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Top 10 You Can Play
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 March 2003 |
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From Red Sky to Red Tail, the cream of 2002 rises to the top By BRIAN McCALLEN
Senior Editor, GOLF MAGAZINE It had to happen sooner or later. The nation's golf course construction boom, while it hasn't gone bust, has certainly slowed considerably from its high-water mark of 524 new openings in 2000. Yet the lean field of newcomers in 2002 produced a strong collection of worthy venues. On the design side, many of the "Top 10" layouts are
classically-styled engineering marvels built on difficult terrain that tested the skills of the architect -- and will do the same for golfers. From a former army base outside Boston to technicolor canyons in southern Nevada, designers have once again showcased their ingenuity and demonstrated the game's amazing ability to adapt to a wide range of environments. Times are tough, but golf in America continues to flourish.
Red Sky Golf Club (Fazio Course)
Wolcott, Colorado
Luxe life in the rockies? Red Sky, a $100 million golf community located two hours west of Denver and 25 minutes from Vail, defines it. Unveiled last summer, the Tom Fazio-designed course at this splendid 780-acre project unfolds at more than 7,000 feet above sea level on former
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The Fazio Course is carpeted with lush bluegrass fairways.
Vail Resorts Dev. CO/Dick Durrance II |
ranchland, with holes routed through sage-covered hills and thick forests of aspen. An alpine lake and dramatic red-rock outcrops accent the first of two courses planned for the facility. A 7,113-yard, par-72 stunner that switchbacks its way up a steep mountainside, the Fazio Course, carpeted with lush bluegrass fairways, was built wide to accommodate all styles of play. Elevated tees serve up stellar views of Castle Peak to the west and Vail's fabled Back Bowls to the east. The front nine ambles through a high-desert setting and is marked by a pair of gargantuan par fives, notably the 606-yard fifth, which is routed along the base of a mesa. Into the prevailing wind, the usual condition, the hole cannot be reached in two by mortals, even with the 10 to 15 percent distance boost in the thin air. The back nine, which kicks off with a long par three that showcases Fazio's elaborate filigreed bunkers, delves deeper into the Rockies. As on all Fazio designs, the accent is on playability, although players expecting a carefree round should check the club's address: Bellyache Ridge Road. Red Sky is open to guests of the new Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch as well as several Vail Resorts lodges. Green fee: $175 to $195. 970-477-8400; www.redskyranch.com The Falls Golf Club
Henderson, Nevada
Tom Weiskopf has done some of his best design work in the desert, but at Lake Las Vegas Resort 17 miles east of the Strip, he was asked to create a playable course from desolate badlands where not even cactus grows. The first six holes on this surreal layout are splayed among rocky arroyos on
A surreal layout in the Nevada desert. Lake Las Vegas Resort | |
descending land, with wide fairways staked out by Weiskopf's beautifully detailed bunkers. There's a hint of things to come at the seventh, a narrow, uphill par five dropped into a rocky defile, but there's nothing to prepare players for the back nine of The Falls, which is named for a cascade that tumbles from a cliff high above the course. The layout reaches its zenith at holes 12 through 14, a trio that appears airbrushed on the rocks. The golf holes may seem improbable, but the herd of bighorn sheep grazing here is real. The 12th, a jaw-dropping par five routed up and over the side of a mountain, calls for a downhill approach to a green that
appears to hang in the air, with a dizzying view of the Vegas valley far below. The par-four 13th plunges from a skybox tee to a narrow, well-bunkered fairway laid into a canyon, its peek-a-boo green tucked behind a perforated fist of rock. The 14th, a short "driveable" par four that drops nearly 200 feet, is tame by comparison. The Falls is not a golf course in the traditional sense: It's a geology field book and rock climber's guide by way of animal planet. Green fee: $200 to $225. 702-740-5258; www.lakelasvegas.com.
