Australian firm Pacific Coast Design is underway with the construction of the first new golf course in Iran for 33 years.

Developer TSI (Iranian Land) chose PCD to design the project, an international standard eighteen hole course, plus nine hole academy, near the town of Panand, around 15 minutes from the main Tehran airport.

Construction of the golf course began this spring, and is expected to be finished by early 2014. Mohammad Abbasi, the Iranian minister for sport and youth affairs hit the first golf ball at the construction inauguration ceremony.

While the entire site is 1,400 hectares, the golf zone, which has been masterplanned by PCD and includes the course, academy and clubhouse, plus residential and commercial property, a hotel and a school, forms a parcel of 340 hectares.

PCD principal Phil Ryan said: “The bulk of the site has elevations between 1,055-1,100 metres and is semi-desert land without a single tree. This will soon change as the land will be irrigated by treated effluent water and both landscape and grass nursery have already been established on site.”