Anvaya Cove, the first leisure residential project from Filipino development giants Ayala Land, plans to celebrate the opening of its eighteen hole golf course in the fourth quarter of this year.

Designed by architect Kevin Ramsey of Golfplan, and located two hours west of Manila on a seaside site south of the Subic Bay Freeport Zone, Anvaya Cove aims to be the first Filipino course to be considered world-class.

“Course architects are somewhat obliged to talk about how wonderful the client's property is, but Anvaya Cove requires no such lip service,” said Ramsey. “This is the best site I've ever seen or worked upon, and I expect the finished eighteen at Anvaya to be the highlight of my career. It takes about ten minutes on site to appreciate just how special the terrain is. What makes it special are the distinct environments golfers will experience: high grasslands atop the ridges; tropical rainforest on the inland portions; holes right on the beach and others perched on bluffs 40 meters directly above the surf with 180-270 degree views of the West Philippine Sea and the mountains across the bay to Bataan. The mountains frame everything, yet the ocean is so close -- visible from everywhere on site.”

Ramsey's course is at the heart of Anvaya Cove's 470-hectare residential community. Developer Ayala Land is behind many of the Philippines' most sought-after residential projects and a pair of new luxury hotels in the capital, the Fairmont Makati and The Raffles Makati.

The same economic forces that fuel Ayala's growth have primed the Philippine economy as a whole: its GDP is among the highest in the region. In the first quarter of 2013, the economy posted growth of 2.2 per cent, while year on year, GDP expanded by 7.8 per cent, the fastest growth rate since the second quarter of 2010. Goldman Sachs estimates that by the year 2050, the Philippines will be the fourteenth largest economy in the world.

“Anvaya doesn't feel like a real estate development,” Ramsey said. "Standing on the fifth tee, there are houses right there, but you don't see them or feel them because of the thickness of the vegetation. Even the way they've woven the roadways through the site, saving specimen dita and cuphon trees between the lanes...these sound like small things, but they add up to something organic and striking.”