Victoria Hills Golf Club
Deland, Florida
Deland, a sleepy little town 35 miles north of Orlando, is known as a prime launch site for boaters who wish to explore the beautiful St. Johns River. Now the town can boast a golf course every bit as salutary as the famous
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Putting surfaces are as good as many PGA Tour sites. |
north-flowing river. Within a budding new golf community is a splendid daily fee course by Florida native Ron Garl that fits its setting hand-in-glove. Boasting an 80-foot elevation change, Victoria Hills is framed by burly oaks and tall pines, with sandy waste areas and pristine lakes in play as well. Home of the men's and women's golf teams at nearby Stetson University, this 6,854-yard, par-72 layout is a walker-friendly, shotmaker's track that calls for sound course management in return for par. This is especially true on and around the large, swift greens, where creativity and skill are required to get the ball in the hole. Garl chose his inspirations well: The fifth, a 221-yard par three, crosses a sandy preserve to a huge, oak-framed green staked out by close-cropped swales that appear airlifted from Pinehurst No. 2. The signal feature at the downhill par-four 10th is a Pine Valley-style waste bunker, while renowned Cypress Point is reprised at the par-four 15th, where the green is partially hidden from view by severe mounds. Rare for Florida, water comes into play on only three holes, yet the slope and course rating from the tips (142/73.5) are a clear indication of the resistance to scoring posed by sidehill lies, well-placed bunkers, and "natural gremlins" around the greens. Area resident Chris DiMarco, who holds the course record of 65, says the putting surfaces at Victoria Hills are as good as those he encounters at many PGA Tour sites. Garl, for his part, was able to supply what he calls "a deft variety of challenges that require not only a capable swing, but a supple mind." Green fee: $50 to $90. 386-738-6000; www.arvida.com.Forest Dunes Golf Club
Roscommon, Michigan
In north central Michigan beside Huron National Forest is a large tract of land that was cleared for farming in the 1930s but failed due to the site's infertile sand base. Originally conceived as an exclusive real estate development, Forest Dunes, after a series of fits and starts, is today a semi-private club with a magnificent Tom Weiskopf-designed course that
This Weiskopf-designed course captures the look of a true links course. L.C. Lambrecht | |
captures the en vogue look of a true links course. Shelving blueprints, Weiskopf built the 7,104-yard, par-72 course out of the back of a truck, removing sand from two lakes to create nearly 20 acres of rolling "dunes." After transforming portions of the depleted farm and orchard into a landlocked links with features of the seaside variety, Weiskopf took his crew to Crystal Downs, the exquisite Alister Mackenzie design on the west side of the state, to have a gander at its unkempt bunkers and rolling greens. The Downs style is replicated in places, but Forest Dunes adheres closely to Weiskopf's vision. Framed by bracken, wildflowers, and tall red pines planted by work relief crews in the 1930s, the firm, fast course was created for purists who like to walk. The final three holes, faced into the prevailing breeze, are as good as anything Weiskopf has done since he won the British Open 30 years ago. The 16th is a long par three that plays across a Hell's Half-Acre-style wasteland to a large green with an elephantine hump at its entrance. The 17th, 302 yards from the tips, is a brilliant short par four that parallels an old landing strip used by bootleggers to import Canadian whiskey during Prohibition. The 18th, Eagle Chance, is a 531-yard par five that proceeds from the dunes to a green perched above Lake Ausable. Match all square? Weiskopf built a 117-yard Bye Hole that plays over the lake to a convoluted green with a bunker in its center. Green fee: $80 to $125; 989-275-0700; www.forestdunesgolf.com.
Bear's Best Atlanta
Suwanee, Georgia
It must be a wonderful thing to get to a point in your career when you can borrow from yourself to produce something of value. On the heels of Bear's Best Las Vegas, a compilation of Jack Nicklaus's signature holes from his top desert-area courses, comes Bear's Best Atlanta, a collection of mostly
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Solid, straightforward golf with no hidden agendas and all hazards in plain view. Jim Mandeville |
temperate zone standouts drawn from Jack's vast résumé. Stretched across rolling, wooded land near the Chattahoochee River 45 minutes from downtown Atlanta, the near-replica holes on this 6,857-yard, par-72 layout were taken from Nicklaus-designed courses in 11 states as well as England (St. Mellion), Ireland (Mt. Juliet), and Scotland (a pair of dandies lifted from the PGA Centenary Course at Gleneagles, site of the Ryder Cup in 2014). Every hole looks at home here, most notably the pair from Muirfield Village, site of the Memorial Tournament and arguably Jack's finest work. Indeed, the sixth at Bear's Best is an admirable reproduction of the 12th at Muirfield Village, which itself mimics the famous 12th at Augusta National. As on the original, this devilish, short par three plays from an elevated tee over water to a tiny green defended fore and aft by bunkers, with a steep slope over the green to foil those who overclub. The 13th at Bear's Best is a perfect adaptation of the par-four third at Muirfield Village, a medium-length dogleg that leads downhill to a landing zone pinched by trees and sand, with a testing second shot to a green embraced by four bunkers and undulating slopes. As on all of Nicklaus courses, Bear's Best Atlanta offers solid, straightforward golf with no hidden agendas and all hazards in plain view. There is ample room to drive the ball off the tee, but the greens are tightly guarded. The green fee includes an attentive forecaddie equipped with an electronic yardage finder who can supply everything you need -- except a power fade. Green fee: $79.50 to $100.70. 678-714-2582; www.bearsbest.com.
