Fazio Premier Clubs 2012 by LINKS Magazine

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FAZIO PREMIER CLUBS

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FA Z I O P

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2012

The Bridges at Rancho Santa Fe

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NOT ALL GIANT LEAPS OCCUR ON THE MOON. DECEMBER 14, 2011. ALONGSIDE J.B. HOLMES, ÁLVARO QUIRÓS CARRIED A DRIVE ACROSS THE FOUNTAINS OF BELLAGIO IN LAS VEGAS. SCAN OR GO TO WWW.CALLAWAYGOLF.COM/FOUNTAINS

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â&#x201E;˘ SIMPLE ADJUSTABILITY IS THE NEW STANDARD IN LONG. the Chevron Device and RAZR Fit are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Callaway Golf Company. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S TOM FAZIO: IN HIS OWN WORDS HE DISCUSSES HIS ILLUSTRIOUS CAREER, MINIMALISM, STEVE WYNN, AND E-MAIL P A G E

BELFAIR

THE GREENBRIER SPORTING CLUB

B L U F F TO N, S O U T H CA RO L I NA P A G E

WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, WEST VIRGINIA

P A G E

CORALES P U N TACA NA , D O M I N I CA N R E P U B L I C P A G E

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THE MARTIS CAMP CLUB T R U C K E E , CA L I F O R N I A

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P A G E

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DIAMOND CREEK THE RESORT AT PELICAN HILL

B A N N E R E L K , N O R T H CA RO L I NA P A G E

NEWPORT BEACH, CALIFORNIA

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P A G E

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EAGLE POINT GOLF CLUB THE RIDGE AT BACK BROOK

W I L M I N G TO N, N O R T H CA RO L I NA P A G E

R I N G O E S, N E W J E R S E Y

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P A G E

SHOOTING STAR

H O R S E S H O E B AY, T E X A S

JAC K S O N H O L E , W YO M I N G

P A G E

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P A G E

FREDERICA GOLF CLUB

THE VIRGINIAN GOLF CLUB BRISTOL, VIRGINIA

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P A G E

WADE HAMPTON GOLF CLUB CASHIERS, NORTH CAROLINA P A G E

The Martis Camp Club On the Cover: Shooting Star (PHOTO BY ALLEN KENNEDY)

FA Z I O P R E M I E R C L U B S

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S T. S I M O N S I S L A N D, G E O R G I A P A G E

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ESCONDIDO GOLF & LAKE CLUB

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TOM TERRIFIC

The Best Of Golf

PRESIDENT / PUBLISHER

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

John R. Purcell

Nancy S. Purcell

James A. Frank ART DIRECTOR Larry Hasak SENIOR EDITOR Tom Cunneff

EDITOR, CUSTOM PUBLISHING

Jennifer Lee

PHOTO / PRODUCTION COORDINATOR

HAVE YET TO MEET a golfer who doesn’t like Tom Fazio. That doesn’t mean they’ve all met him, at least not in person. (Although if they did meet him, they’d like him even more. I do.) But they’ve almost all met Tom through his courses, which can

be found across the U.S. and elsewhere, and are among the ones that dedicated golfers love to play. And love. In fact, I can’t think of another architect whose courses are so widely admired for their combination of beauty, playability, clever design, and concern for the golfer. That last point is especially important: It means that Tom takes

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Randy Guyton, Curt Sampson CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

Aidan Bradley, Joann Dost, Tid Griffin Allen Kennedy, L.C. Lambrecht, Evan Schiller, Paul Sherar, Steve Uzzell, Irv Welling VP / GENERAL MANAGER

David Kefford

VP CONTROLLER / OPERATIONS

Janet Uings

DIRECTOR OF CONSUMER MARKETING ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT

Lori Masaoay

Peggy Hurley

great pains to provide numerous ways of helping golfers get around, avoid trouble, and have fun. I’ve long thought that factor is a major reason that there are so many Fazio courses on the various lists of best courses. All those characteristics are prominently on display in theCarriage 13 layouts featured House Below: Artisanal in this issue of Fazio Premier Clubs. We at LINKS Magazine are Restaurant thrilled to have produced this edition, the first time we’ve highlighted a collection of Tom Fazio compositions and the private clubs fortunate enough to have them. As you read through the articles, I’m betting you will run across a few attributes common to Tom’s creations. Such as how often the courses are described as challenging for better players while also promising the rest of us a great time. How the emphasis is on creating variety, making sure every hole is interesting—as is every round. Or while staring at the stunning photography, the inability to tell where Mother Nature’s work ends and Tom’s begins; it’s difficult to see the

ADVERTISING VP / EASTERN ADVERTISING DIRECTOR

John Swain 203-304-1927 86 Boggs Hill Road, Newtown, CT 06470 VP / SOUTHEASTERN SALES DIRECTOR

David Wynn 404-256-2266 1159 West Nancy Creek Drive, Atlanta, GA 30319

difference, so careful is he when it comes to harmonizing with the land. Also note how many times the developers say that Fazio was the only architect they wanted to work with. That’s quite a testament to Tom’s resume and reputation if someone with millions of dollars to spend will only spend it with one guy. But he’s definitely proven his worth and ability to retain value for owners. Something else about Tom’s courses: They’re all at clubs everyone would want to join. What an incredible assortment of properties, as different as their regions yet each promising commitment to the membership as well as attention to

DIRECTOR OF SOUTHEASTERN SALES/ NATIONAL DIRECT RESPONSE SALES

Jennifer Hanson 407-895-9151 Orlando, FL 32803

detail. From luxurious locker rooms to fine dining, spas to ski runs, the range of services is beyond compare. Let’s just say it’s a good thing there isn’t a 14-club rule regarding places to live. It shouldn’t be a surprise that the finest clubs feature the finest courses. Or that

VP NATIONAL INTEGRATED SALES / WESTERN ADVERTISING DIRECTOR

discriminating owners want private access to a Fazio achievement. Quality goes

Cris Hayes 310-798-4320

hand in hand, and very often, one of those hands belongs to Tom Fazio.

Redondo Beach, CA 90277 DETROIT/OHIO

Thomas A. Reiss 248-987-8484 3140 Lahser Road, Bloomfield Hills, MI 48302 PACIFIC NORTHWEST/ARIZONA

Tracy Herbst 602-738-5739 4247 N. 45th Street, Phoenix, AZ 85018 CANADA

Josef Beranek 450-538-2468 180 Mudgett Road, Sutton, Québec, Canada J0E 2K0

JACK PURCELL President and Publisher jpurcell@linksmagazine.com

2012 EDITION

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GUIDE TO

FAZIO PREMIER CLUBS Where to find the clubs featured in the 2012 edition presented by LINKS Magazine

SHOOTING STAR J AC K S O N H O L E , W YO M I N G

THE MARTIS CAMP CLUB TRUCKEE, CALIFORNIA

ESCONDIDO GOLF & LAKE CLUB H O R S E S H O E B AY, T E X A S

THE RESORT AT PELICAN HILL NEWPORT BEACH, CALIFORNIA

FA Z I O P R E M I E R C L U B S

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THE RIDGE AT BACK BROOK R I N G O E S, N E W J E R S E Y

THE GREENBRIER SPORTING CLUB W H I T E S U L P H U R S P R I N G S, WEST VIRGINIA

THE VIRGINIAN GOLF CLUB B R I S TO L , V I R G I N I A

DIAMOND CREEK BANNER ELK, NORTH CAROLINA

EAGLE POINT GOLF CLUB W I L M I N G TO N, N O R T H C A RO L I N A

WADE HAMPTON GOLF CLUB C A S H I E R S, N O R T H C A RO L I N A

CORALES BELFAIR BLUFFTON, SOUTH CAROLINA

PUNTACANA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

FREDERICA GOLF CLUB S T. S I M O N S I S L A N D, GEORGIA

2012 EDITION

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TOM FAZIO:

With more than 200 courses to his credit in 40-plus years, he discusses his illustrious career as well as minimalism, Steve Wynn, and e-mail 6

FA Z I O P R E M I E R C L U B S

BILL FRAKES/GETTY IMAGES

IN HIS OWN WORDS

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OM FAZIO is the Tiffany of golf course designers. His name is synonymous with upscale private clubs and resorts like the ones found here in Fazio Premier Clubs. His beautifully sculpted courses with their strategic lines of play appeal as much to the eye as they do to the mind. Though his son Logan is now running the business for the most part, Fazio is by no means retired. In fact, he’s more invigorated than ever by Logan’s enthusiasm for the work even if most of their new courses are overseas in places like Brazil, Korea, China, and the Caribbean. “They’re very difficult assignments because of travel, which didn’t excite me before because I had a family at home,” says Fazio, sitting in the men’s locker room at Jupiter Hills Club, a 36-hole facility in south Florida co-founded by his uncle and mentor, George Fazio. “But now I enjoy doing them because my son’s involved. He’s extremely talented and has a great work ethic. I’m probably as excited now as I’ve ever been because he enjoys it so much.”

What is a Tom Fazio golf course? It’s a special environment. I want people to feel that they’ve had a great experience. That they had a fun, enjoyable time and played in a great golf environment, as good as any place they’ve ever been. I want them to be able to compare it to another Fazio golf course and say, “I like this one just as much as the other.” I don’t want it to be difficult. If they felt that, my first thought is, I wonder what tee they played? Or whether the course was set up for low-handicap players that day. You have more courses on the top 100 lists than any other designer. Does that please you? It’s been great. It’s made me a lot of money. I remember one year we won all three new courses of the year—private, public, and resort—and the industry went nuts. “How can that happen? He must be buying it.” Well, they just happened to be the best courses. I shake my head when I start thinking about the courses I’ve done, but that’s where the golf industry was for so long. Talk about an era. The Golden Age of golf is referred to as the decade of the ‘20s. But in 50 years from now, they’ll be saying that about the ‘90s and 2000s. How did you get interested in golf course design? I never wanted to do anything else. I grew up in a golfing family in the Philadelphia area. My dad worked in a locomotive plant during the early Depression years, but was also a clarinet player in a band and loved to play golf. He was a single-digit player. All the brothers were, but George was the best. He lost to Hogan in a playoff at the 1950 U.S Open, and I always thought, “What would have happened had my uncle won the Open?” He probably would have continued to play golf. Maybe he wouldn’t have gotten into golf course design, then what would I have done? Is there anything in particular about design that he taught you? He didn’t believe in making it difficult. He’s always believed you should have a bailout and another option you can play. That stuck with me.

Is it necessary to be a good golfer to be a good architect? It helps to understand the game, but you don’t need to be a low-handicap golfer. If that were the case, then the best players should be the best architects. We have certainly seen great players’ names attached to courses that aren’t that special. What do you think about the minimalist movement and return to ruggedness? It’s distinctive. Variety is good, but I think minimalism got carried away as a theme. Just because it didn’t take that much to create, I don’t think that makes it any better or worse, and I don’t think because you moved a lot of earth that makes it better or worse. The only thing that counts is the end result. No one cares or wonders how much earth was moved at Cypress Point or Pebble Beach. Is it true that Steve Wynn was able to get an airplane flight delayed to give you a $3.5 million check for Shadow Creek that you forgot? Well, the check was for $1 million. He gave me the check in an envelope and I was so stunned, I put it down on his desk and just forgot it. We left his office to go to lunch and I got a call at the airport that I left the check. I told him I was just about to board the plane and to mail it. He said, “I want you to have it before you leave town.” I said, “But the plane’s boarding.” He said, “It won’t leave. Just wait for my guy to bring it to you.” The next thing you know, the sign went up on the board, “Delayed.” Why don’t you have a website? My sons keep bugging me to get one, calling me old fashioned, but people know where we are. If they want us to design a golf course, they’ll call us. I just stared doing e-mail. I got one of those new iPhones you can talk to so I can just send e-mails by speaking. But I don’t respond to e-mails. My secretary does all of that. The reason I didn’t want e-mail is that you get too many of them and everybody wants an immediate answer. I’m going to Seminole this afternoon to ■ hit balls. I don’t have time to return e-mails.

