Chocolate Drops: An English Resort Makes a Bid for a Ryder Cup

Hello there, Fried Egg Golf Club. Welcome to the week.

I’m currently gallivanting around South East England with a group of FEGC members, but through the magic of the internet, I’ve delivered to my editor a few thoughts on what’s happening in golf architecture right now:

→ Luton Hoo Hotel, Golf & Spa, a luxury resort about 30 miles outside of Central London, plans to undergo a 170-million-pound renovation in hopes of being selected as the host of the 2035 Ryder Cup. European Golf Design will direct the work on the golf course, with Team Europe star Justin Rose and 89-year-old Gary Player consulting. 

Luton Hoo’s owner, British-Indian billionaire Surinder Arora, told the BBC that his ambition is “to create the Augusta of Europe.” Oh, does that mean the new Luton Hoo will have wide fairways, intricate strategic architecture, and ultra-bold greens? (Haha no, it probably just means the maintenance budget will be really high.)

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Arora told the BBC that he “welcomed the competition from other venues in England which were also vying to host the Ryder Cup in 2035.” But let’s be real: Luton Hoo has this in the bag. Consider the personnel for the renovation project. European Golf Design is the in-house design firm of the European Tour Group, which administers the European side of the Ryder Cup. Justin Rose is a good bet to be at least a vice captain for Team Europe in 2035. And Gary Player… well, I’m not sure what he’s doing here. Maybe Arora just likes him.

Luton Hoo is also exactly the kind of venue Ryder Cup Europe has selected recently. Like Le Golf National, Marco Simone Golf & Country Club, and Camiral Golf & Wellness—the sites of the 2018, 2023, and 2027 cups, respectively—Luton Hoo sits about an hour outside of a major city, offers upscale accommodation for players and staff, and has promised to fund a pricey course renovation by European Golf Design.

None of this is particularly heartwarming, unless you’re a big fan of backroom deals between wealthy men. But I see the virtues of the model. As I said in a recent episode of the Fried Egg Golf Podcast, the leaders of the European Tour haven’t settled for simply choosing hosts for the Ryder Cup. They are developing venues. In retrofitting properties like Luton Hoo for their purposes, they have shown a kind of vision and initiative that their counterparts at the PGA of America conspicuously lack. I just wish I liked European Golf Design’s architecture a bit more.

→ New nightmare fuel: in the coming years, we may see a lot of public golf courses get purchased by tech companies with the intention of redeveloping them as data centers. “Move fast and break things,” indeed.

→ Golf Course Architecture has a thorough writeup on Brian Schneider’s upcoming renovation project at San Diego Country Club.

→ I think this qualifies as news: we got sun today at Royal St. George’s!

→ Social roundup:

• More Brian Schneider news: the architect announced that he is working with Glen Falls Country Club in upstate New York. I’ve heard a lot of good things about this Donald Ross design.
• Yet more Schneider-related material! Gray Carlton posted some good footage of Silver Springs Country Club in Connecticut, where Schneider has been leading a renovation project.
• Streamsong Resort in Florida held a media day at its new David McLay Kidd design, scheduled to open in 2026.

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