The Contenders
COMING ATTRACTIONS?You know, if there’s one thing we love about the West, it’s that devilish independent, go-your-own-way spirit that shows up in every nook and cranny of our day-to-day lives, including golfers’ lives. While the golf biz is said to be in a slump over most of the country, some of the very regions FG covers each issue seem to be moving into the future to the beat of their own optimistic drummer. Dozens of new golf courses are in the ground from Canada to Arizona and many points in between. True, more than a few of them are private, but we’ve got public and resort tracks in the pipeline, too — showing up near Native American casinos, in the desert north of Las Vegas, on the remote coast of Oregon ... even one right in the back yard of our Bakersfield office. And you can bet that before long, FG will find its way to the first tee on all of them, sizing them up for future Signature Series consideration. Heck, we’ve already played or sneak-previewed a couple. Following are a few high-profile courses we’re keeping our eyes on and licking our lips over. Bon appetit. BANDON CROSSINGSWe previewed it earlier this year and have yet to play it personally, but the early scuttlebutt is that Oregon’s southern coast has another hit on its hands, and it’s not owned by Bandon Dunes founder Mike Keiser. Located a few miles south of that world-famous golf resort, just off Highway 101 and a mile or two inland from the Pacific, Bandon Crossings opened in July in a low-key way, priced to please and armed with power carts — a necessary departure from Bandon Dunes’ tradition, according to young Pacific Northwest-based architect Dan Hixson. He says the new course’s owners saw that “there was a niche to fill” in the area — and that meant offering a ride option for guests. “They wanted a more affordable course — extremely high quality without spending the money,” he told FG last spring. “We’re inland about a mile and a half. We won’t have continuous cart paths, but we’ll allow carts. That led to some changes within the design. We couldn’t do the fescue that they have at Bandon. It’s awesome, I would love to build a course with it, but you’d have to get away from the more rugged, natural type course as opposed to something more metro-like.” Bandon Crossings takes full advantage of the region’s heavily forested setting to weave a solitary, seductive and eminently natural experience out of the sandy soil — which, of course, is a direct tip of the hat to the three-course juggernaut up the road. “Mike Keiser, at Bandon Dunes, really slapped everybody in the face by saying, let’s build on sand, and here’s why — lower cost,” says Hixson, who grew up in Oregon and has played and studied some of the world’s greatest layouts. “His most expensive course was under $5 million. That’s what’s so incredible about his vision — and now he has the demand to charge what he does. We built ours for $2 million, on sand. That brings in affordability.” BEAR MOUNTAIN VALLEY COURSEBear Mountain is one of those friendly Canadian destinations you just can’t shake out of mind or soul once you’ve been there, soaked up the Jack Nicklaus Mountain Course, great service and epic views of the city of Victoria, British Columbia, with the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Washington’s Olympic Mountains beyond. Over the past five years it has become a second home and vacation mecca for golfers above and below the border, and in 2008, it’s about to get doubly good with the debut of a second Nicklaus product, the Valley Course. Slated for a “soft” opening in the spring, the 18-hole, par-70 layout will max out at just under 6,900 yards, laced through a pine-strewn broad valley just below the Mountain Course. A new Nicklaus Golf Academy is also part of the expansion, and it should all be in full flower by next July. COYOTE SPRINGS“It’s been interesting watching golf courses disappear on the Las Vegas horizon, due to land values,” says Josh Whellams, director of golf at Coyote Springs, a new mega-development 45 minutes north of Las Vegas that, if developer Harvey Whittemore’s vision takes full shape, will someday be home for 30,000 souls and up to a dozen golf courses. “I think you’ll continue to see that trend. Raw land in the middle of nowhere is $600,000 an acre. If you want to build a golf course on 150 acres, that’s about $90 million. It’s pretty tough to get a course to pencil for you when you’ve got $90 million to start, not including construction costs. I think we have a competitive advantage there.” No doubt about that. Despite construction delays, Coyote Springs is going great guns and poised to silence the naysayers. Whellams — who