Port Royal Golf Course will be sprucing up as it prepares to welcome some big-name guests this summer ? but it will not be closing as had been rumoured.

Neither will the course in Southampton be off limits to locals while it hosts corporate clients and guests of American broadcasting network NBC in August.

Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Government golf courses, El James, quashed rumours that NBC would have the exclusive run of the club while using Bermuda as a base to ferry VIPs to and from the Olympics in Athens.

?The course will be available to locals all the way through, yes. If a tournament is booked on a particular day obviously nobody else can play during that period.

?If NBC is slotted to come from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. nobody can play then. They have booked some tee times and they will just blend in with our other tee times. At no time will the course be closed to the public,? he stressed.

James said various refurbishments to the property?s physical structure ? bathrooms and the locker rooms included ? were due regardless of NBC?s visit.

?Nothing has been done to the course in 30 years and our bathrooms in particular need renovating,? he explained.

?We have some major renovations which we are going to do over the next few years and this is the first phase.?

Admittedly, however, he noted these ?come at a good time because NBC is coming here?.

?That should be some invaluable advertising and marketing. Hopefully we get some exposure out of it and I don?t think we can pay for that type of exposure for Bermuda and the golf course.?

Though James could not say when work would start at Port Royal the first phase will be done prior to NBC?s arrival.

Further upgrading to the premises will be undertaken in the future, possibly including the course itself.

?We have a Project Committee which is looking at what can be done over the next 12 months. We have a full schedule of work to be done not only at Port Royal but also at Ocean View and St. George?s.

?We?re probably going to be bringing in a course architect to talk about what we can do to improve the course, if we can make any changes. It could be some extra bunkers. It could be lengthening the course or putting in some extra water holes. It could be all types of things but we want to improve the product,? he said, adding that the overall cost would be known after this assessment and blueprints were done.