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Trump Goes Public
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 October 2004 |
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Coming soon: a Trump course you can play (for $195 and up) By CHRIS LEWIS Of his many trademarks -- the giant Trump towers, the catchphrase "You're fired!" the high-flying lifestyle and high-rise hairstyle -- Donald Trump may be best known for perfecting the art of sincere hyperbole. Trump's saying his latest course might outshine Pebble Beach may be a bit over the top, but then nobody expects understatement from The Donald.
Trump National L.A. John and Jeannine Henebry
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One thing's for sure: Trump takes his golf seriously, and so should you. He has made no bones about his desire to bring a U.S. Open to his imposing new Tom Fazio course in Bedminster, New Jersey (conveniently located a half-mile from the sanctum where such decisions are made, USGA headquarters in Far Hills). The Bedminster project is Trump's third private club, after Trump International in West Palm Beach, Florida, and Trump National in Westchester County, New York -- and it's one of three Trump grand openings on tap. But this brassy age may best be remembered, at least by public-access golfers, for the eagerly awaited unveiling of the only Trump track in America that anyone can play: Trump National Los Angeles.
The 18th hole, in 1999, on what is now Trump National L.A. Robert Casillas/Daily Breeze
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Make that "eagerly re-awaited." Back in June 1999 -- just days before its ribbon cutting -- the Pete Dye-designed Ocean Trails Golf Club, set along a striking stretch of California coast, suffered a catastrophic landslide. The heart of the oceanfront 18th hole, and for that matter of the course itself, toppled into the sea, opening a gash in the bluff 1,700 feet long, 400 feet wide and 70 feet deep. Environmental regulations held that no earth could be trucked in or hauled out of the site, so the neighboring ninth and 12th holes became expensive, scenic dirtpiles. The course opened as a 15-holer and stayed that way for five years. Its original owners spent $20 million and went bankrupt trying to save it.Enter The Donald. In 2002, Trump bought the property out of receivership for $27 million (a steal for 215 acres of SoCal oceanfront) and to date his repair bill has totaled some $40 million. A few weeks ago, surveying his nearly completed triumph over cataclysm, the billionaire smiled. "This is the most-designed, most-engineered golf hole in the world," he said. "Not to mention the most expensive." The site is as golden as a Trump-trimmed tower: Every tee and green presents a full-frontal view of the Pacific. Trump National Los Angeles may not have all the nooks and angled lookouts of Pebble's oceanfront, but perhaps no course in America holds so fast to the coastline. In fact, until Trump took charge location was the course's sole virtue; the track itself was a bit of a Dye-saster.
| Trump's Golf Kingdom |
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Trump International Golf Club
West Palm Beach, FL (1999)
Architect: Jim Fazio
Private; membership $350,000 |
Trump National Golf Club
Briarcliff Manor, NY (2002)
Architect: Jim Fazio
Private; membership $300,000 |
Trump International Golf Club
Canouan Island (July 2004)
Architect: Jim Fazio
Public; greens fees $200
784-458-8000 |
Trump National Golf Club
Bedminster, NJ (September 2004)
Architect: Tom Fazio
Private; membership $175,000 |
Trump National Golf Club
Los Angeles, CA (early 2005)
Architects: Pete Dye; Jim Fazio
Public; greens fees $195-$300
310-265-5000 |
Ocean Trails was one of Dye's lesser layouts. The founders used 120 acres for homesites and left the great architect a mere 180 for the course. Dye fashioned an uninviting 6,400-yard routing tricked up with Himalayan mounding, blind shots, forbidding carries and waste areas that encroached closely on the fairways. Rather than bring Dye back, Trump enlisted Jim Fazio, Tom's brother, who had designed Trump's tracks in Florida and New York as well as another on Canouan Island in the Grenadines (see "Trump Golf, Island Style"). Trump sacrificed 20 homesites worth about $25 million, giving Fazio an extra 35 acres to widen fairways, eliminate blind shots (Trump loathes them) and stretch the course to a muscular 7,200 yards. More homesites were X'd out to make room for a dual-ended, 100-station practice range and three elaborate on-course water features that cost $5 million, including the behemoth behind the first green, where golfers park their carts in a cave and walk through a space in the waterfall to an island green.
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