International Design Group (IDG) has completed designs for three golf courses for the proposed Tarafo Bay development on the island of Boa Vista, Cape Verde.

UK-based industrialist and entrepreneur Tim Strawson is leading the development on the southern coast of the island, which includes the golf courses, resorts, villas and other amenities. This vision has planning consent and, once additional funding has been raised, is expected to be completed over a 25-year timespan.

The land for the development was originally split into 18 individual parcels that could hold standalone resorts. Strawson bought one of the parcels around 10 years ago, then decided in 2021 that this part of the island would benefit from one, big integrated resort rather than 18 individual properties, and set out to develop a more ambitious plan.

The site includes an area of rocky terrain with some environmental designations that prevent hotels from being built, so is now reserved for golf.

“It is an incredible, tropical location that is on the same time zone as most of Europe,” said IDG principal and golf course architect Jon Hunt. “It’s 28C most of the year, has some cloud cover and a nice breeze – it couldn’t be more perfect for golf. Tim knew you can’t just build one golf course; you must build three or four to make it a destination.”

The launch phase includes three hotels, some apartments and villas, and the 18-hole Tarafo Bay Links. The golf will be built first on the western side of the development, with the resorts to follow.

“The first layout will be a linksy style championship course,” said Hunt. “Linksy in terms of the general shaping, but we’ve also got five coastal holes. The rest will wind through quite rocky lunar landscapes, a bit like Black Desert in Utah, which is an absolute masterpiece, and that is 100 per cent the sort of visual that I would be going for. We have exactly that type of volcanic terrain to allow us to do a similar combination of the perfect turfgrass contrasting with the rocky, lunar landscape.

“Every parcel has a boundary that is preordained, so we had to fit our golf within those boundaries. I wanted to get as far away from the clubhouse as I could with a view to pulling in as much of the coastline… and our plan pretty much achieves that. We’ve got a green finishing on the coast, a par three and par four alongside it, a tee that plays away from the beach but the hole after then plays back towards the coast and will provide a fantastic sunset view.”

This first course will be around 7,200 yards, which Hunt describes as “the resort’s jewel in the crown”. A second will be around 7,000 yards and slightly less challenging, with the third, which will be built further from the coast in the ‘backlands’, around 6,800 yards.

The clubhouse will be near the coast and overlook the par-three eighteenth. “A sunset view was important for the clubhouse location,” said Hunt. “We knew this land was to be the first parcel to be developed and we would have to control a lot of golf from the same area.

Two of the courses are designed with nine-hole loops that start and end at the clubhouse. The first phase will include the construction of one clubhouse that will be shared between the three courses. In a later stage, a second clubhouse will be built on the eastern side of the site.

“We’re a little bit different to other golf designers as we also work closely on the architecture and landscape side of projects,” said Andrew Craven, principal at IDG. “Our office is taking care of some of the hotel concepts, villa options and the landscape of the development. This project is a really good example of all the skill sets of our company.”

“There are several really good RIU-operated resorts in Cape Verde and we’re aiming to piggyback on them,” said Hunt. “The golf will primarily serve those on the island and in the new resorts, but it is expected that we will receive some play from people staying at other hotels already on Boa Vista.”

Community and sustainability are two important drivers of the development.

“All the water will be created by reverse osmosis (RO) desalinisation, powered by a massive solar farm,” said Hunt. “The entirety of the development is aiming to be hydrocarbon-free and not reliant on any diesel backup or grid support for electricity. Water will be generated by our own machines – this is why you won’t see many lakes on the courses, because we don’t want to lose it to evaporation. We have some around the clubhouse, but these will be saltwater lakes. We’re going to be using salt tolerant grasses, so we don’t have to squeeze every last drop of salt out of the RO delivery.”

Strawson has helped to set up the Boa Vista Development Trust where the funds that are invested in the trust will be matched by the Cape Verde government to the tune of £20 million ($26 million). These funds will be available for locals to start businesses on the island or to train themselves to work within the development. “This is a great initiative for giving something back to the local people,” said Hunt. “Sustainability isn’t just about minimising water use of material miles; it is also about bringing the local community up and making sure that they are looked after and are part of it. We’re not putting big gates up, and we’re expecting the Cape Verde and Boa Vista populace to be part of this resort. The development trust is a major differentiator for us and brings our sustainability credentials up significantly.”

Strawson is now seeking the additional investment required to move forward with the plan, which is expected to largely come from people interested in buying holiday homes.