2012 EDITION

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East Course, 14th hole, 189 yards Background: 15th hole, 353 yards Opposite: Avenue of the Oaks entrance

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FA Z I O P R E M I E R C L U B S

BELFAIR

With two scenic and strategic courses, as well as first-class amenities, this vibrant golf community near Hilton Head has a close-knit membership with a calendar full of events

2012 EDITION

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B E L FA I R

Clubhouse overlooking 18th greens

HE SOUTH CAROLINA Lowcountry near Hilton Head is a familiar and comfortable place for Tom Fazio. Within easy flying distance of his North Carolina base and drawn by the distinct tidal-marsh topography, he’s built a number of courses in the area, starting with one at Palmetto Dunes Resort (designed with his Uncle George) in the early ’70s. So when developers John Reed and David Everett approached him in 1994 to build two courses at a new community called Belfair, he didn’t hesitate to make a site visit with them. “The first time I drove that property I said, Oh, wow, look at this!” recalls Fazio. “I loved the vegetation. We had this beautiful marsh and these gorgeous big trees. I felt honored to have the chance to build there.” The members are the ones who feel honored now. Not only do they get to choose between two superb layouts, the East and the West, but they also have one of the most active golf memberships in the area, not to mention one of the best practice and teaching facilities in the state. “It’s the best club around,” says Jeff Haworth, who’s lived at Belfair for eight years and plays with two large groups on Saturdays and Tuesdays. “There’s always so much going on. The courses are al-

FA Z I O P R E M I E R C L U B S

ways in such great condition and the scenery is so gorgeous, they’re hard to beat.” It’s also harder to find a prettier entrance to a private, gated community. Sixty live oaks line the road, their gnarled, mossdraped limbs arching over to form a sun-dappled canopy; once upon a time it formed the entrance for a grand country estate and working plantation that William Telfair and his wife Betsey Bellinger (thus the name) built in 1811. More than 200 years later, hundreds of happy couples call Belfair home. Because half of the 770 members make it their full-time residence, there’s constant activity at the 1,100-acre property that includes 33 acres of protected wetlands and a rookery: people walking their dogs early in the morning, working out in the newly remodeled fitness center, or getting together for dinner in the Georgian-style, 32,000-square-foot clubhouse

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that overlooks a vast lawn and English garden, the 18th holes of both courses, and the ever-changing tidal marsh beyond. “Everyone is so warm and welcoming,” says General Manager David Porter. “New members never have to worry about finding a golf game or a card game. The other thing is we’re always putting capital back into the amenities to keep them top-notch.” Both courses, for instance, have undergone recent renovations. Using old aerial photos, Fazio restored the greens of the West Course to their original specs and re-grassed them with MiniVerde bermuda in 2008, while also converting the fairways to the more eco-friendly paspalum grass. Last year, he renovated the East Course greens, switching them from bent to MiniVerde while also redoing all the bunkering. Both courses are in the best shape they’ve been in years. While the West is the more prominent of the two because it hosted the Players Amateur, one of the top amateur events in the country, for 12 years, many members prefer the more links-like East, especially with the new greens and bunkers. “The holes just have a really good flow to them and the par fives are terrific,” says Haworth. “I also like the terrain because it’s more undulating—something you don’t find a lot around here.” The rolling topography is especially evident on the East’s first 10 holes, which play around a hill and feature massive waste bunkers. One of the most memorable holes is the 330-yard 5th, a classic risk-reward par four: Depending on the wind, tee selection, and a player’s nerve, the hole is drivable, but the tee

13th hole, 235 yards

East Course, 14th hole, 189 yards

2012 EDITION

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‘The first time I drove the property, I said, Oh, wow, look at this!,’ recalls Tom Fazio. ‘I felt honored to have a chance to build there.’

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West Course, 16th hole, 159 yards Background: 17th hole, 388 yards

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B E L FA I R

shot is all carry over a big lake. The 604-yard 10th is a rollicking rollercoaster of a hole that plays uphill to the right, then sweeps down to the left to a large, sloping green. The wetlands come more into play on the back, starting with the East’s most picturesque hole, the 189-yard 14th, where the view beyond the green is all marsh. The tee The Learning Center shots from the back tees on Above: East Course, 4th hole, 225 yards the short par-four 15th and par-five 16th must clear the marsh, but those are among the few forced carries. The dogleg-right, 464-yard 18th finishes next to the West’s 448-yard 18th. Completely bordered by wetlands, the West closer is one of the most beautiful—and brutal—holes in the Southeast. Coupled with the Cape-style par-four 17th, which has a tiny green set up right on the marsh, the West offers an incredibly challenging and scenic finish—Lowcountry golf at its finest. It’s a dramatic counterpart to the quiet beginning, where players have a chance to make some birdies on a few short par fours and wide par fives where they can go for broke. The tempo quickens with the 429-yard 9th, which is bordered on the entire left side by a large lagoon filled with egrets and herons.

FA Z I O P R E M I E R C L U B S

A causeway leads golfers to holes 13 to 15, located on Telfair Island. A large waste area separates the former and latter, while the 177-yard 14th plays along the marsh and may be the prettiest hole on the property. Both courses host the club’s most popular event, the spring member-member, which attracts 224 players—80 women and 144 men. The two-day event starts with an 18-hole better-ball competition and concludes with a Pinehurst alternateshot format with partners playing each other’s tee shots, leading to nonstop ribbing and laughs. That the member-member is a bigger deal than the member-guest proves how close-knit Belfair is. “This is a golf-driven community,” says Director of Golf James Swift. “We have great participation. Tournaments fill up in two weeks. New members have no trouble getting intertwined, either. It’s a very embracing place.” And a dedicated one, too. Members play fast and enjoy working on their games at the Jim Ferree Learning Center, a double-ended, 29-acre facility with target greens, short-game area, covered hitting bays, and a high-tech teaching studio. Says Swift: “We have a hard time getting people to go home, which is a good thing.” The locker rooms are also of the highest quality: The men’s offers lunch service and features three flatscreen TVs on one wall, while the women’s was recently renovated with new furniture, bar-access window, and 32-seat card room. The clubhouse—distinctive for its attractive powder-coated brick exterior—offers lunch seven days a week and dinner three or four times a week. The she crab soup and 1811 prime beef burger are favorites, but all the food is fresh and the variety plentiful. The club takes the concept of farm-to-table meals so seriously that it is the primary sponsor of the local farmer’s market. Says Porter: “Our members deserve the best so we never sacrifice quality.” Which is a good description of Belfair’s golf experience and ■ every other aspect of the community, as well.

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‘This is a golf-driven community,’ says Director of Golf James Swift. ‘We have great participation. New members have no trouble getting intertwined, either. It’s a very embracing place.’

LOCATION

Bluffton, South Carolina WET COURSE

72 YARDAGE 7,111

EAST COURSE

PAR

YEAR FOUNDED ARCHITECT

71 6,900

YARDAGE

1996

Tom Fazio

CONTACT

belfair1811.com

West Course, 16th hole, 159 yards Background: 17th hole, 388 yards

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17th hole, 214 yards Opposite: 8th hole, 399 yards

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FA Z I O P R E M I E R C L U B S

CORALES

EVAN SCHILLER (2)

At the eastern end of the Dominican Republic, this stunning creation covers land enough for multiple courses. But its heart and soul are to be found at sea

2012 EDITION

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CORALES

EHIND EVERY GREAT GOLF COURSE is a dream. In the case of Corales, the goal was to turn overgrown, inaccessible scrubland into something special. The lead dreamer was Frank Rainieri, who in 1969 partnered with famed New York lawyer Theodore Kheel to buy 15,000 acres at the easternmost point of the Dominican Republic. “When I came here, there was nothing, just jungle,” said Rainieri. “We knew what God had given us but we lacked the resources to develop it.”

Fast forward 40 years. Under Rainieri’s direction—and having added other partners including Oscar de la Renta and Julio Iglesias—“nothing” has become PUNTACANA Resort & Club, a beautiful resort community on the Caribbean Sea that boasts every manner of outdoor amenity (including 45 holes of golf), hotels and restaurants, modern villages, and the world’s first privately owned international airport, which last year welcomed 2.2 million visitors. With the groundwork in place, Rainieri turned his attention to creating a private enclave of luxurious homes, spectacular ocean views, and a golf course to match. No surprise, he turned to Tom Fazio. In their very first meeting, “Don Frank” said to Fazio, “Tom, you got a problem. I don’t want to be second to anybody.” Although not a golfer, Rainieri had done his homework: Just as

2nd hole, 239 yards

FA Z I O P R E M I E R C L U B S

he envisioned PUNTACANA becoming the finest resort in the Caribbean, he wanted Corales mentioned in the same breath with the world’s top courses. Fueled by the owner’s vision and with nearly two miles of coastline, Fazio pulled out all the stops. The rocky shore and crashing surf come into play on six holes, the most ocean holes of any property on the prolific architect’s resume. As a result, strong breezes are inescapable, influencing the routing and design. And the course blows people away visually as well, a vibrant canvas of lush green paspalum grass, white coral and sand, and cerulean blue sky. Besides being an eyeful, Corales is a handful, testing the player’s imagination and moxie from first shot to last. The fairways are uncommonly wide to accommodate the winds, but simply landing on turf is no guarantee of subsequent

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EVAN SCHILLER (2)

11th hole, 265 yards

success. The real skill comes in finding, and holding, the big putting surfaces. “More than on Tom’s other courses, if you miss the greens you’ve got work to do,” explains Director of Golf Jay Overton, who played on the PGA Tour and spent more than 30 years at Pinehurst and Innisbrook before coming to Corales in 2008, the year it opened. “Many are reminiscent of old Donald Ross greens, elevated and pitched from back to front. They are big but they are fair; you’re not going to find crazy, tiered greens out here.” You will, however, find plenty of sand. “No matter which tees you play,” says Overton, “the placement of the bunkering makes so much sense.” Such as on hole 1, which may not be on the ocean but is close enough to offer a taste of what’s to come. There are only two bunkers on the hole, one left of the fairway near where most tee shots should land, the other short and right of the angled green. A huge waste area along the entire right side puts the emphasis on hitting the opening tee shot as far left as one dares, setting up the smarter, safer approach.

The abundance of land—Corales extends over 350 acres, three to four times the size of most courses—can distract golfers used to more obvious parameters: It is easy to hit errant shots because the playing field is almost too generous. There are also too many greens. Holes 3 and 15, both medium-length par fours, have two greens each because someone mentioned to Rainieri that Pine Valley has such a hole (its 8th). The owner told the architect that if one of the world’s greatest courses has one double-greened hole, Corales should have two! And so it does: The greens at No. 3 are guarded by the same pond but sit at different elevations; at 15, the straightaway green is more uphill than the surface to the right, which sits in a bowl behind two deep bunkers and surrounded by a confounding complex of mounds and sidehill lies. Both nines finish with a trio of holes not easily forgotten. The par-five 7th returns to the water, the long approach rising to an elevated green that seems to float between sea and sky. Teased by the ocean’s roar—Corales engages the ears as well as the eyes—the golfer comes to No. 8, a short par

2012 EDITION

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Besides being an eyeful, Corales is a handful, testing the playerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s imagination and moxie from first shot to last.

9th hole, 204 yards

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CORALES

four that twice crosses spouting blowholes, jagged coral cavities stained black by salt water and sun. Another raging cauldron of spray and rock gouges into the par-three 9th, which plays to a long skinny green set perpendicular to the tee, parallel to the wind. The back nine begins like the front, heading inland, then loops around a vast tract of land where many of the 120 homes are to be located. The houses will be big—starting at 10,000 square feet and $3,000,000; acre-plus lots begin at $1,250,000—but sited so they are barely visible from the course while looking toward the ocean. Rainieri asked Fazio to consider what homeowner and golfer will see from every point on and around the course. The idea was to make “every view a postcard,” says Overton, who explains that’s why a panorama of flowers, palms, sand, and pond wraps around the long (265 yards from the back tees) par-three 11th. “There’s $50,000 in landscaping there and it’s nowhere in play. Most people wouldn’t have put all that money into a par three. Except Don Frank.”

FA Z I O P R E M I E R C L U B S

The final three holes are called “El Codo del Diablo,” the Devil’s Elbow, because they bend back to the sea and put glory within reach. Number 16 points directly into the wind and is best played with a long, low, Scottish-style shot to the deep green. The par-three 17th reverses the direction of the parthree 9th: Now the crashing waves are on the right, producing a fine cooling mist sure to be appreciated by someone sweating over a short but demanding shot that must flirt with the ocean no matter which of the 10 tee boxes is employed. Putting the exclamation point on Corales is the long, parfour 18th, which bends nearly back on itself, playing over— or for most golfers around—a final fuming inlet of sea and rock. With the wind howling off the water, the player must calculate both strength and strategy, judging how much to bite off or be swallowed up. It is possible to wage an intelligent attack, but eventually a bold shot must be struck toward a green that clings to the very tip of the island. From the open patio of the modest clubhouse, looking back across the final holes, the course is almost empty (only 40 players are lucky enough to get out each day). The setting sun paints the scene with an ethereal glow. The roar of the crashing waves can be faintly heard, the white foam of the surf seen catching the air. One man’s dream has become the most ■ ravishing of realities.

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With the wind howling off the water at 18, the player must calculate both strength and strategy, judging how much to bite off or be swallowed up.

