"GOLF & SPA" magazine tells about the work of the famous golfer on the reconstruction of "St. Sofia" golf course...

‛At the moment the course is like a beautiful picture.
What I want to do is to put a beautiful frame of this picture.’

In the end of December the famous Irish professional golfer Paul McGinley was officially introduced to the members of St. Sofia Golf Club. The reason for a golf star like him to visit the home of Bulgarian golf was St Sofia’s new design. The 18 holes of the first Bulgarian golf course will be changed by Paul McGinley at two stages. The first 9 holes will be worked on during the winter of 2010 and the back 9 – in 2011.



His visit coincided with the Christmas party of the club. In that way the members had two reasons for celebration. Paul McGinley and his assistant Joe Bedford mingled with them and answered all their questions and wishes. There was another pleasant coincidence – the Irishman’s birthday. In the evening McGinley shared: ‛I see designing St Sofia Golf Course is a very good opportunity for me. I will be putting a lot of time in and I will take a lot of personal pleasure in making sure that I give very good job for the people in Sofia and Bulgaria.’
The honour is all ours, Mr. McGinley!

He is most famous for holing the winning putt for the European team in the 2002 Ryder Cup. His best finish on the European Tour Order of Merit is third in 2005 and he has featured in the top twenty of the Official World Golf Rankings. He has won four events on the European Tour and won the World Cup of Golf for Ireland with Pádraig Harrington.

Mr McGinley, how did you take up with St Sofia Golf Course design?
Last year I played with Krassimir Guergov in a Pro-Am in Wentworth at the BMW PGA. Then Krassi contacted me about 2 months later and said that he liked me to come and look at St Sofia golf course to upgrade it and improve it. So I came for my first visit and told him my idea. He liked it and gave me the contract.
Is it going to be a re-design or a whole new design?
We’ll be upgrading the present design but the course wouldn’t be radically changed. I am not changing its fundamentals. The holes would be still pretty much the same. I am giving it a facelift. At the moment the course is like a beautiful picture. What I want to do is to put a beautiful frame of this picture. I think a major capital city in Europe like Sofia deserves a very classic golf course. So what I want to create here is a traditional course that will stand the test of time. All the best golf courses in the world are traditional ones. Too many golf courses around the world now are too difficult. And for Bulgaria, as a developing golf country, it will be good not to create a golf course that is too difficult. I want to encourage people from Bulgaria to play and play and play and to form a local golf community.



What are your ideas?
I am a very visual person. So I like to see all the shots. I am not going to create any tricks and I won’t create any blind shots. The first thing I am going to do is to raise the tee-boxes, because I’d like to look down the fairways. I don’t want the golfers to fight against the course and don’t want the course to win every time. I want the golfer to enjoy it and to win sometimes.
What is your previous experience in golf design?
I got one project in Ireland, south of Dublin. That was a very big project. We had started from zero. We’d started from a field with cows and sheep and turned it into a golf course. My co-designer’s the one that helped Greg Norman to design the Earth course in Dubai. At this stage my career is very much focused on playing so I haven’t spent a lot of time designing.
What was your first thought when you were asked to take up with the design of St Sofia?
I didn’t know much about Bulgaria. So the first thing I did was to google it and get to know more about it. When I first came here I got a vision. I met St Sofia members and I saw they were all very proud of the golf course. I am not coming in here to strip it away and making it the whole different. I am going to make it more pleasant to play. The routing is very good. There is a good variety of holes. I think in a hundred year time the trees we are going to plant, probably around 3 000 pine trees, will be 40-50 m high. And they will frame every hole. But for the moment I want the members to enjoy it. And they don’t have to wait for 100 years to play on a good golf course. The playing area will be very generous – nice big fairways, nice big greens, not too much undulation. I want the people to walk on the course and think: ‛Mmm, I want to play again tomorrow because I think I can do better!’ I want to keep them coming back.
So what’s next?
We start working in the first weeks of January. I will come every second month for planning meetings. My assistant, the project coordinator, Joe Bedford will come every month to check the working process. But both of us have already done a huge amount of work at home. He has spent lots of hours on the drawing table. He will give the drawings to Golf Balkan that are going to construct it. The front 9 holes would be closed in January and will be opened in summertime. Next winter we are going to do the back 9.
Could you compare St Sofia project with some famous golf courses?
Sunningdale. It is regarded one of the best golf courses in the world. I live in Sunningdale. It is over 100 years old. I think the same could be created here.
Have you seen the other golf projects in Bulgaria?
Yes! Оn my first visit I flew down at BlackSeaRama, Thracian Cliffs and Lighthouse. It is important for me to have the whole feel of golf in Bulgaria. I want to understand what it is about. BlackSeaRama and Thracian Cliffs are very beautiful and modern golf courses but what I am going to create here is on the different end of the scale – a classic golf course.
What do you think about the future of golf in Bulgaria?
Golf in Bulgaria needs golf courses. In 2-3 years time there will be a number of golf courses and the next level is investment in tourism. The Tourist board should promote Bulgaria as a golfing destination. The BGA and the government need to invest in young people playing golf, because in 2016 golf will be part of the Olympics, so lots of funding should come from the government to help promoting the sport amongst children.
Is it a positive thing that golf is back in the Olympics?
Yes, this is a very positive thing. It is going to be great especially for the golf developing countries like Bulgaria and also for South America and Asia, because all the governments will be giving proportion of the funding for golf. And I think there will be a lot more investment in golf in the next number of years.
Which will be the next championship you are going to participate in?
I think this will be AT&T in Pebble Beach, California. I had an operation on my knee one month ago so I am recovering now. I hope to be hitting balls again in January. The weather is not good in England so probably I will go to Portugal to do a 10 days intensive practice.
What do you think about Tiger’s retirement from the big golf?
I think he will be back very shortly! And I hope he is back very shortly. He is a big draw for golf. He is good for the game.