Whittemore hired away from Shadow Creek in 2005 — says the first course, a Jack Nicklaus Signature design, will be ready for full play at the end of February 2008. “We’re finalizing grassing this week, all the greens and fairways. It’s exciting,” he told FG in June. “We’ll have invited guests out until our opening date in April 2008.” Also moving forward is construction on the initial phase of a full-blown PGA Learning Center. And depending on how the real estate market fares, there’s a second course routed and ready to go — a blockbuster co-designed by Nicklaus and his original design mentor, Pete Dye, which winds through stunning bluffland above the first course. With thousands of acres to work with, discussions with a major hotelier to build an onsite resort and the PGA in on the ground floor, could Coyote Springs become Nevada’s version of Palm Springs? That’s the goal, says Whellams. “We’ve done a job bringing in strategic partners, and being 45 minutes from the entertainment capital of the world is a win-win for everybody.” INDUSTRY HILLS EISENHOWER and ZAHARIASThese 36 holes at the center of a completely rewired, overhauled Pacific Palms Resort reportedly still maintain the flavor of their original William Bell designs, with modern upgrades in keeping with the surrounding urban oasis’ upscale look and feel. The Zaharias, or “Babe,” is narrow, expansive (650 acres total) and shorter but no less powerful than its counterpart, Eisenhower, or “Ike,” which has played host to U.S. Open qualifiers and remains one of Southern California’s most challenging tracks — even more so after its 2006 reopening revealed whiter, softer bunkers and larger reconstructed greens. We’ll pay a visit in 2008, and predict that we’ll come away wowed, and ready to proclaim this dynamic duo as a Top 36 shoo-in. THE JOURNEY AT PECHANGAThis fall, when architect Steve Forrest put the finishing touches on Southern California’s newest Native American-owned and operated golf course, he acknowledged it as a first for him, and perhaps for his partner Arthur Hills. Together they’re best known for a slew of south Florida courses and have branched out to far-flung places like Sweden and Russia, but they’ve never dealt with a site quite like this one — a dramatic, mountain-meets-valley routing near Temecula. “I’ve never worked a site quite like this one,” Forrest says. “The Journey sets out at the base of a large mountain, crosses the Pechanga River, a dry wash where I have not yet seen any water, then basically sets off into the sky,” says Forrest, who estimates the layout rises and falls some 300 feet in the course of 18 holes. “With that much elevation change, you’re going to be in a cart anyway. So we made the decision early on in the design process to take full advantage of the terrain — we created some spectacular holes we could never have accessed or achieved on a ‘walking’ course.” Forrest points to elements of that terrain that will be familiar to California golfers, but somehow unique, perhaps because of the cultural and historic sensitivities they had to deal with. “Primarily we accented the features that were there — beautiful live oaks, unique rock outcroppings. The cultural representatives for the tribe played a big role in the routing of the course; they mapped several areas that were off-limits, former work or campsites and burial grounds. Those are sensitive areas. We limited the number of trees we moved; they paid to box them and move them to where we could use them. That was a big advantage.” Forrest cites the par-3 No. 17, “Island in the Sky,” with its green perched at the terminus of a high-desert ridge and its tee boxes benched into a hillside across a steep-sided canyon, as a “signature” candidate. He’s also a fan of the 18th, a modern par-4 of dramatic modern construction that finishes at a classic Biarritz putting surface; and the inimitable 420-yard No. 6, which drops 300 feet tee to green. “The hang time there is stupendous, between 8 and 10 seconds,” the architect says. “If you hit just right, you can almost drive the green thanks to the speed slot we created on one side of the landing zone.” Forrest delights in The Journey’s on-course cultural exhibits such as wooden teepees and cedar houses that tell the story of the Pechanga people. He loves how the exhibits contrast with the layout’s modern design touches. “The tribe is terrific in that they’ve got the culture and history, but also there was no expense spared to do things properly. We were limited to our imaginations. They were great clients in that regard. It’s got the resort hotel adjacent to the construction site, so it was a great job for us.” McALLISTER RANCHWe’ve been