LOCATION

Puntacana, Dominican Republic PAR 72 YARDAGE 7,650 YEAR FOUNDED 2008 ARCHITECT

Tom Fazio EVAN SCHILLER

CONTACT

puntacana.com

18th hole, 501 yards

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17th hole, 185 yards

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FA Z I O P R E M I E R C L U B S

DIAMOND CREEK

PAUL SHERAR; TID GRIFFIN

This flawless gem in the Great Smoky Mountains dazzles, shines, and dares to be different

2012 EDITION

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DIAMOND CREEK

IKE THE JEWEL in its name, Diamond Creek was cut to be something special—and also different. For example… • Alongside the picture books and instructional tomes on the many bookshelves are copies of the Encyclopedia Brittanica, Harvard Classics, and Selected Tales of Guy du Maupassant.

• Breakfast and lunch are served on an open-air alcove that also serves up spectacular views of the course and the mountains. For dinner, members have special privileges at Artisanal, a restaurant located onsite (and open to the public), run by Chef Bill Greene, formerly of Le Cirque in New York City. • There are 20 homes on the 1,100-acre property, and it’s almost impossible to see even a single roof from the course, so secluded are the homesites. • The elegantly casual wood-and-stone clubhouse is more “house” than “club,” with the lived-in feel of a family home. Personal photographs abound, the furniture is comfortable, and the front door is the preferred means of entering and leaving. Not that anyone will want to leave. The man most responsible for defying private-club convention—while running a first-class operation—is John McNeely, who partnered with Wayne Huizenga to found Diamond Creek in 2003. (Huizenga also owns Frederica, on St. Simons Island, Georgia.) In his previous life, McNeely was a golf profession-

1st hole, 500 yards

FA Z I O P R E M I E R C L U B S

al at a number of top private clubs, including New York’s Winged Foot (where he was tutored by the legendary Claude Harmon), Thunderbird in the California desert, The Floridian, River Oaks in Houston, and Grandfather Golf and Country Club, just a few miles from Diamond Creek in the verdant mountains of western North Carolina. So he knew that when he went out on his own it had to be for something unique. “There are many great clubs up here, but most of them involve buying real estate and joining,” explains McNeely. “Wayne and I felt there was a chance to build something different, not a country club but a golf club.” After finding the land—a former sheep ranch tucked in a secluded mountain glen near the vacation village of Banner Elk—McNeely drove two hours south to Hendersonville, where Tom Fazio makes his home and office. McNeely didn’t talk to anyone else: He wanted this to be “a home game” for Fazio, who has since become a close friend of the two founders.

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TID GRIFFIN; PAUL SHERAR (2)

Carriage House Below: Artisanal Restaurant

The architect also created something different, a mountain course—altitude 4,000 feet—with minimal elevation change and an emphasis on firm, fast conditions. He accomplished the former by relocating one million cubic yards of earth and placing most of the uphill and downhill movement, about 250 feet in total, between the holes rather than on them. As for the latter, the bentgrass fairways are sand-dressed so they remain dry, healthy, and nearly as quick as the greens, which are lightning-fast and rife with waves and undulations. (When out-of-town members call to arrange visits, their usual first question is, “How fast is it playing?” The usual answer: Very.) Most of the holes at Diamond Creek run north-south, parallel to the surrounding hills while limiting sun glare in golfers’ eyes. The course covers a lot of ground, with each location providing a different view of the mountains: In one direction sits Sugar Mountain; from another spot appears Beech Mountain; off in the distance are Roan, Big Hump, Little Hump, and

Green Mountains; and high overhead loom the rock outcroppings known as Four Diamond Ridge, where the creek that gives the club its name begins. Fazio devised clever ways of bringing the elevation into play while keeping most holes fairly level. The driving range, teaching center, and first few holes are at the course’s highest point, so any uphill exertion—more likely to affect the cart than the golfer—comes early in the round. (The course was built to be walkable, so, in McNeely’s words, “if you walk your home course, you can walk ours.”) The clubhouse sits in the middle of the property and is primarily visible from the front nine; when the golfer sees it, he usually is looking down on it, a much more pleasant—and comforting—perspective. Only 42 bunkers were built because, says Fazio, they weren’t necessary to create “wow factor”: Nature provided that on her own. Six of those bunkers are on the par-four 6th hole, grouped together on the right side to direct tee shots toward the left where there’s an entrance to the green. However, the fairway, which climbs slightly uphill, slopes left to right, and any approach from the low side means having to come in over a beach-worth of sand to the narrowest part of the putting surface. Number 7 is one of three par fives (par is 70), and one of the few holes with a significant downhill drop. But spread over 500-plus yards the severity of the descent is muted. Off the tee, the fairway angles and slopes left toward a wide, safe landing area—yet the further left the drive lands, the harder it becomes to find the green to the right. The front side is the more spacious because it’s where the sheep once grazed. After the turn, holes tighten and trees come more into play, but Fazio continues to work with nature to keep the golfer on his toes. At the short, par-four 11th, the small green seems to float at the end of the earth, nothing

2012 EDITION

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TID GRIFFIN

Only 42 bunkers were built because they weren’t necessary to create ‘wow factor’: Nature provided that on her own.

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DIAMOND CREEK

behind it but mountains. The vast scale of the surroundings and the infinity view off the back edge make it difficult to trust the yardage. The course’s low point—in elevation, not drama—is number 17, a mid-length par three over water to a green backstopped by a forbiddingly beautiful rock wall. After that it is almost a relief to play back up the final fairway, the creek lining its right side, to the sanctuary of the clubhouse. In the mountains the season is only six months long. Half the membership is national, coming in for a few days or weeks

FA Z I O P R E M I E R C L U B S

at most, and enjoying many of the region’s other outdoor attractions, such as hiking, fishing, and biking. According to McNeely, autumn is busier than spring (the spectacle of changing leaves is a sure thing; early-season weather not quite as reliable). There’s even winter skiing nearby, although no one is going to confuse the Smokies with Sun Valley or St. Moritz. On property, members can take aim at shooting clays, 10 stations arranged along an open field and into the forest. The club also has an equestrian center with half a dozen horses for trail-riding, a wellness center, plus a burn pit and other under-the-stars amusements such as the Shanty, an alfresco bar and dining area. But the emphasis remains on golf, just the way Messrs. McNeely and Huizenga planned it. And yet… At the top of the clubhouse stairs is a book-lined lounge. On one of the walls, hidden behind a piece of sculpture, are five framed 18th-hole flags from another special club, Augusta National. Each is signed by one of the five men to win the Grand Slam: Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, and Tiger Woods. Anywhere else, such prizes would be front and center. Not ■ at Diamond Creek, where the difference is discernment.

TID GRIFFIN (2); PAUL SHERAR

6th hole, 380 yards Below: Shooting clays

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When members call to arrange visits, their usual first question is, ‘How fast is it playing?’ The usual answer: Very.

LOCATION

Banner Elk, North Carolina PAR 70 YARDAGE 7,175 YEAR FOUNDED 2003 ARCHITECT

Tom Fazio CONTACT

diamondcreekgc.com

7th hole, 590 yards

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15th hole, 222 yards Opposite: 2nd hole, 162 yards

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FA Z I O P R E M I E R C L U B S

EAGLE POINT GOLF CLUB

L.C. LAMBRECHT; JOANN DOST

Featuring some of the purest greens in the Southeast, this traditionalistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s retreat near the North Carolina coast is as good as golf gets

2012 EDITION

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EAGLE POINT GOLF CLUB

OME GOLF CLUBS are built as monuments to their owners. Others are built to sell real estate. But Eagle Point was built to promote enjoyment of the game. That the founders would choose bentgrass over bermuda for the greens speaks volumes about what this Wilmington, North Carolina, club strives to be.

Most courses in the South use one of the new dwarf bermudas, which are terrific, many people likening them to bent. But one trip around Eagle Point and the comparisons go out the window. Planted with a heat-tolerant strain called A-4, the club’s bentgrass greens are simply the best in the state, if not the entire region. Putts hug the ground so closely and balls have so much roll-out that it’s easy for any golfer to tap his inner Crenshaw. “We wanted a golf club where people could enjoy the game

on a world-class design without starting times, a place where they could entertain friends or business acquaintances in a very private atmosphere,” says one of the visionaries, Billy Armfield, who also served as president for 10 years. “We wanted a wellfunded club so we could maintain the course in pristine condition and we felt that bent is the best putting surface available.” In addition to having a terrific superintendent who knows how to care for the greens, Eagle Point’s location less than a mile from the ocean is a huge help in keeping them healthy:

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11th hole, 412 yards

L.C. LAMBRECHT (2)

air movement is critical and there’s usually a good breeze even in the hot summer months. Airflow, as well as vistas, also improved with the recent removal of more than 100 trees between holes on the front nine. In addition, the sandy, 229-acre site drains quickly and allowed Tom Fazio to sculpt the design. “We took the land

7th hole, 353 yards

that was high and made it even higher,” the architect says. “We created contours in the ground where the balls would feed and bounce toward play and toward the fronts of greens.” Fazio describes Eagle Point as “a golfer’s golf club.” The membership is national in scope, with most of the lucky 400 living more than 50 miles away. Many come from the major Southern cities, such as Atlanta, Charlotte, and Richmond, but there are also a handful from New York and even farther afield. Typically, the club takes care of transportation to and from the Wilmington airport; once on property, out-oftowners and their guests stay in one of two spacious cabins, each outfitted with four master suites that can easily sleep an eight-some. Located along the scenic 9th fairway, each cottage has a pool table, a big flat-screen TV over the fireplace, and a deck with a gas grill and rocking chairs. (They’re also outfitted with a healthy selection of Scotches, cigars, soft-baked cookies, and high ceilings perfect for anyone planning to work on his swing into the night.) The cottages are a short walk from the expansive practice range, where clubs and caddies will be waiting as soon as the sun comes up. Although not a walking-only club, strolling is encouraged and riders must take a caddie to help support the caddie program. Fortunately, it’s a very enjoyable walk. The first four holes ease players into the round: There are birdies to be caught at the 598-yard 4th if tee shots reach the big downslope in the fairway. The next hole is a challenging par three that plays over a lake to a green with a big bunker to the right and a lot of falloff to the left. The par-five 6th is the number-one handicap hole thanks primarily to the creek that runs along most of the left side, cuts across the fairway about 200 yards out, then hugs the right side of the hole before finishing in a big pond behind the green. During tournaments such as the Eagle Point Amateur Invitational—which attracts some of the best mid- and senior amateurs in the region each October—the club often moves up the tee on the short par-four 7th to tempt players into going for the green. However, the putting surface features so much fall-off that even good players have to give it a long think before giving it a go. Hosting the Invitational is indicative of the club’s

2012 EDITION

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That the founders would choose bentgrass over bermuda for the greens speaks volumes about what this Wilmington, North Carolina, club strives to be.

17th hole, 442 yards

JOANN DOST

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EAGLE POINT GOLF CLUB

philosophy. “Our board wanted to give back to amateur golf and create a tournament environment in the spirit of the game,” says Director of Golf Billy Anderson, who has been at Eagle Point since before it opened in 2000. “They love to have great players here. It creates atmosphere and camaraderie, and that’s what the club’s all about.” Good players, like tour pros Webb Simpson and Carl Pettersson, who are members, love the variety that Fazio built into the course. While the first eight holes are reminiscent of the North Carolina Sandhills, the next few are more South Carolina Lowcountry. Marsh lines the left side of the 431-yard 9th, with a drive from the back tees having to carry a good portion of the

Clubhouse

FA Z I O P R E M I E R C L U B S

L.C. LAMBRECHT; JOANN DOST

18th hole, 580 yards

hazard. Perhaps the prettiest view on the course is from the elevated tee on the 186-yard 10th, taking in the marsh and the river behind the green all the way to one of Wilmington’s bridges. The 412-yard 11th is the course’s only true dogleg, with a majestic, 130-year-old hackberry tree at the outside corner providing the perfect aiming point. Birdie chances are few and far between on the back, the best one coming on the downhill par-five 12th: Long hitters should be able to reach the narrow, angled green fronted by a lake, especially if they can catch the left-side slope and run the ball on. The other par five, the 580-yard 18th, also features a narrow, angled green and a lake on the right, but that’s where the similarities end. Going for the well-guarded green in two is a risky proposition and even a short third shot is no cinch. A par there will make lunch taste that much better in the comfortable men’s locker room. This being a true player’s club, the golf isn’t done at round’s end. After a bite to eat and maybe a shower, most groups head back outside to tackle the nine-hole par-three course with a sixpack in tow, exchanging barbs and money. Fazio designed the short course with no hole under 100 yards and one at 220. The rounds and the razzing out of everyone’s system, it’s time for dinner in the wood-shingled, Cape Cod-style clubhouse. “The people who started the club had a vision for golf in its simplest form,” says Anderson, “and we have a great membership that appreciates that vision. We’re pretty low-key. It’s a great atmosphere. People can take their hat off and be themselves when they’re inside the gates.” Be themselves and be at one with the game they love. ■

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‘We’re pretty low-key,’ says the Director of Golf Billy Anderson. ‘People can take their hat off and be themselves.’

