In 2025, Egat, the public establishment which manages the Atimaono Golf course, will benefit, in addition to its 150 million francs in annual subsidy, from an allocation of 100 million to “rehabilitate” its 18 holes. Expenditures that make one cringe, with some recalling that the Territorial Chamber of Accounts had invited the Country to think seriously about the privatization of the Papara site. But one does not exclude the other: according to the director of Egat, this makeover oriented towards Tahiti 2027, must above all raise the “standing” of golf to attract investors. A project for a tourist complex in Atimaono, not the first, was recently presented to the presidency.
It’s a question that comes up regularly in the ranks of the assembly: what to do with Egat? Created in 1985 to ensure the development of immense state land between Papara and Papeari, the public establishment for the management and development of Teva certainly seems to have emerged from the years of “disastrous” – not to say villainous – management denounced in 2018. by the Territorial Chamber of Accounts. But Epic, whose accounts had been placed “under surveillance” for a time and whose activities were refocused on the management of the Atimaono golf course, remains largely in deficit. During the analysis of the 2025 budget at the assembly last week, the 150 million annual operating allocation did not go unnoticed, with Nuihau Laurey proposing to reduce it by around twenty million to create “the electroshock” , the “awareness” of the lack of financial viability of the Papara establishment. Before recalling two of the major demands of the CTC’s bleeding report: thinking about the sustainability of Egat, and the privatization of golf.
However, at first glance, the government does not seem to be moving in the direction of withdrawing Atimaono. The “investments” part of the same budget in fact includes a line, much less discussed last week, of 100 million francs for the benefit of Egat. An exceptional endowment which should allow it to “rehabilitate” its 18 holes, in particular with a view to the Pacific Games, which will take place on this course.
“Reshaped” course, floods avoided, automated watering
A major project deemed “necessary” by the director of the establishment Hermann Meuel and not only because of Tahiti 2027. Certainly, the “Olivier Bréaud” golf course has already benefited, from public funds, from significant modernizations in recent years, to attempt to “raise its standing” and modernize its infrastructure. There was the expensive purchase of specialized maintenance machines for the greens and fairways, the overhaul of the driving range, the construction of the new club house, inaugurated at the beginning of 2023… Once the new changing rooms and toilets – which make elsewhere, they too, the subject of an extension of 3 million francs to the 2025 budget – completed, and the training area a bit “improved”, the golf course will be able to present “full services”, assures the director.
But the 18-hole course itself – the golf course also hosts a compact 9-hole course – has never really undergone major work. “Today we need to rehabilitate it to make it more accessible and, I was going to say, sexier for the golfer, and also to remodel a little, because the course has hardly changed in 54 years, takes over Hermann Meuel, who took up his position in 2018. So there is a shaper who must come to give us advice, and that will be one of our priorities, for the 2027 Pacific Games, but also to improve the course and develop our commercial activity”.
The exact plans for this “remodeling” still need to be refined, but between 2025 and 2026 it will include putting in place better drainage on the lowest parts of the course (holes no. 10, and 11 and 12 are frequently flooded), to facilitate traffic by modernizing and extending the network of “car-paths” for carts, today considered “a little chaotic”. And above all to modernize the holes themselves: moving bunkers, automatic watering of the greens, possible adaptation of the length and “par” of certain holes to make the level of difficulty more “consistent”… After the excesses in the services provided by the golf before 2017, the director assures that most of the work will be done “in management”. And that it is about “find a balance to make the competition more exciting on the course for visitors, while keeping our regular customers happy”. Golf, despite an increase from 300 to more than 550 members since 2018, must absolutely attract tourists to hope to approach financial balance.
A “tourist complex” project with “golf villas” and marina
No one is unaware of this need for tourist activity to make the Gulf of Tahiti economically viable, especially not the elected representatives of the assembly. Last week, Moetai Brotherson responded to Nuihau Laurey’s proposed amendment by recalling that he “There is not a golf course in the world that is profitable by being just a golf course, without related activities”. “For a golf course to be profitable you need golf villas, a hotel complex, an activity zone”explained the president, as Hermann Meuel had done in committee without really being contradicted.
But this time the head of government added that a “serious project”, carried by a consortium of local investors “known and who have experience in real estate, tourism or the management of nautical services” had been presented to him. “These investors came to meet me at the presidency to present to me this project for an activity zone on the Atimaono estate, with several zones, a cultural part, a health and well-being part, a nautical part with the implementation a marina, golf villas, also agricultural integration, he describes. Obviously the promoters believe in it very strongly and I really believe that this is the direction we need to move towards for this area.”
But of course there is no question of building a tourist complex while leaving golf to a public establishment. As Hermann Meueul confirms, the rehabilitation project also aims to bring the site up to “international standards” which would allow investors to use it to attract foreign customers. And therefore, in passing, to put the golf course under private management. The dual reflection proposed by the CTC on the sustainability of Egat and the transfer of golf management is therefore well underway. Critics of the public establishment have understood this well: Nuihau Laurey had accepted, last week, after having insisted on the need to keep the elected representatives of Tarahoi informed of the progress of the project, to withdraw its amendment, and therefore to vote on Egat subsidies as they stand.
It remains to be seen whether this project – not the first nor the last on a 75 hectare site which has already generated much fantasy – will come to fruition or not. In the meantime, the public establishment is trying to increase its turnover, which today reaches 90 million francs per year. “We made a big effort locally, with results, but we lack tourist golfers, that’s what we’re working on, continues Hermann Meuel. We have entered into partnerships with tour operators, travel agencies and hotels. We took advertisements at the entrance to Tahiti on our airline Air Tahiti Nui. We have some results, not amazing, but within a few months, we will be able to sell tee times directly on the GolfNow platform, which is very present in the United States. This is our favorite market: on the California coast alone there are around 20 million golfers. »
As Oscar Temaru – a regular at the Atimaono course where he has his cart – has already pointed out several times – attracting niche tourism is not easy, given international competition and the lack of courses in Polynesia. “A golf vacation requires at least three 18 holes within reach, and additional activities near the golf courses for the rest of the family”confirms the director of Egat.
