Darius Oliver no longer designing Lovedale Farm golf course

21 Sep 2026

As reported by Planet Golf last year, the Lovedale Farm golf course development in NSW’s Hunter Valley is set to begin construction early next year, with a new golf course designer.

Darius Oliver has long been promoted as golf architect at Lovedale Farm by the developer, Capital Corporation, despite having no ongoing involvement in the golf course design process, or any direct knowledge of key parts of the final design. The company describes the golf course as being, “by Darius Oliver”, although also acknowledge him as being chiefly responsible for the routing and initial vision of the course.

Oliver told Planet Golf, that he was disappointed not to be designing the golf course anymore. “I think every designer dreams of building at least one unpretentious, heathland style golf course in their career,” he said, “and I was hoping Lovedale would be mine.”

The designer of Cape Wickham and The Cliffs on Kangaroo Island added that, although he has a theory, he wasn’t exactly sure why the developer decided not to continue using him for course planning work. “An architect I hired to produce my CAD drawings has ended up consulting directly to the developer on golf (and construction) matters,” said Oliver. “I suspect that has proven more convenient for them.”

As was the case with Oliver’s Maroochy River Golf Club expansion project, at Lovedale Farm the development team had to overcome complex engineering and flood modelling requirements in order to get their golf course plans approved. It seems likely Capital Corporation feared that Oliver would have pushed back on some of the golf changes suggested by engineers as necessary for final approval. It’s equally unlikely that their CAD architect would resist such change.

Oliver told Planet Golf that he hasn’t been involved in golf course planning at Lovedale Farm since October 2024, and was actually sidelined from important decision making discussions several months prior. He hasn’t seen any of the updated plans, and has no knowledge of what was ultimately approved by council, nor what the contractors have been asked to build.

Darius Oliver stressed to this website that, “it is possible the final plans for Lovedale Farm are superior to what I could have produced, which would be a nice outcome for property owners.”

During the planning process Capital Corporation put together a golf course design coordination committee. That committee met more than a dozen times to fine–tune the golf course and to discuss key golfing elements such as bunker design and construction, native rough treatments, sand capping and the selection of specific golf grasses for greens, surrounds, fairways and tees. Curiously, despite being marketed as their course designer, Oliver wasn’t invited to be part of that golf course design coordination committee, and wasn’t involved in any of those decisions.

With at least 10 holes altered in some way since Darius Oliver produced his initial golf plans, he can no longer be credited as Lovedale Farm’s golf course designer. He does remain an interested observer in the project and told Planet Golf that while he would have liked to continue in some sort of golf consultancy role, the client didn’t seem to really engage that idea.

“I wish them well nonetheless,” says Oliver, “and am proud of the golf course routing plans that I produced. I hope they build a really fun golf course there at Lovedale, and know that if they don’t it will be because of the design of the individual holes, rather than the broader layout plan.”

Focusing on The Cliffs on Kangaroo Island, which opens in November, and his current work at Douglas Links in New Zealand, Oliver is philosophical about the missed opportunity at Lovedale Farm.

“I learned a lot about golf estates and property developers during the process,” he said. “Although disappointed, I’m guessing that when the full build-out is complete at Lovedale Farm, the residents won’t notice, or mind, that I wasn’t involved in the design of their golf course.”

Capital Corporation, developer of Lovedale Farm, announced this month that construction company Programmed Turnpoint have been engaged to build the golf course. Programmed Turnpoint’s most recent NSW projects are Shortland Waters near Newcastle and the 9 hole Beachside course at Mollymook Golf Club. They also built The Ridge near Sydney and Kooindah Waters and Magenta Shores on the Central Coast.

Elsewhere in Australia, Programmed Turnpoint built Cape Wickham and The Cliffs on Kangaroo Island, although the shapers and finishers who worked with Darius Oliver on both of those projects are no longer employed by the company.

The General Manager at Programmed Turnpoint, Justin Trott, will be the new golf course architect at Lovedale Farm. Trott’s previous design experience includes many years as an associate for the Thomson, Wolveridge and Perrett company. Lovedale Farm will be Justin Trott’s first 18-hole solo design.

Construction at Lovedale Farm is likely to begin in mid–2027.

The Cliffs – Hole 15