can play on three different courses without having to travel outside - just like Mission Hills in China,” he said.

Mission Hills has 234 holes - 13 courses, designed by various famous golfers, including Sorenstam.

Lee also confirmed that all his course designers would be women.

“Women designers will give a feminine touch that is lacking when you look at male designed courses.

“Women will think about flowers and the environment. That is what a golf course should be,” he said, adding that Pak was so serious about the project that she was now going on tour armed with a camera to take pictures of things she would like to incorporate into the course in the Mines Golf City.

He said the undertaking would be the first golf project in the Klang Valley in the past decade and was confident that the location was near enough to Kuala Lumpur to attract tourists as well as locals.

“The piece of land is the most beautiful that I have been involved with yet. The undulations and rolling hills make it perfect for a golf project.”

Besides the Mines Golf Resort, Lee also founded the Borneo Heights Golf Resort just outside Kuching in Sarawak and the Pecanwood Golf and Country Course in South Africa.

Besides luxury homes, Lee is considering putting up a golf academy within the golf city and also a health tourism facility.

Asked how he intended to position his new project and whether it would be another exclusive golf club, Lee said the Mines Golf City would be modelled after the Singapore Island Golf and Country Club which had a membership of more than 7,000.

“We are aiming for about only 5,000 members while the Mines Resort has less than 300,” he added.

Lee said his intention is to turn the area into the premier recreational destination.

“I want to do so much that maybe the Government will change the name of the entire area to follow us and become the Mines Golf City instead of Bukit Berutung.”

He pointed out that all over the world the value of properties which front golf courses appreciate four or five times.

“Why are we going into golf in such a big way? You must look at golf from an international point of view. If you do it well - especially with property - it is an international property play.

“I have seen it in South Africa and here at The Mines (in Kuala Lumpur). Golf enhances the value of the property. Just look at Mission Hills. Mission Hills is good, but we are going to be better.”

Annika Sorenstam design course in Malaysia

The Star (Sunday December 7, 2008):

Sorenstam to help design course at the Mines Golf City

KUALA LUMPUR: After eight years, Swedish golfing superstar Annika Sorenstam is back on Malaysian soil.

And this time, she is here to help design what is acclaimed to be the South-East Asian version of the Mission Hills in China — the Mines Golf City.
Swede presence: Annika Sorenstam (right) with Mines founder Tan Sri Lee Kim Yew at the press conference yesterday. - UU BAN LEONG/THE STAR
Sorenstam will design the first 18 holes of the sprawling 63-hole golf course, which will be the first and largest in South-East Asia.

It will not just be of championship standard, but also a luxury green development encompassing over 2,100 acres of land near Bukit Beruntung.

The former world No. 1 flew in yesterday and took a helicopter ride to view the location of what will be her first attempt at designing a golf course in the region.

Sorenstam first came to Malaysia for the Women’s World Cup at Mines Resort and Golf Club in 2000. She partnered her sister Charlotta and they finished as runners-up, two strokes behind Australians Karrie Webb and Rachel Hetherington.

“I’m honoured to be back here. I am proud to be involved with such a world-class development. They have cleared two holes to give me a feel of what’s ahead. My hope is to capture the natural character of the landscape and the end product is to give every golfer a test to remember,” said Sorenstam, who is due to retire after playing her last professional tournament in Dubai next week.

The 38-year-old has certainly been one of the most dominant players in women’s golf in the last decade and has 72 wins on the LPGA Tour, including 10 major championships.

Sorenstam said her immediate plans after retirement would be to concentrate on her business and to get married in January.

“Something that I will not miss is the daily grind of competition. I have felt the pressure of performing in recent times. Having achieved everything, I feel it’s time to move on,” said Sorenstam.

She, however, said that she would definitely miss the adrenaline rush she gets from playing against the best in the world.

Tan Sri Lee Kim Yew, the founder of Mines, said he took up the challenge to launch the project despite the current economic climate as he believed that properties within a golf community, like waterfront communities, would always be sought after.

“It is my aim to create a Mission Hills-type for Malaysia for the world to take notice.

“There have been no new golf projects in the last 10 years but I believe this will work. It is also a great honour to have Annika accept my invitation to help in the project,” he said.

Fuel Price and Economy

Went to a dinner function on Sunday night. The speaker said that the economy in Malaysia will be greatly affected next year due to globle recession. Instead of taking out billions of Ringgit for Value Cap to help the share market, he suggested that the Government should reduce the fuel price. By reducing the fuel price to actual market price of 90 sen per litre, every person in the country will benefit. It will boost the economy of Malaysia.

Come to think of it, what he said is true. Money put in Value Cap or bailout certain companies like what happened in the US only benefited a small group of people but by reducing the fuel price the money can spread to all the people in the country. Manufacturers and exporters will be able to reduce their cost and become more competitive. Price of goods can be reduced so that it can become more affordable. Cheaper traveling cost to attract more tourists. So many benefits that you can think off.