LOCATION

Wilmington, North Carolina PAR 72 YARDAGE 7,258 YEAR FOUNDED

2000 ARCHITECT

Tom Fazio EAGLE POINT GOLF CLUB

6th hole, 549 yards

CONTACT

910-686-4653

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17th hole, 165 yards Opposite: The Great House

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FA Z I O P R E M I E R C L U B S

ESCONDIDO GOLF &LAKE CLUB

Everything is bigger in Texas, from the challenge and beauty of the golf course to the comfort of the club and the attentiveness of its staff

2012 EDITION

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ESCONDIDO GOLF & LAKE CLUB

F YOU’VE EVER SEEN a Western movie, you’ve got an idea of the rough beauty and dramatic vistas of the Texas Hill Country. Near the end of a three-and-a-half-hour drive southwest from Dallas or a 45-minute journey northwest from Austin, and after passing roadrunners and rocky outcroppings beneath a high, washed-blue sky, you may have a totally unoriginal thought: This looks like a great place for a golf course. It is. The Greatest Game has made an otherwise anonymous little Hill Country town called Horseshoe Bay a mecca for in-the-know players intrigued by the terrain and attracted to the spirit in the air. There are a double handful of courses in the area, several of them quite good, one of them outstanding. The clear leader is Escondido Golf & Lake Club, “Escondido” being a Spanish adjective meaning hidden, mysterious, secret. One other word and a couple of numbers might also serve as effective shorthand for this amazing property. The word is Fazio. Secluded and mysterious it may be, but it’s been an open secret that inside the stone gate of Escondido is an understated gem from the architect with the most courses in the Golf Digest Top 100. Tom Fazio, the man in charge of tweaking Augusta National, does no marketing, doesn’t have a website, and his phone number is unlisted. Yet the golf world

FA Z I O P R E M I E R C L U B S

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beats a path to his door because his designs are both visually arexample, the shot is over a big pond onto a hilltop, then through resting and extremely playable—just what real golfers want. a long valley to a green tucked like a plate into a hillside. There’s Escondido is exciting rather than relaxing, because if you stay an exposed granite dome as big as a parking lot behind the 12th on your toes you can shoot a good number and have a ball green, which reminds you of the solidity of this land and of the doing it. Let your mind linger too long on the views or your portunyielding material Fazio had to work with. folio, however, and the bogeys pile up like old newspapers. Escondido opened to great acclaim in 2006, with a national The excitement part comes not just from the “practical membership celebrating its good fortune by building giant, yet imagination” of the architecture—Fazio’s phrase—but from graceful, Spanish-Mediterranean and Italian-influenced mansions an element out of the designer’s control. In mid-September, in the development’s 550 wooded acres. A factor in the success despite the hottest, driest summer ever recorded in Texas, was another of those numbers: 6,000. That’s how many feet of Escondido was perfect. As Head Golf Professional Len lighted runway sits at the nearby Horseshoe Bay airport, one of Zamora played a lightning-quick 18 holes, the ball sat up in the largest private strips in the country. As long as you’re flying the fairway and begged to be hit. The greens rolled so fast and anything up to and including a DC-9, you’re good. true that any putt seemed makeable. Post-round, in the cool of the cool new clubhouse, GenerSuperintendent Scott Hamilton rolled up in a work cart to al Manager George Punoose talked about service. A clientele talk about grass. That’s zoysia rough and another kind of that flies privately and owns big, beautiful second (or third) zoysia in the fairways, he explained, and a special strain of Bermuda on the tees and bent on The Great House the greens. But bent grass hates weather like this, a guest pointed out: How in the world are you keeping these greens so happy? Mysterious smile from Hamilton: “If it was easy…” he said, and then he was gone. “My favorite hole,” announced Zamora as he pulled up to the 6th tee. He surveyed the scene. On the right side of a serpentine fairway wriggled an equally meandering stream. Over a quarter of a mile away the green and the water met, a lovely thing to contemplate but a major challenge for a golfer unsure of trajectory and vector with any club longer than a 7-iron. What to do from the tee? Safety (plus high native grass and live oak trees) occupied the left; a much better angle (and creek) shimmered on the right. “Aim at the cart path,” Zamora said. A joke: For aesthetic purposes, most of the paths at Escondido are hidden. In the end, the fairway was wider than it looked from the tee, and the green proved to be bigger and more receptive than it appeared. At Escondido, you may get the feeling that Fazio is playing you rather than you him. So it goes on the 7th hole, a shorter, shadow image of its predecessor: The green slopes front to back, usually more noticeable after a threeputt. A topographic map of the front nine wouldn’t reveal a great deal of elevation change, but thanks to the architect’s art, there is no feeling of flatness. Lunch at the Smoke Shack—smoked beef brisket tacos, con jalapeños, por favor!—gives the strength to tackle the pronounced dips and peaks punctuating the back nine. On the par-five 11th, for

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18th hole, 595 yards

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Just when oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s head starts to ache from the sun, a pleasant young man appears offering an ice-cold, mango-scented towel and a cup of frozen lemonade.

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ESCONDIDO GOLF & LAKE CLUB

7th hole, 405 yards Below: Lake Club

homes must expect a lot of service, right? And the more the better? Not that simple, the GM said. “We have a saying: ‘Don’t do it on Thursday if you can’t do it on Saturday,’” said Punoose, who began his career at the Four Seasons in Chicago. “As soon as you drive in through our gates, you know you’ve arrived somewhere special. It’s a place where you bring your friends and your kids and you wish you never had to leave. Ideally, our members do not ask for anything and yet have everything they want. The highest level of service is almost unnoticeable and that’s our standard at Escondido.” The staff strives for a combination of clairvoyance and consistency. You may not know you want a fruit kebab until a member of Punoose’s smiling army brings you one. And just when one’s head starts to ache from the relentless Texas sun, a pleasant young man appears offering an ice-cold, mangoscented towel and a cup of frozen lemonade. They don’t tolerate dusty automobiles at the club: cars that need a cleanup get washed while their owners get down and dirty with Fazio. They call their clubhouse The Great House. There’s a unique interaction on the ground floor: a testing and analysis room overseen by Director of Instruction Buck Mayers; another room for chiropractors to adjust the golfer in a different way; and a commodious workout area between the two. As he walked down a grand stone staircase outside the clubhouse,

FA Z I O P R E M I E R C L U B S

Punoose gestured at the herb garden and the fire pit, and talked about food, wine, and the new spa opening next fall. After a stop at the Lake Club—picture a villa in Venice, but with paddleboards, roofed fishing dock, pool, bar, and Kids Club—Punoose discussed membership. It’s part of the cost of a lot, he explained, but if a member doesn’t want to build there’s the Club Residences, a private collection of estate homes for vacation stays. “Condos?” a guest asked. The GM steered his cart to one of the fully furnished, four-bedroom, 4,500-square-foot mansions with a Tuscan rustic luxury look. It was stocked with steaks and wine for the next guest. “Nice condo,” someone said. Punoose flashed one of those ■ Escondido smiles.

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Lunch at the Smoke Shack—smoked beef brisket tacos, con jalapeños, por favor!— gives the strength to tackle the dips and peaks punctuating the back nine.

LOCATION

Horseshoe Bay, Texas PAR 71 YARDAGE 7,168 YEAR FOUNDED 2006 ARCHITECT

Tom Fazio CONTACT

escondidotexas.com

16th hole, 430 yards

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12th hole, 354 yards

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FA Z I O P R E M I E R C L U B S

FREDERICA GOLF CLUB

L. C. LAMBRECHT

Perhaps unlike any other course heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ever built, Tom Fazio had the flexibility to create something particularly special, drawing a celebrated membership to this island enclave

2012 EDITION

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FREDERICA GOLF CLUB

AMED AFTER A FORT just a few miles away that once served as the British military headquarters in colonial America, Frederica on St. Simons Island, Georgia, pays homage to the area’s history with a logo of English and Scottish flags side-by-side. It’s an unusual coupling given the two countries’ historical enmity, but when the Spanish tried to invade Georgia in 1742, a nearby settlement of Scots came to the aid of the Redcoats in St. Simons, helping to defeat the Spaniards in the “Battle of Bloody Marsh.” Today, the only battles taking place along the marsh are those with a ball and club, but how appropriate that they involve a game invented by the Scots. And nowhere on the island’s 18 square miles are those skirmishes more fun and intense than at Frederica, which is the home club for 10 PGA Tour pros, including Jonathan Byrd, Lucas Glover, Zach Johnson, Matt Kuchar, Davis Love, and Brandt Snedeker (a few major league baseball players also are members). “It’s a special place in that regard,” says Steve Archer, the director of golf and general manager. “The appeal is the practice facility, the course conditions, and the ability to get away

and be themselves. They are able to hone their games but also enjoy the atmosphere of the club. They’re just great guys who will play with members, and they go out of their way to get to know the folks here.” Talk about a tough club championship! But you don’t need to be a major champion to enjoy all that Frederica has to offer, starting with the rolling, 7,217-yard layout. As challenging as it is for the pros to play—with its preferred lines off the tee and into the large, undulating greens—the wide fairways and lack of rough make it enjoyable for higher handicaps, too. The ball really chases on the firm-and-fast fairways so

L.C. LAMBRECHT

Above: Equestrian pursuits 14th hole, 170 yards

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golfers tend to hit it a little farther here than they do elsewhere and can play a variety of fun shots. They never have to worry about their ball caroming off a cart path either since there aren’t any: For the most part, players can drive the carts, all of which contain Laser Link rangefinders, wherever they like. “Just keep them outside the leather” is the only admonition. Of course, with tees and greens in close proximity (the 13th green literally bleeds into the 14th tee), the layout is eminently walkable and there’s an excellent caddie program, too.

The course is defined by its wide-open spaces, the result of pine-tree harvesting. The roomy 300 acres was very appealing to Tom Fazio when he first set foot on the property. “One of the struggles as a designer in my career is having enough width for golf,” he says. “But that wasn’t an issue at Frederica, so we had this opportunity to create something very distinct.” That he did. The large scale called for big greens. Fazio is known for creating some of the most interesting complexes in the game, but he outdid himself at Frederica. The greens average 9,500 square feet and have more movement than an ocean in a storm. Each one is like a sculpture that you want to stop and admire, as well as study for all the possible breaks and shot variations. “There are some substantial elevation changes on the large greens, so there are a lot of alternate pin placements,” says Fazio, who collaborated on the design with Sir Michael Bonallack, former secretary of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club. “Club selection is a very big issue. Hitting it to the proper side of the green is important, too, so the slopes funnel the ball toward the hole, or if you’re on the wrong side, away from the hole. There’s a lot of thinking even with these big spaces.” The elevation changes are also surprising, especially for the generally flat island. Fazio created them with 4.5 million cubic yards of earth generated from digging a 400-acre boating

2012 EDITION

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15th hole, 525 yards

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‘One of the struggles as a designer in my career is having enough width for golf,’ says Tom Fazio. ‘But that wasn’t an issue at Frederica.’

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FREDERICA GOLF CLUB

Custom homes grace the community. Below: Fleet of electric boats at the Boathouse

and fishing lake filled with female trophy bass (8 to 10 pounders are common). A visitor to the club would never guess the rolling terrain was manmade. (About 1,800 trees were transplanted from what is now the lake. The biggest oaks couldn’t be lifted so the crew built a trench, then used bulldozers to push and pull them into place at a cost of $30,000 each.) The trees are as pleasing strategically as they are aesthetically (Fazio even planted some in the range to duplicate real playing conditions). For instance, on the opening hole, a 409yard, dogleg right, if a golfer plays safe down the left side away from the corner bunker, he or she may have some arbor issues coming into the green, particularly if the pin is left. And on the 525-yard 15th, the lay-up has to be well right or back to avoid a big oak short and left of the green. Thought-provoking dilemmas like that come up again and again. On the 423-yard 13th hole—situated in the more wooded part of the course—a drive hit down the left away from the marsh on the right leaves an approach as much as 40

FA Z I O P R E M I E R C L U B S

yards longer than one that flirts closer to the trouble. The closing trio is particularly challenging. The 462-yard 16th plays uphill and is probably the toughest hole on the course: The tee ball needs to challenge a big bunker on the left for a better angle into the extra-large green, which is receptive to a long iron or hybrid. At the downhill 443-yard 17th, players really need to step on their drives to have short irons into the angled, well-bunkered green. Same on the dogleg-left, parfive 18th if a golfer is to have a go at the green, which has a false front that runs off into a lake. Developed by Bill Jones III under the Sea Island Company umbrella, Frederica was bought by Wayne Huizenga in 2010 and since then he and his wife, Marti, have made a number of enchancements to the club. They recently added five elegant, Lowcountry-style four-bedroom cottages, making it easier for members who don’t own in the community to visit (a variety of homes and homesites with river, marsh, golf, lake, or wooded views are available for purchase). The sports and business mogul, who has developed several clubs himself, including Diamond Creek in North Carolina, also donated his Super Bowl and World Series’ trophies from the Miami Dolphins’ perfect season in 1972 and the Florida Marlins’ victory in 2003: The hardware sits in a glass trophy case right outside the pro shop, located in the comfortable clubhouse that feels more like a home with its tabby exterior, barrel-tile roof, and antique-filled interior. “Mr. and Mrs. H have brought an incredible new energy and passion to the club,” says Archer. “They’ve become such a part of the community. When they looked at the property, Mrs. H liked it so much she said wanted to live here. So they do have a home here and are great stewards of the land.” With its beauty and history, this unique golf course com■ munity is certainly deserving of the devotion.

