Israel’s first professional golf event took place last week at Caesarea Golf Club. The Pete Dye design is the only eighteen hole course in the country
The Edmond de Rothschild Israel Masters was the final championship on the Alps Tour and was won by Jurrian Van Der Vaart of the Netherlands with -4 total after the tournament was reduced to 36 holes due to a lightening threat.
The tournament was organised by retired French businessman, Marc Harari, who was ably assisted by Swing event management and its chairman, Edouard Tuffier and his capable team. The main sponsor, the Edmond de Rothschild Foundation, owns and manages the historic town of Caesarea with its population of 5,000.
The prize giving ceremony was attended by the Israeli Minister of Sports who expressed her appreciation to the organisers, sponsors, volunteers and participants for their support. She confirmed the support of the Israeli government for the furtherance of golf in the country.
With only a thousand golfers despite the country’s population of seven million, she felt that there was potential to bring the game to the youth and use golf to attract tourism and generate employment.
The golf course was completely rebuilt between 2006-09 by Pete Dye. He stated that he normally designs for a client but in this case as it is the only course in Israel he was designing for a country.
The professionals were unanimous in their praise for the challenging layout, one of the best and most strategic golf courses they play on the Alps Tour.
The consultants to the Caesarea Development Corporation advising on all aspects of the golf element were Richard Wax of Golf Surveys and Colin Hegarty of the Golf Research Group.
Alps Tour http://alpstourgolf.com/