Sport Minister Charles Ramson Jr. is flanked by members of the DaSilva family as they turn the sod for the Timehri Sands Golf Course
A symbol of a family’s passion for a sport and an idea that was birthed out of the trials of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Timehri Sands Golf Course and Country Club is soon to establish another landmark of Guyana’s Tourism and Development capability in the Timehri area.
Currently, Guyana boasts just one venue for the sport: at Lusignan on the East Coast of Demerara (EBD). As such, the new Timehri Course will add variety at another end of the Region.
Set to cost approximately US$3M for its construction, the 9-hole course has been described as a natural one, given the sand dunes present in the area, and will fit into both the environmentally friendly and minimalist brackets.
Kurt DaSilva, son of the investors that will see the Timehri Sands venue to fruition in one and a half to two years’ time, detailed the story of how his parents decided they want to invest in Guyana’s landscape, as members of the diaspora.
A look at a part of the sandpit area that will soon be transformed into a 9- hole golf course
“When things started to open back up, one of the first things, or only things you could do, was play golf, cause it’s one of the sports you can safely socially distance and still play as a group. So, all the cricket guys, who most of them had never played golf before, said, ‘Well, we want to get out there again as a team, what can we do and be competitive?’ so, we all took up golf, and the love just grew,” DaSilva shared of how his personal love for the sport was birthed.
He added, “My Dad, he started playing just a little before that, but I would say we all really increased our passion for the game of golf.”
Architect of the Timehri Sands course, Jason Miller
“Around 2 years now, or maybe more, my parents started to talk about opening a golf course in Guyana. Obviously coming from the fact that they’re approaching the age of retirement soon, and they’re approaching the next step in their journey, and they always had aspirations to move back to Guyana, so this idea came up of moving back and opening this golf course.
Minister Ramson teeing off at the Timehri Sands area
“I think what’s important about that, with any project, not only do you need successful execution, good management, good skill, I think that a key part to any successful project is passion, and that’s what I see when I talk to my parents,” DaSilva went on to detail.
At a simple sod-turning ceremony on Thursday afternoon at the Golf Course’s Timehri location, Canadian Architect Jason Miller highlighted some key components of the soon-to-be constructed course, while discussing its expansion capability to an 18-hole venue.
“This is the (type) of land that original golf courses were built on 200 years ago, and then through the 1800s and 1900s, through the golden years…all the best lands were picked, and they’re all sand- based lands similar to this,” Miller said in words of praise for the land’s topography.
He went on to explain, “It would be a par-35, ends up being over 3000 yards, which is a traditional length for an average golf course. When I got to the site here, I realised the elevation change was even grander than I imagined. We can make it as natural as any golf course has ever been made, although it was a sandpit.”
Turning his attention to the course’s expansion potential, Miller disclosed, “We’ve also designed this 9-hole golf course so, in the future, if we ever had the opportunity to add to the land parcel, that this golf course could be expandable by design.
Sport Minister Charles Ramson Jr.
“You can see how holes come to the edge of properties. If we had more property, we’d play more holes and come back and play this one. So, it’s quite expandable in the future. If Guyana wants to present a national championship, this would be a great golf course if we had an 18-hole course.”
Also gracing the sod-turning ceremony was an impressed Sport Minister Charles Ramson Jr., who declared that the venue is within Government’s vision for hosting international sport events, Tourism and development.
Ramson Jr. shared, “You can’t be a tourism destination if you don’t have a really good golf product, and if we’re going to be serious, this is in alignment with our overall vision for the country. President Ali’s overall vision for the country, one of it, is to be a premier destination for world-class events.
“We’ve started to do that; you know that with CPL, and this year we’re going to be hosting T20 World Cup cricket, and we’ve started to do that with many, many different types of events, with athletics etc,” he explained.
“This will help to fortify amongst the variety that would help in developing the country,” the Minister added about the Course’s capabilities.
The initial stages of the Timehri Sands project were facilitated through the Diaspora Unit at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, whose Head, Rosalina Rasul, also detailed the steps it took to being the plan to its current stages, including meetings with the unit, Sport Minister Ramson, and President Dr. Irfaan Ali.
The Timehri Sands Golf Course and Country Club currently has a one and a half to two- years’ timeline for completion. (Jemima Holmes)
