The long-delayed Chbika resort in Morocco’s Sahara Desert has begun to show a pulse.

Orascom Development Holding AG has had the 1,235-acre community on its to-do list since the mid 2000s, but the venture was swept aside in the wake of the global economic collapse. However, just months ago Orascom announced that it hopes to complete the first phase of construction at Chbika by the end of 2012, the second phase in late 2015.

To be sure, those phases will include plenty of construction.

By Robert J. Vasilak

Can a country music festival and a golf community make beautiful music together?

Claude Lilievre sure hopes so. Lilievre staged the first country music festival in British Columbia, then rinsed and repeated for 15 consecutive years. After a hiatus in 2010, he resumed the Merritt Mountain Music Festival in July 2011, with a show headlined by Vince Gill, Crystal Gayle, and Dierks Bentley.

An Australian golf construction company plans to build what it calls a “world-class” course on one of the wind-swept islands in Tasmania.

Turnpoint Group plans to erect the to-be-named, 18-hole track on King Island, a desolate 1,800-person island down under that sits midway between Tasmania’s main island and the southern coast of Victoria.

Turnpoint Group owns 208 acres along the island's northern coast near Cape Wickham and plans to complement the course with a small lodge that offers five-star, executive-standard accommodations.

A land sale necessitated by hard times could secure the future of an 86-year-old club in South Gippsland.

The members of Wonthaggi Golf Club have agreed to sell 37 acres of their property in exchange for a redesigned golf course and a new clubhouse. The planned 6,562-yard track, to be created by Tony Cashmore, will be longer and more challenging than the club’s existing layout, which opened in two phases in 1930 and 1950.