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Fazio is known for creating some of the most interesting green complexes in the game, but he outdid himself at Frederica.

LOCATION

St. Simons Island, Georgia PAR 72 YARDAGE 7,217 YEAR FOUNDED

2004 ARCHITECT

L. C. LAMBRECHT

6th hole, 323 yards

Tom Fazio CONTACT

Frederica Golf Club

fredericaliving.com

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8th hole, 193 yards

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THE GREENBRIER SPORTING CLUB

EVAN SCHILLER

Imagine living at the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s quintessential resort, then throw in exclusive amenities available only to members and you begin to see what all the excitement is about

2012 EDITION

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THE GREENBRIER SPORTING CLUB

VERYONE WHO’S EVER VISITED The Greenbrier has wondered what it would be like to live the good life as practiced at “America’s Resort” full time. From golf to high tea, delicious dining to spa treatments and outdoor adventures, how nice would it be to have access to the ultimate in activities and hospitality whenever you want? Very nice, indeed. That’s part of the appeal of The Sammy” memorabilia. And the course, Greenbrier Sporting Club, a luxurious called The Snead, sits on land rich in private residential enclave nestled in the its own history, having been, among lush and lovely Allegheny Mountains of other things, a large horse farm with West Virginia amid the 6,750 acres of racetrack, an airstrip, polo field, the the country’s most comfortable Nationresort’s first skeet and trapshooting club, al Historic Landmark. “Part of” because even a World War II POW camp. while members have total access to the As graceful as its namesake, The resort’s wide variety of amenities and Snead glides along the floor of Greenbriactivities, the Sporting Club has its own er Valley among lakes and streams— Sam Snead (right) was part of The attractions available only to those lucky water comes into play on all but two of enough—and smart enough—to belong. Greenbrier family for nearly 70 years. the 18 holes—combining the natural Tom Watson followed Snead as the In keeping with the traditions of The corrugation of the land with manmade resort’s golf professional emeritus. Greenbrier, the primary lure is golf. Club enhancements, notably fast, undulating members have their own course, a Tom Fazio-designed gem greens and deep, voluminous bunkers. Despite its wide fairways that honors the legendary Sam Snead, who was associated and immaculate conditions, The Snead is much like the man with the resort for nearly 70 years: The Members’ Lodge, was: tougher than it first appears. Adding to that toughness is which serves as clubhouse, dining room, and activity central the steady wind that blows through Midland Gap, a V-shaped for the Sporting Club, features a mini-museum of “Slammin’ pass in the mountains at the western end of the valley.

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STEVE UZZELL

The opening holes offer a fast introduction into what to expect during the rest of the round. Numbers 1 and 2, midlength par fours, have water on the left and strategically placed bunkers on one or both sides of the fairway as well as short of the greens. Number 3 is a virile par three—250 yards from the longest of five available tee boxes—over water to a green book-ended by sand. All three holes, and most of the other 15, finish at broad, deep greens that play much smaller due to pronounced slopes and angles that must be expertly negotiated to get the ball anywhere near the pin. “The real defense of the golf course are the green complexes, which are very undulating,” says head pro Robbie Gilmore, who has been at The Snead since its opening in 2004. “They have false fronts and false edges, and even good approach shots if they’re not hit just right will roll off the green leaving very severe up-and-downs.” Severe also describes the bunkers, 90 in all, which often give the unlucky golfer no option other than wedging out. On some holes the sand comes in bunches—the long par-four 5th

boasts 10 bunkers, the short par-four 9th has 13—while four holes have but one each, usually guarding the green. There are eight bunkers on the 6th hole, a confounding par five that isn’t overly long but plays into the prevailing breeze. Six of the sandy hazards sit on the left, pushing the action toward a natural wetland on the right, which extends a long skinny finger that becomes a stream fronting the green. There’s also a large bailout area just over the water: Large, tilting collection areas guard many of the greens, placing a premium on short-game savvy. Number 6 also kicks off a troika of memorable holes on the far side of Route 60, known as “Sam Snead Boulevard.” The 7th is a nearly drivable par four, its crowned fairway wedged between water and five bunkers, with a long green that slopes like Kate’s Mountain, which looms in the distance. The water-free 8th is a medium-length par three beginning from an elevated tee and ending anywhere on a massively long, tiered green bracketed by collection areas in front and behind. The back nine is just as wet and nearly as sandy. Howard’s Creek—named after John Howard, who led an exploratory party into the valley in the 1740s—flows into play on the long, curling par-four 14th and remains a factor all the way home. A steep climb leads to the tee of the short par-three 15th, called “Postage Stamp” due to its resemblance to the notorious 8th hole at Scotland’s Royal Troon: a small green set on a ridge and made trickier by the wind. The tee shot on the par-five 16th drops 85 feet back to the valley, its fairway lined by acres of sand and the creek. Once

Above: 9th hole, 356 yards Holes 8 (193 yards) and 7 (389 yards)

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As graceful as its namesake, The Snead glides along the floor of Greenbrier Valley combining the natural corrugation of the land with manmade enhancements.

16th hole, 542 yards

STEVE UZZELL

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THE GREENBRIER SPORTING CLUB

Summit Lodge

safely on terra firma, the next few shots must tack side to side to locate the green. The creek, alive with trout, bass, and other potential prey, continues to define the right side of the final two holes, which require flirting with more sand and firing precise approaches to spacious putting surfaces. Behind the final green is the Members’ Lodge, and next to it the private Sporting Complex, complete with fitness center, squash courts, outdoor infinity pool, outdoor tennis courts, even a climbing wall. Just beyond is the Eastern-inspired spa, Ananda in the Alleghenies, which offers a tempting array of body treatments and salon services. There are countless other diversions available to members, such as fly-fishing, hunting, rafting, snowshoeing, children’s programs, sporting clays, miles of hiking and biking trails, and an equestrian center with both English and Western riding. Many of these pursuits are available at the club or through

the resort, as well as on top of Greenbrier Mountain at the members-only Summit Village, which sits at 3,300 feet: The Summit Activities Barn has basketball and volleyball courts, its own infinity pool, and access to miles of trails that lace through the hills; the charming Summit Lodge offers casual dining, an inviting lounge with pool tables, big-screen TVs, and bar games, plus spectacular views in all directions—including awe-inducing panoramas of the shimmering night sky. Between mountaintop and valley floor are more than 500 home sites in 15 distinct neighborhoods (land ownership is a prerequisite to Sporting Club membership; sites begin at $300,000, finished homes at $1 million). Elegant houses, designed to complement nature’s beauty, line the hilly ridges that stairstep down the hillsides, most tucked in among the tall trees and natural cul-de-sacs. Every home site has been positioned to offer unparalleled vistas and privacy. Homes feature the latest in furnishings and appliances as well as an understanding of the needs of busy families looking for unhurried time together. There are also homes closer to the main hotel, around the resort’s three golf courses—The Old White TPC (home of the PGA Tour’s Greenbrier Classic), The Greenbrier (site of the 1979 Ryder Cup and 1994 Solheim Cup matches), and The Meadows—and with easy access to other local attractions such as the casino and the famous Greenbrier Clinic. (A new health facility, The Greenbrier Medical Institute, specializing in cardiovascular health, plastic surgery, and sports medicine, is scheduled to open in 2013.) Visitors have been coming to Greenbrier Valley since 1778 to “take the waters” of the natural springs, making the region rich in history. The Greenbrier Sporting Club offers families, sports enthusiasts, and anyone else looking for a luxurious leisure lifestyle the chance to make a little history ■ of their own.

EVAN SCHILLER

The Greenbrier Resort

FA Z I O P R E M I E R C L U B S

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The green complexes have false fronts and false edges. Even good approach shots will roll off greens leaving very severe up-and-downs.

LOCATION

White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia PAR 71 YARDAGE 7,025 YEAR FOUNDED

2004 (The Snead) ARCHITECT

Tom Fazio CONTACT

thegreenbriersportingclub.com

4th hole, 541 yards

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18th hole, 492 yards Opposite: Camp Lodge

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FA Z I O P R E M I E R C L U B S

THE MARTIS CAMP CLUB

High in Californiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Sierra Nevada Mountains north of Lake Tahoe, this ultra-luxe, four-season private community offers golf, skiing, arts, fishing, hiking, biking, and strong family values

2012 EDITION

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THE MARTIS CAMP CLUB

3rd hole, 223 yards

HAT’S IN A NAME? According to general manager Mark Johnson, finding the right name for this three-year-old community took time. “We must have gone through 500 names,” says Johnson. “Eventually, we settled on ‘Martis,’ for the valley we’re in, and on ‘camp’ for the people who’ve been coming up into the mountains for 100 years. It ties into everything we are doing at Martis Camp—family, nature, land, environmental stewardship—and it just felt appropriate.” That’s not all that feels right about this 2,177-acre property that sits at 6,100 feet in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains near Lake Tahoe. It’s obvious that everyone involved in envisioning this “camp” was paying close attention to the details so that the good feelings would resonate with all ages. As Johnson says, the emphasis is on family and creating an atmosphere in which different generations can gather for quality time together, enjoying the natural surroundings and having fun in a year-round environment. High among the attractions are spectacular views of the surrounding mountains and tall Ponderosa pines, as well as crystal-clear lakes and streams for fishing, miles of trails for hiking and biking (they even provide the bikes), and many other fresh-air activities. Also within the property are areas designed for kids and adults— a Parks Pavilion with stone labyrinth, soccer field, basketball

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courts, and playgrounds—even strategically placed freezers stocked with Häagen-Dazs ice cream. There’s also an immaculately manicured Putting Park, designed by Dick Bailey, that offers the serious player a challenging practice session while entertaining families with 18 holes of swales, dips, and slopes. And how many golf communities have a “Lost Library” housed in a picturesque cottage in the woods? It’s just steps from an outdoor meditation garden and at the trailhead for 26 miles of hiking and cross-country skiing trails. At the heart of the multi-generational experience is the Family Barn, an 18,000-square-foot building with a nostalgic soda fountain, two bowling lanes, a movie theater, arts-andcrafts loft with folk-school programming, indoor basketball court, pinball machines, video games, board games, and

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Family Barn

whatever else kids desire. The Barn is also home to a summer concert series held at an outdoor amphitheater. There won’t be any “I’m bored, there’s nothing to do” complaints here. Complementing the majestic vistas is the Tom Faziodesigned golf course, which is as lush as the pine forests and as roomy as the great outdoors. Most holes are wide across the fairway and long from tee to green (luckily, playing at a mile high is akin to hitting a club or two less than normal). Greens are similarly spacious—and surprisingly deceptive—each fitted with an under-the-surface SubAir aeration/moisture system to keep them healthy in the sometimes fickle mountain climate. (Late-spring snow is not uncommon.) Students of golf architecture will be interested to note that the bunkers—steep, flash-faced, and plentiful—feature ragged edging that Fazio included to make the course feel like other classic California designs. The views are especially epic on the front nine, which looks primarily to the east and the snow-capped peaks of the Sierra Nevada’s Carson Range. The back nine actually feels a bit like going up and down those mountains, while bordering Martis Creek for a few holes. There are also more yardage extremes on the back, from the longest hole on the course—the back-breaking 10th, which from its high-above-the-fairway medal tees reaches 645 yards—to the shortest, the tight parthree 14th that with a short iron for most players plays to a 3,000-square-foot green.

