it just beggers belief..is someone taking a backhander or what

this from the algarver observer



50 new golf courses approved in the Algarve
9/8/2005 12:52:00 AM
The President of the Algarve Metropolitan Committee, Macário Correia, today reiterated that the construction of about 50 golf courses had been approved in the region and rejected the criticisms of environmental associations, who accuse him of ignoring the problem of drought.

Macário Correia said that the golf courses were necessary, adding that they know that they consume water but they also create many jobs and provide solutions for the region’s economy; he said that more golf courses in the region will bring more people to the Algarve throughout the year and this is of great interest to the local economy.

Monday’s edition of the "Jornal de Notícias" published the story that the 31 existing golf courses in the Algarve region consume as much water as 60% of the population.

The President of the Algarve Metropolitan Committee said that many of the golf courses obviously find their own solutions for irrigation with having to resort to mains water, adding that golf is necessary and the Algarve will have more golf courses.

The director of the Benamour golf club in Tavira, Gonçalo Martins Dias, also rejected the criticisms about creating more golf courses in the Algarve and accused the environmental associations of not knowing the reality of golf as a whole.

The director of one of the newest Algarve courses explained that in terms of irrigated land, golf represents 2% of the total area in the country. In terms of consumption of water, it represents less than 1% of the water used for irrigation.

He said that it made much more sense to irrigate a golf course which employs between 60 and 100 people throughout the year than to irrigate 100 hectares where 4 or 5 people are employed throughout the year.

However, Gonçalo Martins Dias complained about the length of time that is needed to build a golf course in Portugal and said that the existing bureaucracy and legislation only create “negative situations”.

He said that the Benamour course was designed in 1986 and opened in 2000, all because of legislation and bureaucracy. Anywhere else in the world it would take two years, here it takes 14, he said.

In the Eastern Algarve (Sotavento), four golf courses are planned in the area of Castro Marim, two courses linked to the resorts of Verde Lago and Monte Rei in Vila Real de Santo António and one golf course in Alcoutim.

In the Algarve Barlavento, in Silves, the plan is to build a further four golf courses.

I'm disappointed its only 50 golf courses. Why not plan to build another hundred, that would give all the ranters here enough ammunition to keep a thread going for weeks, though of course they would only be talking in circles, as ever

If 31 courses use 60% of the water, then 81 will use 156% and a bit. Could that cause any difficulty?

I like this 'many of the golf courses obviously find their own solutions'. I suppose they manufacture the stuff.

I guess that some of their solutions are the ones shown in the following article - creation of lakes and use of different grasses:

http://www.committedtogreen.com/campaig ... rtugal.htm

Guest I am sure that there is probably a lot of greasing of palms going on Did you read in the Resident this week that a study carried out by the World Bank (I think, as thrown the copy away) concluded that if Portugal got rid of its endemic corruption and tax evasion mentality, it could enjoy an economy on par with Finland, instead of being the poorest of the EU "old" member countries!

So, more golf courses eh? Firstly I would like to say that I an not anti golf. I studied and taught sports science and respect all sports/games. I tried it once or twice but found it too slow and boring, but I was an athlete, so probably not surprising. Each to their own in any case. However, do golfers themselves want/need all these courses? Are there not already enough courses to play in the world and to enjoy? The game of golf seems to me to be an excuse for property developers to build houses.

I personally cannot see the attraction of living near a golf course. If I wanted to live near to green, open spaces I wouldn't choose to live on top of a manufactured version with loads of identical houses and with little privacy. Again each to their own I suppose but what is the attraction of living on one of these developments?

My agricultural engineer friend, who gave me the article on desalination, which I posted on here a few days ago, believes golf courses should only be in places where they are suited environmentally e.g. Northern European countries and not in the south of the Iberian Peninsula.

Only time will tell of course and if we don't get any substantial rain this winter it could be sooner than we think.

Does anyone have the figures on how busy the courses that are currently here are on a daily basis? Are they so busy and jammed packed with golfers that there is such a need for loads more courses? Do golfers make such a difference to the economy of Portugal? I often see special offers advertised to attract business to various courses, so surely that tells us something?

Sorry I know I have raised lots of questions and issues here. I am not a "golf basher", but I cannot believe that there are so many golfers out there to warrant so many new courses and so many people that long to live on top of one.

this reminds me of carvoeiro, 20 years ago someone open a restaurant and the restaurant was working well, the year after anther 3 or 4 new restaturants open, nowadays there's restaurants every other door, they strugle for all year round and work for 2 or 3 months, years ago someone open an off licence did well for the first year, the following year another 5 off licences open in carvoeiro, i wonder where are they gonna get golfers for 50 new courses? i bellieve that to keep a golf course running there's maintenance costs, how reliablle are those news? it looks to me that someone is winding up people!

Played Gramacho twice last week ( only 25euros after 4.30 pm ).

Course NOT in Tip TOP condition due to LACK of irrigation.

Sensitive areas sanded to avoid too much wear also course not open to play all day .

This contrast to last may when they had the sprayers going in the heat of the day SO something is happening.

Agree that last place I would want is linkside Villa unless we went into the second hand golf ball business