Shore Gate Golf Club
Ocean View, New Jersey
For years, California-based Ron Fream, the Johnny Appleseed of golf design, has been sending postcards to GOLF MAGAZINE updating his latest projects in the far corners of the globe. Korea. Nepal. Bali. Argentina. Even Disneyland Paris, but generally the more exotic the better. After decades of globetrotting, Fream landed in South Jersey 30 minutes outside Atlantic
A world-beater designed to drain the plaid from a duffer's knickers. Inkworks/Chris John/PDI | |
City, where the Turner family, owners of a nearby campground, asked him to have a look at their 245-acre parcel. Won over by the designer's enthusiasm, Fream was cut loose on land that was beach and dunes eons ago. After massaging the site with bulldozers to displace 450,000 cubic yards of sand -- this after noting sun angles and shadow patterns -- Fream produced the boldest and most extroverted layout imaginable. At full stretch, Shore Gate is a dynamic, visually intimidating world-beater designed to drain the plaid from a duffer's knickers. Perhaps to remind players of the site's geologic past, Fream flashed sand up the sides of tall, vertical mounds at several holes to create the impression of incoming ocean waves. There are 88 formal bunkers on the course, plus seven ponds, but it's the vast, fescue-fringed waste areas that scream "Watch Out!" "Shore Gate is a copy of no one and nothing else," writes Fream in a postscript from the oasis of Tozeur in Tunisia. Kudos to a West Coast pioneer not afraid to tilt the seaboard a little closer to the sea. Green fee: $42 to $99. 609-624-8337; www.shoregategolfclub.com.DarkHorse Golf Club
Auburn, California
Fresh on the heels of his restoration of Southern Hills, site of the 2001 U.S. Open, architect Keith Foster cracked the whip at DarkHorse, a rolling layout with classic lines set in the Sierra Nevada foothills 50 miles from Sacramento. "The DarkHorse site is absolutely stunning," says Foster.
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A rolling layout with classic lines set in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Russell Sylte |
"There's 150 feet of elevation change from high point to low, and the terrain is dotted with towering Ponderosa pines, huge oaks, and spectacular rock outcroppings. It's all just very dramatic." And naturalistic. Foster, who moved a scant 150,000 cubic yards of dirt, built the 7,030-yard, par-72 course the old-fashioned way, fitting holes into curving valleys and putting the site's ponds, streams, and wetlands to good strategic use. The greens, most of them subtly contoured, are sizable, while the large-scale bunkers, a few of them plucked from Alister Mackenzie's sketchbook, have wavy lobes of sand flashed back at the golfer. Among the many fine holes are a pair of short, risk-reward par fours. The 340-yard second tempts big hitters to slug a drive over three bunkers placed 250 yards from the tee, but the perched green repels less-than-perfect tee shots. The 14th, only 315 yards from the tips, swings to the right past a nest of deep bunkers and a trickling creek. A small pond and a massive oak guard the right side of the putting surface. DarkHorse gallops hard at the finish. The 515-yard 18th drops 60 feet to a fairway that traces a flowing stream as it bends to the left, with a tapered rock wall narrowing the entrance to a tiny green flanked by water and backdropped by pines. Reachable in two? Not even bronco busters attempt it when the wind blows from the west. Through March 31, the weekday walker's rate of $39 qualifies DarkHorse as the bargain of the year. Green fee: $39 to $68. 530-269-7900; www.darkhorsegolf.com.
Stonewall Resort
Roanoke, West Virginia
When the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dammed the West Fork River in the mid-1980s to create Stonewall Jackson Lake within the eponymous state park, little did they know that another general, a golfer who commanded an army of his own, would arrive years later to fashion an inspired layout in the foothills of the Alleghenies. Located two hours south of Pittsburgh,
Stonewall's backbone is its great collection of par fours. Mike Klemme/Golfoto | |
Stonewall Resort is part of a $50 million public-private project that was 25 years in the making and includes a handsome Adirondack-style lodge set along the shores of a 26-mile-long lake that holds trophy muskellunge. Marked by rolling hills and a maze of valleys, the all-bentgrass course, with six sets of tees ranging from 7,149 to 4,921 yards (par 72), is backdropped by forested knobs and broken peaks characteristic of the Mountain State. The greens, many of them elevated and small to medium in size, are among the most subtly contoured surfaces Palmer Course Design has produced. Stonewall's backbone is its great collection of par fours, notably the ninth, a left-to-right dogleg that plays to a perched, bunkerless green. The back nine departs the lakeshore for higher ground, the holes framed by sugar maple, fir, even a grove of old pecans planted by a Southern homesteader more than 100 years ago. These pecans, along with a creek and wetlands, divide the fairway at the clever par-five 12th, while the par-four 15th, occupying the high point of the course, looks like a stretch of the Blue Ridge Parkway paved with turfgrass -- mountains and ridges as far as the eye can see, with nary a home in sight. Stonewall, which builds in interest and elevation as the round progresses, brings players home via the majestic par-five 18th, which climbs uphill to a well-bunkered green set in an amphitheater. The lodge-style clubhouse, overlooking the lake and hotel, is slated to open in June. Morning, when the mist clings to the hollers, is the time to play this charming, homespun course located near native son Stonewall Jackson's birthplace -- and not far from General Palmer's home in Latrobe. Green fee: $75 to $85, 304-269-7400; www.stonewallresort.com.Red Tail Golf Club
Devens, Massachusetts
Talk about incongruity. Not far from Walden Pond, Henry David Thoreau's pastoral retreat, is Fort Devens, a former military base where soldiers
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A hilly course marked by long ridges and mature oaks.