It’s likely one of the most exciting holes will prove to be the 16th, a par four that could be drivable when challenged from the proper set of tees (even all the way back the hole is only 315 yards): The long, skinny green is perched on a raised portion of the fairway’s right side; the smart bailout to the left leaves the golfer facing a semi-blind half-shot to a thumb-thin putting surface. Attackable from the right, the 16th will demand careful study and numerous rounds to determine the wisest battle plan. The final hole—wide yet lined with bunkers and dropping off into a pine forest on the right—climbs to an angled green that sits below the 50,000-square-foot Camp Lodge. Carved from wood and stone (it would be at home in a national park), the Camp Lodge is the club’s center, containing the golf shop, well-appointed men’s and women’s locker rooms, a day spa, outdoor lap and vitality pools, even residents’ mail boxes. There’s also a choice of dining facilities with four cozy indoor dining rooms and five outdoor terraces. An octagonal dining area named the “cliff room” wraps around a grand stone fireplace and is capped with a vaulted ceiling covered in a colorful hand-made quilting. The room is as warm and inviting as it is charming and unique. The Camp Lodge will be to adults what the Family Barn is to the kids, a place to hang out and unwind. Which isn’t to say that youngsters aren’t welcome, or that there isn’t room for them on the golf course. Club Professional Gus Jones is

2012 EDITION

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The golf course is as lush as the pine forests and as roomy as the great outdoors. Luckily, playing at a mile high is akin to hitting a club or two less than normal.

9th hole, 509 yards

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THE MARTIS CAMP CLUB an avid supporter of junior golf and hopes Martis Camp will introduce a new generation of players to the game. To that end, every hole has a set of junior tees and kids, with or without grown-ups, are encouraged to squeeze in mini-rounds—four, six, however many holes they want. Making it all work, the golf staff is acutely aware of their obligation to accommodate all levels of players without infringing on anyone’s good time. Even the practice field at Martis Camp is unusually accommodating, as scenic and well groomed as the course. Three tee levels stretch out into what look to be two downhill holes complete with bunkers, trees, and target greens, the snow-capped mountains looming in the distance. It is hardly anyone’s idea of a “rock pile” and should help encourage practicing.

Martis Camp sits at the base of the Northstar-at-Tahoe ski resort and has half a dozen trails running from the mountain into the community. Currently under construction (with a planned completion date of late 2012) is a private Mountain Clubhouse at the base of Lookout Mountain with direct skilift access. A number of homes will have ski-in, ski-out access to their front doors. The property’s master plan calls for 653 lots, most of them between one and two acres. And despite opening the camp’s doors just as the world economy started to tumble, sales have remained robust. Many residents come from the San Francisco Bay Area, about a three-hour drive away. With general aviation Truckee-Tahoe Airport across the street from the Camp Gatehouse, owners from throughout the West have found it convenient to make Martis Camp the easy choice for a family compound. New sections are opening up for development and sales: Cabin homes are limited to 3,250 square feet, while custom homes can go up to 9,000 square feet. The community gives owners and architects latitude in home design with the results ranging from log-cabin deluxe to “mountain contemporary.” Many homes incorporate walls of windows that bring the majesty of the mountains, trees, and deep-blue-sky views indoors while taking advantage of passive solar opportunities. Other homes follow the traditional Tahoe style of mountain architecture. ■ Martis Camp takes camping to a whole new level.

6th hole, 402 yards

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Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s likely one of the most exciting holes will be the 16th, a drivable par four.

LOCATION

Truckee, California PAR 72 YARDAGE 7,298 YEAR FOUNDED 2006 ARCHITECT

Tom Fazio CONTACT

martiscamp.com

16th hole, 311 yards

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Ocean North, 17th hole, 558 yards Opposite: Ocean South, 13th hole, 131 yards

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COURTESY OF PELICAN HILL; AIDAN BRADLEY

THE RESORT AT PELICAN HILL

The two courses have long been strategic gems with sweeping vistas of the Southern California coastline. Now there’s a hotel to match

2012 EDITION

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PELICAN HILL

HE LOS ANGELES AREA boasts many terrific courses, including Riviera, Bel-Air, and Shady Canyon. But nearly all of them are private. For years, there was no comparable daily-fee property with the same sort of great design, conditions, beauty, and service.

That all changed with the opening of the Ocean South Course at Pelican Hill Golf Club in Newport Beach in 1991. Not only did the nation’s preeminent architect, Tom Fazio, design it with classic risk-reward propositions, but it also offered stunning ocean views with two holes right on the water—L.A.’s answer to Pebble Beach. Then, two years later, Fazio opened the longer, wider Ocean North, which sits higher on the hill and offers even more dramatic scenery. Local golfers swooned, and justifiably so. The final piece to the puzzle was the opening of an ultraposh resort in 2008. Suddenly, the courses were no longer simply regional favorites: They became national, if not international, must-plays. Inspired by 16th-century Italian architect Andrea Palladio and featuring 204 bungalows and 128 villas accessed by small streets lined by 750 mature olive trees, Pelican Hill more closely resembles a Tuscan seaside village than a golf resort. The feeling is so palatial that visitors regularly stop in their tracks

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to admire the construction and design, starting with the main driveway, which features a herringbone pattern of elongated bricks patterned after the piazza in Siena. After admiring the lobby’s 28-foot rotunda, the Great Room demands attention with its hand-cut-and-carved Italian limestone fireplace flanked by 17th-century Flemish tapestries. Outside, below a columned terrace, sits the world’s largest circular saltwater pool (136 feet in diameter) with its radiant blue bottom of 1.1 million glass mosaic tiles and its amphitheater of terraced decks with furnished cabanas. All stunning but perhaps the prettiest sight of them all is the expansive view of the courses and the shimmering Pacific beyond. “We’re more than just a hotel,” says the 21st-century “doge,” Managing Director Giuseppe Lama. “We are a destination. People don’t come here just to stay here. They come for what they can do here.” The staying is so good, however, that it’s difficult to venture out of the tastefully decorated and way–too–comfortable

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COURTESY OF PELICAN HILL

Ocean South, 18th hole, 453 yards

bungalows and two- to four-bedroom villas, most of which come with ocean views. But when guests do decide to explore, their thoughts are sure to turn to food. This is a little slice of Italy, after all. The signature restaurant, Andrea, is well known for hand-made pasta dishes and artisan-style gelato served to big booths with lumbar pillows for long bouts of epicurean lounging. Executive Chef Jean-Pierre Dubray has exclusive access to Irvine Ranch farms and specialty crops like white asparagus. The terrace and bar area has radiant floors and ceiling heaters for comfortable outdoor dining year round. Heated al fresco dining is also available at the Pelican Grill in the golf clubhouse, where the wide variety of dishes includes fresh

seafood, grilled steaks, and olive-wood-oven pizzas prepared in the open kitchen. For sporting events, there are two giant HDTVs. Guests can also enjoy a meal or drink at Crystal Cove Beach, a short shuttle ride away. For those who want to do as well as dine, the beach offers water activities such as paddle boarding (with lessons), sea lion eco-kayak tours, and Scuba diving. Different sorts of water therapy are available at the Acqua Colonnade inside the 23,000square-foot spa, a Forbes Five-Star facility with 22 treatment rooms, full-service salon, and barbershop chair for hot-lathered shaves. Close shaves will also be found on the two golf courses, where the greens are razor-fast and the conditions immaculate. Both 18s were shut down while the resort was going up, during which time they underwent major renovations to the infrastructure—drainage, irrigation, soils, and green systems. Fazio’s team also redid the greens with the latest hybrid grass and planted all new landscaping. “It was very expensive, but the Irvine Company is in it for the long term,” the architect says, giving credit to the resort’s owner. “We didn’t change the design. It’s just better built.” Getting Fazio to build them at all took some cajoling. He concentrated his work in the East so he could stay closer to

2012 EDITION

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Ocean South, 12th hole, 159 yards

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AIDAN BRADLEY

Not only did the nation’s preeminent architect, Tom Fazio, design the South with classic risk-reward propositions, but it also offered two holes right on the water—L.A.’s answer to Pebble Beach.

FPC12_PELICAN_HILLv6_Layout 1 2/17/12 12:05 PM Page 78

PELICAN HILL his family. And Pelican’s elevation changes and canyons presented engineering and routing challenges that would require numerous site visits. But Peter Ueberroth, then on the Irvine Company’s board, worked his charm. “He’s very persuasive,” says Fazio with a chuckle. “I’ve thanked him endless times because it turned out so well.” Indeed it did. Carved through coastal hillsides, canyons, and arroyos lush with fragrant sagebrush, both the North and South challenge golfers on almost every shot, particularly the approaches since many of the greens sit hard by deep, overgrown chasms. Many of the site lines show off Fazio’s considerable design skill, such as on the South’s 193-yard 7th or the North’s 558-yard 17th, where the views beyond the greens are all ocean. “Tom does such a great job making the courses fit the terrain that they look like they have been there forever,” says

COURTESY OF PELICAN HILL; AIDAN BRADLEY

Wedding Rotunda

Vice President of Golf Steve Friedlander. “They’re very pleasing to the eye. The fairways roll and the greens don’t look forced. They sit in areas that seem natural. He’s very good at creating illusions and making you think.” Or making you stop and stare. The South’s back-to-back par threes—the 159-yard 12th and the dual-green 131-yard 13th— hug the coast. “The number-one-ranked course in the state, Cypress Point, has back-to-back par threes, so there’s nothing wrong with that,” notes Fazio. “The bottom line was we only had 1,000 feet of oceanfront. That’s 330 yards, a very short par four. Why don’t we try to put two tees and two greens so you spend more time there and enjoy that beautiful waterfront?” Members get to spend more time than most. Within the resort is a club that golfers can join and play unlimited golf without worrying about assessments and minimums. And with some 25 members getting together every Friday and Saturday, there are plenty of games, too. There’s also a super-twilight program that allows kids aged 8–18 to play free. The new, 44,000-square-foot clubhouse has spacious men’s and women’s locker rooms and a Tour-level practice facility that is home to one of the state’s best instructors, Glenn Deck. “It’s a country-club feel without being a country club,” says Friedlander. “The members always tell me we have created an environment where they can entertain their clients or their friends, and we’ve got two courses whereas most private clubs only have one. Culminating all of that is the knowledge that we will always maintain the property at the highest possible level because it’s a resort. You are assured 365 days a year of a golfing experience at the highest level.” ■ No doubt about it, this Pelican really soars.

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‘Tom does such a great job of making the courses fit the terrain that they seem like they’ve been there forever,’ says Steve Friedlander. ‘They’re very pleasing to the eye.’

LOCATION

Newport Beach, California OCEAN NORTH

71 YARDAGE 6,945

OCEAN SOUTH

PAR

YEAR FOUNDED ARCHITECT

1991

Tom Fazio

CONTACT

pelicanhill.com

Ocean South, 7th hole, 193 yards

70 6,580

YARDAGE

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9th hole, 397 yards

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FA Z I O P R E M I E R C L U B S

THE RIDGE AT BACK BROOK

PHOTOGRAPHY BY L.C. LAMBRECHT

Quite possibly the best club you’ve never heard of is in a place you’d never expect

2012 EDITION

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THE RIDGE AT BACK BROOK

OTORISTS WHO THINK New Jersey is nothing more than highways, oil refineries, and rest stops will be surprised to know that a very different Garden State lies but a few miles away. In Hunterdon County, for example, highways are replaced by equestrian trails. The oil comes from fields of sunflowers soaking in the warmth of their namesake. And the rest stops are farm stands selling locally grown sweet corn and the country’s best tomatoes.

Also in this western county, snuggling up against Pennsylvania, the terrain begins to rise and fall, becoming thick with forests and ribboned with rivers and streams. Minutes from the corporate parks of Princeton it is still possible to find land that seems untouched by time and man. Joel Moore found 300 such acres, and there he built his dream club, The Ridge at Back Brook. Moore and his wife Pam had belonged to a succession of local clubs. But they knew the only way to find exactly what they wanted was to build it themselves. Their goal was a golf-only club—no pool, no tennis, no homes—casual and unique in atmosphere but serious about the game. He wanted exceptional practice facilities, with lots of room, separate bunker and short-game areas, numerous practice greens, and a separate teaching tee. And Joel had one

other criterion: “I was going to have a Tom Fazio course or I wasn’t going to build it.” In the autumn of 1998, Joel began walking parcels of available land within driving distance of their eastern Pennsylvania home and his accounting practice near Princeton. Discouraged by one piece after another of dull, flat farmland, he nearly abandoned the hunt. Then he took a late-afternoon walk on a piece of property like no other. “There were woods, streams, elevation changes, rock outcroppings, and huge specimen trees,” he says. “I found a natural red-rock wall nearly 100 feet tall that’s now behind the 8th green. I came home and told Pam, ‘I think I found it.’” He was able to buy four parcels, including the 30-acre piece with the exposed red New Brunswick shale. Land in hand, the next job was getting Fazio.

