59 The Ocean Dunes course opened in 2019 at FLC Quang Binh Resort on the coast of the East Vietnam Sea Photos: Brian Curley hand over the business to down the road. I don’t want to retire, I just want to slow down, and I need a partner who can eventually run the business and let me do what I do. I needed to create a model that would allow me to do that.” Curley thought long and hard about who his new partner might be, before identifying longtime Nicklaus architect Jim Wagner, with the help of his colleague, contractor Martin Moore of Flagstick Golf Construction. “Martin and I go way back,” he says. “Lee and I started Flagstick and brought Martin on and eventually he bought the business from us. He is the best in the business, and he has for a long time wanted to find someone he can hand it off to, like me. We kept kicking around names, and eventually we came up with Jim Wagner. I thought he was very set at Nicklaus, but I called him, and he was very enthusiastic. We have a bunch of common friends, and they all said, ‘You guys would be fantastic together’. I would run into roadblocks with potential candidates, because they wanted to go to Asia only say three times a year, but Jim said, ‘I want to move back to Manila’. So now Schmidt-Curley is no more, and Curley-Wagner has replaced it. But some things don’t change. On any given day, Brian Curley is likely to be on a plane somewhere. Recently, that somewhere has been the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with Red Sea Global. The Shura Links course, spread across an idyllic island site, is well into construction and is now being grassed,” says Curley. “This project is unbelievable in its size and quality and will undoubtedly be seen as one of the best in the Middle East, offering numerous holes with massive sea views.” Earlier this year, Curley partnered with ex-Nicklaus associate Jim Wagner to form Curley-Wagner Design. The pair are currently building Dhoho Golf Club in Indonesia BRIAN CURLEY
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