A championship golf course has long been proposed for Morgan's Point and several names have been linked to the plans.

Golfing legend Jack Nicklaus was part of a controversial $250 million bid to transform the former base land into a booming tourist resort in 1997. He was named as the architect of the scheme's 18-hole PGA championship golf course — but the plan came to nothing.

Another team who submitted a tender to develop Morgan's Point in 1997 secured the services of top American golf architect Tom Fazio to design their course and got Masters champion Nick Faldo on board. The team lost out to the group involving Nicklaus.

In 2008, after Southlands Ltd. was offered the land swap for Morgan's Point, it selected Toronto-based planning firm Forrec and Ontario-based Doug Carrick to design the golf course for its luxury resort.

Southlands says Government later asked for a trophy golf course and government golf course consultant Roddy Carr recommended Mr. Fazio or Pete Dye for the design.

The developers met with Mr. Carr and Mr. Fazio in July that year and the latter submitted plans in December that met the trophy status.

But the company says that by May 2009, Government had relaxed its insistence on a trophy course so it could retain 40 acres at the former US Naval Annex.

In February this year, when the deal stalled, a Government spokesman said Mr. Carrick was not enough of a household name and that "signature courses start with Fazio, Faldo".

The following month, Cabinet approved preliminary designs by award-winning landscape architect Mr. Carrick for a par 71, measuring just over 6,700 yards from the championship tees.

Southlands Ltd. has yet to contract a golf architect to do the final design.