8th hole, 196 yards

FA Z I O P R E M I E R C L U B S

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14th hole, 566 yards

3rd hole, 438 yards

Through contacts at Black Diamond, the Florida club with two Fazio layouts where the Moores also belonged, Joel got in touch with the architect’s office. He sent a topographic map and a few days later was leading a group of Tom’s associates through the spectacular setting. It took a few more months, countless phone calls, and a meeting with Fazio himself to get the deal done. In late summer 2002, the course opened. The members loved it and word slowly spread beyond the confines of the county and the state. Golf Digest named “The Ridge” the best new course east of the Mississippi in 2003 and the sixth best new course in the country. Other accolades followed: In 2006, the New Jersey Course Owners Association named The Ridge the state’s course of the year; readers of GolfStyles New Jersey voted it the second best course in the state after Pine Valley; and in 2010, GolfWorld named it the eighth best private club in the U.S. Yet most people still haven’t heard of it. The designer knows

that given a glimpse, they will be smitten. “Golfers will be shocked by the natural beauty and drama of this course,” Fazio says. “Just when you think you’ve played the best nine holes you’ve ever played, you step up to the 10th tee and it starts all over again.” True to his word, Fazio made every hole at The Ridge special. During a round the land climbs, drops, and rolls. Giving definition and offering framing are fields of flowing fescue, stands of tall trees, a lake, and two ponds. There really is a Back Brook and its tributaries come into play on nine holes. Sand is used sparingly, but the bunkers that exist are large, deep, and cleverly positioned. The fairways are wide but many are sloped so it’s impossible to get around without having to negotiate at least a few uphill, downhill, and sidehill lies. Then there is the eponymous ridge, a crest of land entirely contained within the course. Under its surface are outcroppings of barn-red shale that weren’t fully exposed until the builders started boring and blasting. The rock first appears behind the 5th green and then rises out of the earth in the middle of the 7th hole, a dramatic split-fairway par five that begins on an elevated tee and doesn’t show its stuff—shale, sand, and landing areas at different levels—until it’s time to hit the second shot. “That was the hardest hole to build,” remembers Joel. “Until they started digging and hit the rock, we didn’t know how hard or soft it was. It was hard and kept breaking machinery. That hole took about six months to shape.” The 100-foot-high red-rock wall backstops the 8th green. But what makes the hole memorable—a tactic used on

2012 EDITION

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7th hole, 595 yards

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‘Golfers will be shocked by the natural beauty and drama of this course,’ says Tom Fazio. ‘Just when you think you’ve played the best nine holes you’ve ever played, you step up to the 10th tee and it starts all over again.’

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THE RIDGE AT BACK BROOK nearly all of the one-shotters (of which there are five, as there are five par fives)—is the diversity of tees. Set at different angles and different elevations, their placement day to day dramatically changes how the short holes play, adding to the course’s endless variety. Two holes—Nos. 5 and 18, both long, downhill par fives— finish at greens perilously close to the brook, tempting long hitters but forcing most mortals to lay up to flat spots in the landing area and then negotiate less-than-full shots to greens much wider than they are deep. The putting surfaces are the one constant at The Ridge, each one big, deceptive, fast, and always maintained in perfect condition. Just a touch can propel a slight miss well past the hole. It’s not uncommon to see a relatively short putt roll way too long on the greens. A round at The Ridge ends too quickly, to be recounted in a clubhouse that is casual in feel and expert in service. Once again, Moore knew he wanted something different: a mountain chalet built of big timber and stone, a taste of the Rockies in the Mid-Atlantic. From the aerie billiard room to the handsome locker rooms, the clubhouse is designed for comfort and use. The restaurant prepares casual fare as well as gourmet cuisine. There are private corners to sit in, have a drink, conduct a meeting, and watch the big screens, but no big banquet rooms. (“They

12th hole, 201 yards

FA Z I O P R E M I E R C L U B S

sit empty 80 percent of the time,” says Joel.) And with a wall of windows and an outdoor deck overlooking the rolling countryside, this is a grand location for weddings and other memorable member celebrations. Pam oversees the social side and membership (a variety of membership options are available), and ensures that the club is gender-blind. Women are equal members, with their own calendar of events. Juniors are also embraced, treated to clinics on summer Fridays followed by a family buffet. The Ridge even holds an annual Junior Member-Guest. More tournaments may be coming: Joel is considering hosting a PGA Tour event. In 2007, The Ridge held local qualifying for the U.S. Open and no one broke 75 from the championship tees on a windy day. Should the game’s finest come to The Ridge, the course will be ready for them. Former head pro Steve Scott—who nearly beat Tiger Woods in the 1996 U.S. Amateur—knows what makes a course great, and he says it’s all here. “I’ve played in many PGA Tour events, including two majors, and the quality and consistency of the course is equal to or better than any of them. Especially the greens, which are always in tournament-caliber condition. If they grow the rough a bit they could have any tournament there within a week. The members and their guests have that sort of playing ■ experience every day.”

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‘If they grow the rough a bit they could have any tournament there within a week,’ says former head pro Steve Scott. ‘The members and their guests have that sort of playing experience every day.’

LOCATION

Ringoes, New Jersey PAR 72 YARDAGE 7,153 YEAR FOUNDED 2002 ARCHITECT

Tom Fazio CONTACT

theridgegc.com

18th hole, 537 yards

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17th hole, 266 yards Opposite: 12th hole, 481 yards

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FA Z I O P R E M I E R C L U B S

SHOOTING STAR

ALLEN KENNEDY (2)

As big and bold as the American West, this family-owned club offers the best in year-round activities and truly breathtaking scenery

2012 EDITION

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S H O O T I N G S TA R

Holes 18 (left), 519 yards, and 10 (right), 186 yards

N THE U.S., FAMILY-OWNED FARMS and ranches are disappearing, shutting down or selling off to mega-corporations. Hoping to avoid that fate, the Resor family—which owns a 6,500-acre cattle ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyoming—had an idea that would keep the family, now grooming its fourth generation, involved and committed: Turn part of their property into a golf club.

“We wanted something different, something sustainable over time,” says John Resor, Shooting Star’s president. “A way to keep the ranch intact and have a complementary business on the land.” Their solution is Shooting Star, a two-year-old private community with a Tom Fazio-designed golf course, full-service club, single-family homes and “cabins,” and easy access to the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort (featuring the longest continuous vertical drop in the country) as well as proximity to two of the country’s most magnificent national parks, Grand Teton and Yellowstone. Plus a healthy sense of realism. “As good as the club is, as good as the golf is, we know we’re just one of many amenities for our members,” says membership director Mike Kramer, who worked for Fazio for 11 years and was involved in the design of the Shooting Star

FA Z I O P R E M I E R C L U B S

course. “There’s just so much to do here—hiking, fishing, white-water rafting, horseback riding, Nordic and downhill skiing, and amazing summer weather.” Plus some of the world’s most beautiful mountain scenery. Impossible to escape, the towering Tetons are literally in the club’s backyard, forcing the architect to build the course on 250 acres and with big enough scale to match the majesty of the surroundings. To add drama to the pancake-flat grazing land, two million cubic yards of earth were moved, raising some parts of the layout and lowering others, and exposing 50 acres of ground water that were incorporated into the design. Streams and lakes are in play on 13 of the 18 holes. All four of the par threes demand crossing or skirting water, often both; same with the four par fives (par is 72). There also are 84 bunkers, many large, deep, and fringed with long,

L.C. LAMBRECHT; ALLEN KENNEDY

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wispy fescue that waves in the afternoon winds. And although they might not always appear so from the tees, fairways are wide, making it possible to avoid the hazards—but usually leaving longer approach shots from less comfortable angles. So better players hitting from the lengthiest of five available markers will find more than enough challenge while average players can avoid punishment by playing smart and within their means. But everyone has to think on every shot, beginning with the very first hole. Number 1 is a dogleg-left par four with half a dozen bunkers on the right side, which is also the preferred side for approaching a green angled to the left. It’s followed by a mid-length par three with water down the right, then a long par five with a stream that begins on the right, crosses the fairway, then hugs

the left edge of the green. The opening holes give players a taste of the elements to come—water, sand, elevation change, playing the angles—and a chance to get used to the 6,300-foot altitude (which adds about one club to each shot) and firm, fast, and receptive greens surrounded by big collection areas. The course continually changes directions, starting parallel to the Teton Range, turning toward the peaks then away, altering the effects of prairie breezes. The 7th is a straight par four that aims dead at the ski runs. Its wide fairway and the vastness of the view can easily lull the unobservant into a false sense of security: At just over 300 yards, a driver might be the wrong club because no one wants a tricky half-wedge to the severely undulating green. One of the most confounding putting surfaces at Shooting Star is the 9th, which hovers at the end of a short par five that wraps around a lake on the left side and is dotted with sand on the right. Set to the right and sloped from back to front, the green is long, thin, and hard to hold. A similarly long, thin, and easy-to-find bunker guards the entrance to the green and partly obscures the golfer’s view: Many approaches to this green finish long and right, leaving treacherous chips and putts back onto the tilted tabletop. The two par fives on the back, 11 and 15, sweep toward the mountains, one from left to right, the other right to left. The tee shot at 11 crests a small hill to reveal miles of steppe

2012 EDITION

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16th hole, 372 yards

ALLEN KENNEDY

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The Tetons are literally in the clubâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s backyard, forcing Fazio to build the course with big enough scale to match the majesty of the surroundings.

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S H O O T I N G S TA R

and slope lush with aspen, cottonwood, spruce, and pine. The great American West feels within reach and the senses tingle, the rustle of leaves matched by the burbling of the stream along the right. (Building the streams, Fazio’s crew purposefully placed rocks near greens to create rapids’ rush and roar.) The 15th is a goliath, more than 600 yards long, that curls around a 40-acre lake, turning 90 degrees left to a tiny green at water’s edge. Into the wind that rides down the mountain it can take three full-throated shots just to get near the green, then something delicately manipulated to approach the hole. The finish is no less rugged. The 17th is a long par three (266 from the back tees!) with a stream on the right and a green that sits under iconic Sleeping Indian Mountain. The final hole is a brawny par four: The tee shot has to find a perpendicular landing zone sandwiched between bunkers, setting up a final approach over water. It won’t be just the altitude that leaves survivors gasping. Overlooking the 18th green sits the long, low clubhouse, built with reclaimed Douglas fir timbers, old barn wood siding, and Oklahoma Moss Rock, and filled with an eclectic collection of Western art ranging from Henry Moore to Andy Warhol. From the comforting lounges and cozy dining room— featuring a copper-topped circular fireplace and bar—walls of windows bring light, land, and sky indoors. The clubhouse also has a fitness center (with a separate room for spin classes and Pilates), spa with an exquisite couples’ suite, salon, men’s and women’s locker rooms, intimate dining/conference rooms, as well as a stunning tension-edge pool, children’s pool, and two Jacuzzis. Connected to the main building, the Alpine Barn is a multipurpose space used for everything from casual dinners followed by big-screen sports to kids’ games. The barn also is lined with ski lockers equipped with boot dryers, and once the snow begins to fall—which it does, plenty—private

FA Z I O P R E M I E R C L U B S

shuttles run members back and forth to the adjacent Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. The club also offers the best Nordic track in the valley, utilizing the rolling terrain of the golf course. There are presently 18 three- and four-bedroom cabins (with as many as 64 more planned), and land enough for 100 single-family lots. But only two residences will be on the golf course: most are to be located on the other side of the property, closer to the ski mountain with some alongside the mammoth, two-sided driving range. The Resor family has good reason to ascribe to Fazio’s theory of “core golf,” in which the course is given the best terrain and remains home-free. In this way, the residences transition to the clubhouse, then the golf course, and finally the sprawling cattle ranch to the south. “This land has been in our family since the 1930s,” John Resor explains. “This isn’t a developer-owned club where there is an exit strategy. The family is involved and is going to stay involved. Our reputation is on the line because we live here ■ and plan to for a long time.”

ALLEN KENNEDY (3)

Alpine Barn and Clubhouse Below: Inside the Alpine Barn

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Once the snow begins to fall, private shuttles run members back and forth to the adjacent Jackson Hole Mountain Resort.

LOCATION

Jackson Hole, Wyoming PAR 72 YARDAGE 7,550 YEAR FOUNDED 2009 ARCHITECT

Tom Fazio CONTACT

shootingstarjh.com

14th hole, 523 yards

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18th hole, 550 yards Opposite: 17th hole, 438 yards

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FA Z I O P R E M I E R C L U B S

THE VIRGINIAN GOLF CLUB

Bordering some of the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most beautiful scenery is a comfortable club that mixes the spirit of community with a tough test of golf

2012 EDITION

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THE VIRGINIAN GOLF CLUB

HEN HE FINISHED designing and building The Virginian—a delightful golf club that sprawls over farmland and forest near the western end of the Old Dominion—Tom Fazio said to owner Don Nicewonder, “90 percent of the work is done. Now you’ll spend the rest of your life doing the last 10 percent.”