George Peet |
have trained for war since 1917. It's easy to find: Drive 35 miles west of Boston, follow Patton (as in General) Road to Bulge (as in Battle) Road,
and look for a hilly course marked by long ridges and mature oaks that looks like it was built shortly before World War I. After the base was swept of ordnance and decommissioned, Bay State native Brian Silva was brought in to build a golf course on a site he described as "wicked awesome." While sprinkling vintage design characteristics throughout the layout, including a Redan-style par three, a giant punchbowl green, and a Cape-style hole, Silva, who made more than 100 site visits and also drove the seeding tractor, dropped in modern defenses as well: random bunkering, "up" greens with "down" surrounds, lots of recovery-shot options. Several of the holes play down former oak-lined streets atop army barracks foundations; others skirt sandy wastelands or abandoned gravel pits. Traditional parkland-style holes are balanced by contemporary desert-style creations that would look more at home in Scottsdale than New England. Silva's "Indy 500" ramps tend to funnel the ball to the topsy-turvy greens, and these surfaces are lightly bunkered, but Red Tail, named for a family of hawks that nests here, will rain bombs on the heads of unthinking players. The finish is hair-raising. The par-four 17th
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plays from a raised tee to an island of turf encased in sand, with old ammo storage units located to the right of the green. Take dead aim or else! The sharply downhill par-five 18th can be reached in two -- if you're willing to play a long shot from a hanging lie over a watery grave that fronts a slim, angled green. Any contingencies? Ornamental bunkers cover an entire hillside at the par-five second hole to accommodate tanks in case the army returns. Other than that, golfers are free to march around and fire away on the most exciting swords-to-plowshares course of the year. Green fee: $65 to $70. 978-772-3273; www.redtailgolf.net. Bolingbrook Golf Club
Bolingbrook, Illinois
Every municipality should have a mayor like Roger C. Claar. Faced with a stormwater-management project in Bolingbrook, a growing village on the southwest side of Chicago, Claar, an avid golfer, brought in Arthur Hills to build a course that would solve the flood-control problem and put the former "starter home" community on the map as a place for golf. Handed a
Seven lakes bring water into play at 14 holes.
Bolingbrook Golf Club/Skyh Creative | |
dead-flat cornfield dotted with messy retention ponds, Hills moved 2.4 million cubic yards of dirt, a massive amount of material, to create landforms and manufacture a versatile links marked by built-up tees and undulating fairways that rarely give a flat lie. These fairways are signposted by bunkers with rolled-down grass faces and flanked by seven reshaped lakes that bring water into play at 14 holes. Hizzoner wanted two things: a 600-yard par five; and a par three with an island green. Hills built both. The fifth, its five sets of tees ranging from 482 to 600 yards, plays over waving bullrushes to a fairway that bobs and weaves around three imposing bunkers and leads to a pulpit green undercut by sand, with a huge spilloff behind the putting surface. The 15th, a scant 127 yards from the white tees, asks for a simple shot to a riprapped green set in one of the cleaned-up ponds now inhabited by herons, egrets, and wild swans. The target is large, but it tends to shrink on a windy day. In addition to a large practice facility, there's a 76,000-square-foot Tudor-style clubhouse slated to open in April that goes a bit beyond the average muni's snack shack. The club welcomes walkers, though the carts have a GPS yardage system, club and ball cleaners, coolers, ashtrays, and expanded cup holders. Maybe Claar wants to run for president in 2004. Green fee: $75 to $90. 630-771-9400; www.bolingbrookgolfclub.com.
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