Cuba golf project gets green light

[klr]

It looks like hell is about to freeze over:

Five decades after Fidel Castro ordered Cuba's golf courses to be closed down because he considered them "elitist", the island's communist government has approved the construction of a luxury golf resort, complete with an 18-hole course.

The $350m (£227m) Carbonera Club proposed by British firm Esencia is the first to get the green light, with a dozen similar initiatives still under consideration.

The move is a sign of the changing times here, as the government seeks new revenue sources to fund its socialist revolution.

"It will be a major complement to the tourist offering of [the resort town of] Varadero and the start of a whole new policy to increase the presence of golf in Cuba," Tourism Minister Manuel Marrero told the BBC during a visit to Varadero.

Long wait

He confirmed that a formal deal had been reached for a joint venture between Esencia and the Cuban government to develop the Carbonera resort, a short distance along the coast.

"We've been working on this for seven years, step by step, so we're very excited it's finally going to happen," Esencia's CEO Andrew McDonald said on a tour of the 170-hectare (420-acre) site.

Mr McDonald said he expected building work to begin next year on a design which would transform the area.

As well as the golf course, the plans include the construction of an exclusive, gated community of some 650 apartments and villas.

There will also be a hotel and a country club, complete with tennis courts, spa and a yacht club.

And Carbonera is not the only project in the pipeline. A second golf project, with Chinese investment, is expected to be approved by the end of this year.

Other resorts will then be rolled out gradually across the island with Spanish, Vietnamese and Russian funding.

Property boom

And it is not just golf that is the novelty here.

Foreigners will be able to buy property on the developments, the first time that has been allowed anywhere in Cuba apart from a short-lived experiment in the 1990s.

...

continued (including a pic of Fidel and Che playing golf): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-22507776

[JimC]

If I were dictator of Oz, I'd order all golf courses closed because I consider them boring...

[pErvinalia]

Communism fail.

[JimC]

Communism fail.

I am so telling sandi on you...

[Jason]

Under the circumstances, I doubt Captialism would have fared better.

[JimC]

Under the circumstances, I doubt Captialism would have fared better.

But it would have preserved the precious golf courses!

[klr]

Under the circumstances, I doubt Captialism would have fared better.

But it would have preserved the precious golf courses!

Not necessarily. In the early 1800s, St. Andrews - yes, the Old Course - was used as a rabbit farm, as that was more profitable.

[cronus]

Golf is hardly an elitist sport anymore is it? Really? There's probably more golf courses than darts clubs round here.

[pErvinalia]

This one is. You obviously haven't read the article.

[klr]

Indeed. Most golf courses in that part of the world are resort courses for the filthy rich.

[mistermack]

If I were dictator of Oz, I'd order all golf courses closed because I consider them boring...

You'd have to close all the mines, in that case. And stop drilling for water.

[Tyrannical]

No one takes Communism seriously anymore. Except for mentally unstable college professors and spoilt rich kids.

[pErvinalia]

Well people still take its desire for true democratic principles seriously (even though it doesn't ever seem to deliver that). There's still things we can learn from fringe ideologies.

[Tyrannical]

Well people still take its desire for true democratic principles seriously (even though I doesn't ever seem to deliver that). There's still things we can learn from fringe ideologies.

Starting to sound like the definition of insanity.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

What they don't tell you is that three tiny lizards will be made homeless from this.