That might be something Fazio says to all his developers, knowing that courses are living things that evolve over time and with the whims of man. Or, more likely, he knew that Nicewonder, who went from working a bulldozer to running a successful coal-mining business, is a hands-on kind of guy who would devote himself to the course he’d long dreamed of. That was nearly 20 years ago—the club opened in 1993—and Kevin Nicewonder, one of Don’s three children and co-managing partner, says, “My dad still knows every blade of grass out there.” Don built his club just outside Bristol, where Virginia rubs up against Tennessee and North Carolina, in the shadows of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The course and 120 homes around it are spread over rolling countryside once used for growing tobacco and grazing cattle. Long grass still edges many fairways, adding color and definition, and it’s not unusual to see bales of hay waiting to be hauled away for feed. A few old barns still store tractors—just now the kind used for course maintenance. But the pastoral appearance is deceiving: Fazio’s creation is

no cow-pasture pushover. Most fairways are generous off the tee, with mounding—what members call “bonus bounces”— nudging errant shots back into play. And lush zoysia grass forms the perfect surface for any shot. But like a tightening vise, the passageways get narrower as the greens get nearer. Contributing to the constriction are 110 bunkers and a number of specimen trees. On the par-four 9th, for example, the fairway resembles a long letter “S”—quite a few holes feature single, even double, switchbacks—with a lone walnut inside the top crook guarding the green while directing tee shots to the left. The average player will drive short of the tree and if not far enough left have to bend an approach around limbs to find the green. The big hitter will be hunting for the narrowest part of the fairway, a thin strip of mown grass between the S-curves, to have any chance at birdie. It’s that need for accuracy, distance, and planning that makes this former farmland a tough row to hoe. Then there are the greens, which are big, fast, and embed-

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ded with tiers, slopes, and ridges. Merely finding the surface is never enough, usually leaving cross-country putts that climb hills and curl precipitously. An innocent-looking, short par four, No. 7 finishes at a two-tiered green with the higher step in front and substantial acreage in back: It’s drivable but difficult to stop the ball on the forward plateau; laying up and wedging on could make the difference between a one-putt and a three- (or more-) putt.

With holes playing uphill and down, greens at different elevations, and movement from side to side, the course repels repetition. Numerous stretches showcase the constantly changing challenge, perhaps none as exciting as the middle of the front nine: the 3rd hole is a sweeping uphill par five through the trees (with a bunker at the corner begging to be carried), followed by a long, wide-open par four; the 5th is a tough twoshotter lined with water left and a narrow green that juts into the lake and is protected by a false front. The 6th is a short par five that played as a manly par four when The Virginian hosted the USGA Senior Amateur in 2003. Tee shots must contend with a majestic old oak on the left side of the fairway, a single limb poking into the drive zone. The club’s Director of Golf, Jim Blackmore, has dubbed the tree “the sheriff,” and refers to the limb as “the long arm of the law” because it has caught many a speeder trying to sneak by and stay far enough left to leave a clear shot into the green. This is the hole presently in Don Nicewonder’s sights as he and the management team consider moving the tees up and making it a full-time par four. (When the blue blazers were setting up the course, they recommended removing the extending limb, to which Nicewonder countered, “Then you’ll have to find yourself another golf course.”) The flow continues on the back, which is punctuated by two long par threes and ends with a bravado finish: the dogleg par-four 16th, with a sloping, tiered green and a sentinel tree to its left; 17, a stout par four, its landing area hidden by a mound that also conceals six bunkers; and the par-five 18th,

13th hole, 235 yards

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15th hole, 200 yards

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‘It’s a slower pace of life here,’ says Kevin Nicewonder, ‘the way things used to be: doors unlocked at night, going next door to borrow a cup of sugar.’

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THE VIRGINIAN GOLF CLUB

the longest hole on the course, which rises gradually to a hilltop green hemmed in by bunkers. For all the ebb and flow, The Virginian is a relaxing journey, especially in a cart. It was not designed as a walking course, which suits the membership, most of whom live on the property or nearby. Two decades ago, the Nicewonders thought they were building a second-home community, but, as Kevin admits, “it didn’t turn out that way.” While some of the onsite homes are owned by active retirees, many are filled with young families on their way up, the mix fostering a lively, close-knit neighborhood that spans the generations (and provides well-experienced babysitters). Besides golf, the club has tennis courts, a junior Olympicsize pool, and fitness center. Next door, The Virginian owns an equestrian center that is leased to a local college, with one for its members coming in the near future. The 44,000-squarefoot clubhouse—built from native fieldstone, cedar shakes,

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and clapboard—functions as community central with a restaurant and lounge as well as pro shop, offices, and locker rooms constructed from local oaks. During the day the clientele also ebbs and flows, moms and young children at lunch, golfers relaxing after a round in the afternoon, the dinner crowd in the evenings. There are still available lots on the club’s original 550 acres with another section opening soon. There’s also talk of expanding the course, which would help attract more big events. (The Virginian is a regular host of major state competitions.) Fazio included three full-sized practice holes, designed to help all levels of golfers, that abut a spacious, two-sided driving range where it isn’t unusual to see families enjoying time together. “It’s a slower pace of life here,” says Kevin. “We know that’s not for everyone. But once we get people in the gates, they fall in love with it—the course, the countryside, and the people. This is the way it used to be: doors unlocked at night, going next door to borrow a cup of sugar from your neighbor.” One of those neighbors is Don Nicewonder, now retired, who can be found on the range or the course just about every day. As part of his continuing commitment to The Virginian, he’s made sure it is debt-free. But more than that, he established a trust that guarantees his dream will thrive here for generations to come. For now, The Virginian is a place to go for life the way things used to be, uncrowded and unspoiled. How apropos: ■ The house specialty is Southern hospitality.

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Most fairways are generous off the tee. But like a tightening vise, the passageways get narrower as the greens get nearer.

LOCATION

Bristol, Virginia PAR 72 YARDAGE 7,025 YEAR FOUNDED 1993 ARCHITECT

Tom Fazio CONTACT

thevirginian.com

6th hole, 477 yards

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7th and 8th fairways Opposite: 9th hole, 442 yards

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FA Z I O P R E M I E R C L U B S

WADE HAMPTON GOLF CLUB

PHOTOGRAPHY BY IRV WELLING

Tom Fazio and William McKee create “an anomaly in the era of golf development” at this perfect mountain golf club in the idyllic landscape of western North Carolina

2012 EDITION

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WA D E H A M P TO N G O L F C L U B

HE YEAR WAS 1984 and golf courses were sprouting up all over the country as vehicles to sell real estate. But in the tiny village of Cashiers in western North Carolina, the McKee family—with the help of Tom Fazio—were embarking on quite a different journey, one that would result in the top-ranked mountain golf course in the world and a one-of-a-kind balance of golf, development, people, and environment.

“Our goal with Wade Hampton was to build a world-class golf club within a gated residential community,” said William McKee, president of McKee Development and the man behind the initial vision. “At the time, there were few communities, if any, that could make that claim. So we had to look at how the greatest golf clubs in the world worked and integrate [that] within a residential component.” As with any development, the most important decision is location, location, location. You’d be hard pressed to find a better setting than the 711 acres the family owned in Cashiers, a site full of gently sloping terrain; towering pines, rhododendrons, ancient hardwoods, and mountain laurel; several mountain streams; and majestic views of Chimney Top Mountain. However, the challenge with a great site is making sure the development does not compete with the setting. “We knew we had a good site,” said McKee at the time, “but finding an architect who appreciated the gentle

3rd hole, 219 yards

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contours and coves of the Carolina Mountains was of the utmost importance.” His choice was Tom Fazio, now arguably one of the greatest architects of the modern era. At the time, Fazio had worked for his uncle George Fazio for 20 years and had been responsible for such designs as Butler National, Jupiter Hills, PGA National, The Vintage Club, and Wild Dunes, among others. As the story goes, McKee and his uncle Bill approached Fazio at the Masters in 1983 and told him they wanted to hire him to build the “greatest golf course in the world.” “Talk about an attention-getter,” recalled Fazio. “I flew to Cashiers and liked the site. Of course, all of western North Carolina is magnificent. But while it’s nice to have a great site, the key ingredient is the client’s commitment to quality golf. I knew William was dedicated to building a world-class program even before I saw the property.”

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18th hole, 555 yards

The site now boasts what The Top 100 Golf Courses of the World calls “probably Tom Fazio’s greatest design achievement.” Wade Hampton was named the best new private course in America in 1987 and made its debut that year at No. 17 on the list of top 100 golf courses in the United States. It currently stands at No. 20, which is remarkable considering that only four golf courses built since it opened in 1987 have made it into the top 20. In addition, it was recently ranked as the second-best residential community golf course in the U.S. by Golfweek magazine. What makes the course so special is the fact that it is not your typical mountain layout. In fact, most people refer to it as a course in the mountains rather than a mountain course because the layout actually sits in a valley with only 110 feet of elevation change. With no development on the inside of the golf course, Fazio was free, as he said, “to lay out the course in the natural contours of the land.” The 7,218-yard, par-72 course mostly plays downhill to wide fairways banked by steep hillsides and large, slick greens with subtle undulations. Adding to the challenge are dynamic and strategically placed bunkers, crisscrossing streams, and

centuries-old trees that one writer said gives Wade Hampton “the look of a meandering golf course through a dense forest…” But Fazio’s greatest achievement at Wade Hampton is its playability, as there are no blind shots, very few forced carries, and most of the water is down the left side since most golfers miss to the right. “The course here is one of the best at delivering the right proportions for the right hole,” said Pete Mathews, the club’s director of golf. “The long, big-shouldered par fours tend to have generous greens and run-up space, while the shorter holes and the par fives put an emphasis on distance control with tighter bunkering and smaller greens.” Every hole is important to the overall flow, but there are quite a few standouts: the 442-yard, par-four 9th features one of the few cross hazards and is backdropped by rhododendrons and mountain laurels with the clubhouse peeking through; the 564-yard, par-five 10th is a breathtaking dogleg right with an unforgettable tee shot against the backdrop of Chimney Top Mountain; the downhill 196-yard, par-three 17th ends on a green framed by two towering Canadian hemlocks; and the

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There are no blind shots, very few forced carries, and most of the water is down the left side since most golfers miss to the right.

10th hole, 564 yards

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WA D E H A M P TO N G O L F C L U B

14th hole, 435 yards

555-yard, par-five 18th is a fantastic finishing hole that rewards accuracy over power. Since the golf course is the billboard for Wade Hampton, it can be easy to forget that there is a real estate component to the club, the homes seamlessly blending in with the landscape, so much so that sometimes it is hard to spot them. Unlike many developments built around the same time, Wade Hampton is a “one-sided community,” meaning that homesites were laid out on only one side of a hole in order to maximize the golf experience. In addition, rather than using topographic maps, lots were created by walking the land and setting property lines where the best trees were so they could not be removed. The result is an understated and inconspicuous community that goes to great lengths to remain hidden so to not intrude on the golf. And that’s just fine for the members, who have come from all over the country to be part of McKee’s dream of “the perfect mountain golf club” because they all share a great passion for the game of golf and all that goes with it.

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FA Z I O P R E M I E R C L U B S

It certainly is easy to be passionate about Wade Hampton Golf Club. It features the top-ranked mountain course in the world; a community tucked into the landscape; architecture that blends in with its surroundings; a membership that functions more like a family; and a club that fosters camaraderie. Distinctly different from most clubs, the golf staff arranges most games, ensuring that the member always has a game and gets to know the other members. Similarly, at the Friday night gathering (the club’s weekly member and guest get-together) dinner seating is often arranged by the House Manager, also helping to keep the group mixed and ensure that members get to know one another. Wade Hampton has truly earned its status as one of the world’s elite golf clubs because every component—golf course, clubhouse, residential, and membership—is strong. And surrounded by thousands of acres of national forest, it is also located just minutes from pristine lakes, countless waterfalls, hiking, a bevy of antique and boutique shops, and great restau■ rants with fresh local fare.

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Wade Hampton has earned its status as one of the world’s elite golf clubs because every component—course to membership—is strong.

LOCATION

Cashiers, North Carolina PAR 72 YARDAGE 7,218 YEAR FOUNDED 1987 ARCHITECT

Tom Fazio CONTACT

mckeeproperties.com

6th hole, 158 yards

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DISTANCE AND SPIN IN A SINGLE BALL? EXTREME CIRCUMSTANCES CALL FOR EXTREME MEASURES.

DECEMBER 13, 2011. PHIL MICKELSON STICKS TWO ISLAND GREENS WITH THE HEX BLACK TOUR BALL AT THE MIRAGE VOLCANO IN LAS VEGAS. SCAN OR VISIT CALLAWAYGOLF.COM/VOLCANO ©2012 Callaway Golf Company. Callaway,