Swedish professional golfer Henrik Stenson, the current world number seven player, has announced the formation of his own design firm, with fellow countryman Christian Lundin in the position of lead architect. The new firm has also announced its first project, a total rebuild of the 45 hole Österåkers Golf complex north of Stockholm.
Österåkers currently consists of two eighteen hole courses, designed by Sven Tumba, and a later nine hole addition, which serves as a public pay and play course. The planned redesign calls for the complex to be reduced to 36 holes, plus a par three course and an extensive practice facility, modelled on Lundin’s design of the Volkswagen Golfarena in Halmstad. Five areas will also be made available for housing development, which will fund the project. The first parcel of land will include plots for 160-180 houses.
Lundin told GCA: “This partnership with Henrik gives us the opportunity to target golf projects in every corner of the globe. I really look forward to seeing where this partnership can go. The Österåkers complex is a perfect place to start – it is effectively a complete rebuild of the existing facility, which sits on a nice piece of rolling land in a popular location outside Stockholm. We will first create a masterplan to guide the whole process, which will be ready by this autumn. Detailed design will proceed over the winter, and we expect to go out to tender in the spring for a start to construction of the first eighteen in autumn 2016.”
Osterakers Golf MD Andreas Ljunggren said: “We have for a number of years purposefully worked for developing our land to comprise also a residential and a commercial area. This ongoing project will entirely finance the project to redesign the golf courses without any contribution from the members.”
“I have always been fascinated by the layouts and architecture of golf courses and I feel that now is the right time in my career to begin pursuing course design,” said Stenson. “While my main focus remains on playing golf, it will be very important to me to be involved in the details of our designs.”