CAMP HUMPHREYS, South Korea — A big 18-hollow golf path has opened on Camp Humphreys, a milestone in the plenty-behind schedule enlargement of the Army garrison that homes the U.S. Military’s new headquarters in South Korea.
The 225-acre course, which started out operations on Monday, is the long-awaited alternative for the 29-yr-vintage Sung Nam Golf Course and the using variety on Seoul’s Yongsan Garrison, which discontinued operations in November.
“This undertaking is a long time coming to fruition,” said Col. Scott Mueller, Humphreys’ commander. “It took the efforts of some of humans and businesses to convey this degree of golfing to Camp Humphreys.”
“Since I took command in June of 2017, I are becoming more questions from the community approximately whilst this project become going to open than something else, to include the medical institution,” he advised Stars and Stripes.
Nearly $forty seven million changed into spent on the River Bend Golf Club, consistent with a file received remaining month from the nearby U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Funding came from the $10.7 billion relocation program budget, mainly paid for through the South Korean government.
The par-seventy two course changed into designed by Robert Trent Jones II, who has another seven guides across South Korea and loads more award-winning publications worldwide.
“We goal to make certain that River Bend isn’t always only a few vicinity you come to play golfing, however wherein you come to experience the game,” Mueller said. “This is a golfing revel in a good way to challenge each level of golfer.”
The set up and relocation venture were plagued with delays since the United States and South Korea agreed in 2004 to relocate maximum U.S. Servicemembers, their families and civilian contractors south of Seoul.
The sod that runs at some stage in the course turned into laid almost 3 years ago, and the incomplete Brian Allgood Army Community Hospital and Ambulatory Care Center broke floor in November of 2012.
Approximately 28,500 U.S. Servicemembers are stationed in South Korea, which stays technically at war with the North after their 1950-53 conflict led to an armistice in place of a peace treaty.
