A top quality golf course must be built at Morgan’s Point if Premier Ewart Brown’s vision of Bermuda as a world-class golfing destination is ever to become a reality.

That is the view of Bermuda Golf Association president Bob Legere, who was speaking yesterday as representatives from the PGA of America were completing their latest visit to the Island in preparation for November’s Grand Slam of Golf.

One of Dr. Brown’s major ambitions since he first became Tourism Minister was to secure a major televised event to showcase the Island’s golfing “product” to a massive global audience.

But despite pulling off what was generally regarded a sensational coup for Bermuda in pinching the Grand Slam event from Hawaii, there have been mutterings in local golfing circles that the Island really doesn’t have any golf “product” to speak of in comparison to places like Florida or California — particularly in light of the imminent closure of Port Royal.

Legere agrees with this and was keen to point out yesterday that the world-wide publicity generated by the Grand Slam will only have a beneficial impact on tourism if Bermuda has the quantity and quality of golf courses to “back up the hype”.

A comprehensive revamp of Port Royal and a new course at Morgan’s Point — the polluted 260-acre peninsula that borders Southampton and Sandys — were the only ways to make this happen, Legere insisted.

“The reality is that Bermuda’s golf product as it exists today is actually pretty limited,” he said.

“It relies very, very heavily on the generosity of the private members’ clubs like Tucker’s Point and Mid-Ocean, who have proved willing to open their courses to the public perhaps one or two days a week,” said Legere.

“The only public course that we’ve got which is going to attract the type of golfers we are looking for from overseas is Port Royal. But even that course is a long way from its best shape and will most likely now be closed for an extended period of time starting early next year.

“Golfers who travel the world playing golf want two things: great courses and variety. They are simply not going to spend their money to come to Bermuda to play Ocean View or St. George’s, nor are they going to want to play Port Royal five times.

“They’re going to want to play different and challenging layouts and if they can’t get on the private courses for whatever reason, then the options are very limited and they’d probably feel that their money and their time was better spent somewhere else.

“So while I agree that the work that’s planned at Port Royal is necessary, in my view even after that’s done we still won’t have a world-class golf product.

“That’s why I’m such an enthusiastic supporter of the idea of building a golf course at Morgan’s Point because if you have two, high-quality public golf courses right next to each other at that end of the Island, plus some access to the best private courses, then I think you’re starting to get a golf product you can boast about.”

During the PLP leadership election last October, Brown pledged to resuscitate plans to redevelop Morgan’s Point which had stalled under the Premiership of Alex Scott.

The large tract of land has been vacant since it was abandoned by the US military in the mid-1990s though concerns over the costs of the ronmental cleanup — with the biggest cost estimate quoted so far being $55 million — making any progress on potential development plans painfully slow.

In March it was revealed that Clark International, one of the biggest construction companies in the US, was involved in a new development proposal to transform Morgan’s Point into an hotel resort and championship level golf course.

Nothing substantive has materialised from that initial proposal, however.

“I would like to see a signature tourism resort there — sort of like our Atlantis — where the hotel becomes the destination,” Brown said in October.

“Where the buzz gets around the world like Dubai has its seven star hotel. I would like Bermuda to have a property like that.”