FOUR of the greatest names in world golf, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Greg Norman and Ireland’s Christy O’Connor Jr, are heading to St Lucia this winter. They won’t be taking their clubs or swimming trunks but a strong pair of walking shoes and drawing paper, for each of them plans to build a course on an island no bigger than the Isle of Wight.

Today there is only one course on St Lucia, the St Lucia Golf & Country Club, a testing course with a charming clubhouse that includes the Duffer’s Bar. Alongside the 8th hole a new development is taking shape. Known as Villas on the Green, it will consist of 72 luxury villas, a fitness centre, swimming pool and tennis court.

The units are being sold on a freehold basis, with the option to enter a rental pool, along with free membership of the golf club. All owners in the rental pool get six weeks’ usage, three in the high season, three in the low. The rest of the time the place is managed for you.

For the first two years, there is a guaranteed return of 5 per cent. Prices for the two-bedroom units start at $555,000 (£290,750), rising to $685,000 for the three-bedroom ones. The first phase will be ready in time for the Cricket World Cup in March, when St Lucia hosts the England team.

If you would rather invest in an hotel than a villa rental scheme, Cap Maison is the place to go. Still on the fashionable northwest tip of the island, on a stunning site on top of a cliff, a mini boutique hotel is taking shape. Gill Faldo, the former wife of one of England’s best golfers, has already snapped up one unit. There will be 22 units, a first-class restaurant, gym and spa. There is a magnificent beach within two minutes’ walk, nine weeks’ private use and a guaranteed return of 5 per cent for the first year.

The largest development is on the south of the island, near the international airport. On one side will be the spa, hotel and housing; on the other, the Arnold Palmer and the Christy O’Connor Jr courses. Ritz-Carlton will be running the 275-room hotel, and there will be 150 private residences. The hotel properties are for sale on a buy-to-let basis, with prices for a one-bedroom apartment costing $1.2 million. Problem is, most of phase one has already been sold, mainly to Irish buyers.

“I don’t know who will play on all these courses if they ever get built,” says Ken, a member of the St Lucia Golf and Country Club. Antigua is about 200 miles to the north, or an hour’s flight. It is about the same size, but with less dramatic countryside. The two islands have been rivals since the British and French fought over them in the 18th century. Lord Nelson was clear what he thought of the region. Despite giving his name to the magnificent dockyard, which was the Royal Navy’s base in the Caribbean, he described Antigua as “a hellhole”. But then those uniforms must have been very sweaty. For much of the past 30 years Antigua has been more successful at attracting tourists and property owners, because St Lucia’s left-wing Government encouraged banana growing. However, that market is dead and they are both in the business of chasing the tourist dollar.

While it is not targeting the golf market, Antigua continues to attract celebrities. Giorgio Armani has just built a place on the southwest coast. Timothy Dalton, Robert De Niro and Eric Clapton have houses there. Clapton is so fond of the place that he has built a drug rehabilitation clinic, where Oprah Winfrey went to recover.

The Government, after a disastrous foray in the 1980s into encouraging cheap, all-inclusive tourism, is trying to attract upmarket tourists, in particular housebuyers. This has encouraged Lanny Smikles, a Jamaican-born British citizen, and his Antiguan partner, Linda Hillaire, to buy an old plantation house on Hodges Bay. They are planning a development called Elle Antigua. Less than ten minutes’ drive from the airport, and set in one of the more upmarket areas of the island, it will boast a 54-bedroom hotel, with the old house, with its extra wide doors to accommodate the ladies’ crinoline dresses, as the focal point. There will be a combination of townhouses and waterfront cottages, in a mix of Caribbean and Colonial styles.

Smikles is promising investors a return of 6 per cent a year for the first two years. Thereafter purchasers share in the net profits of the hotel. “We want this to be the best hotel on the island,” he says.

Down the road, the Blue Waters Hotel is building its own buy-to-let scheme. There will be four main buildings that will split into one-bedroom suites and two-bedroom penthouses, overlooking the sea. All owners will have access to Blue Waters facilities. Prices start at $375,000 with six weeks’ usage and guaranteed return of 6 per cent for the first two years.

On the other side of the island is the La Perla development at Nonsuch Bay. La Perla builds to a pretty high standard and this is no exception. There are apartments, townhouses and villas. Prices start from $485,000 for a one-bedroom apartment, $950,000 for a three-bedroom townhouse and $668,000 for a one-acre plot.

Both of these islands are agreeable places to spend a week in the winter. St Lucia is hoping that its golf courses will encourage people to stay longer. But look out for Ken — he’s far better than his handicap of 24 suggests.

Fact file

• For details of Elle Antigua, contact Premier Resorts on 0800 0835157 or www.premierelleantigua.co.uk
• Information on Cap Maison and The Cove at Blue Water from Prestigious Properties on 0870 8518620 or visit www.prestigious-properties.co.uk
• For the Ritz-Carlton St Lucia contact Prestigious Properties Ireland at 00353-8638 03007 or via e-mail to info@ppeire.com
• For Nonsuch Bay contact La Perla on 020-7712 1785 or www.laperlaninternationalliving.com
• Virgin Atlantic flies to St Lucia three times a week. Other airlines flying there include British Airways, BWIA and BMI.

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