treated to a peek at Greg Norman’s new track on the southwestern outskirts of Bakersfield, Calif., and came away believing it might just become the best public golf experience in the Southern San Joaquin Valley. Of course, some say that’s not saying much. But Norman has taken the land at the heart of what will someday be built into a lake-centered master-planned community and created a golf course that’s whimsical without being gimmicky, friendly yet featuring that famous Shark bite. It’s a track that’s loaded with options, and we can’t wait to get out there with the sticks to see if plays as tricky as it looks. And with Troon Golf keeping things in shape, we know it will always be inviting, no matter how we play. Keep watching for a full report — you might just want to move to Bakersfield. That’s right, we said it. MONTESORO
Judging from an exclusive FG sneak preview in late October, those founding members should be cheering their judgment right about now. Fazio’s team moved hundreds of thousands of cubic feet of earth to craft a collection of portrait-like holes draped across rounded crests and through arroyos now filled with Bermuda fairways and bentgrass greens, and punctuated with trees and wildflowers among sharp rocks and minimal vegetation. Driving lanes are wide for the most part, putting surfaces sweep around deep bunkers with a handful bordered by water pumped from private wells. But it’s not a “standard” desert target-golf course; rather, as he did at Primm Valley and Shadow Creek, Fazio has forged a lush oasis out of the arid, unforgiving landscape, with a lovely capping effect — savanna-like frames of tall fescue planted to provide even more cushion between the golf experience and future homes. Montesoro (which means “mountain treasure”) is as rich in mind-clearing magic and inspiring vistas as it is in second-home (or first-home) opportunities. “What you really notice when you get out there, as you’re playing it, are the views you get from every hole,” says David Hunter, director of golf. “And since the course is next to a state park, the minute you come over that mountain and set foot out here, you can feel the stress fade away.” That’s what city dwellers seek in these parts, but for golfers, this is no pushover course — especially from the tips, where, during one back-nine stretch, three 4-pars clock in at longer than 450 to an unbelievable 513 yards. A couple 3-pars are well beyond 200 yards, yet Fazio, being Fazio, also serves up some reachable 4-pars, too. Montesoro can play nearly 7,500 yards, but most will find its true heart — and their true love of this rainbow-tinted masterwork — from a couple of tees up. We’ll feature a full look in our February issue. PELICAN HILLBack open after a two-year-plus Tom Fazio renovation of both the South and North courses, and now a definitely full-scale destination proposition thanks to the coming 2008 addition of a five-star hotel resort where the practice range used to be, Pelican Hill will again contend for top honors among Southern California resorts for years to come. Located on idyllic cliffs between Laguna Beach and Newport Beach, both courses touch the Pacific on several holes and conjure very different experiences, tumbling away from the brand-new clubhouse and the huge arched bridge that gives them one of the most dramatic gateways in all of West Coast golf. Look for the routings of each course to remain pretty much the same, with standout holes that burn into the memory — such as the short, double-greened par 3 at South No. 13 or the North’s open, broad, rolling upper holes. We’ll feature a full review in early 2008. For now, Pelican Hill tops our list as a holiday must-play for SoCal visitors and locals looking to splurge in The OC. SEVILLANO LINKSVenture to nearly the other end of the state from Montesoro, hundreds of miles up Interstate 5 to where the Sacramento Valley narrows between the Sierra and Coast Range, and you’ll find Rolling Hills, another Native American casino resort with big-time golf in its arsenal, this time at the partial direction of ever-popular PGA Tour bomber John Daly. Named Sevillano (saw-vay-ya-no) Links after a type of locally-grown olive (even the tee markers are shaped like that martini-frequenting fruit), this course sprawls and dives and cajoles along the natural contours of low hills just west of the Sacramento River. Unlike Montesoro, it succeeds though minimal was earth moved during its construction, and proves a vexing puzzle when played for the first time. There are blind tee shots, partially blind approaches, some near-ventures into flat-out misdirection — a lot of elements that some players will consider frustrating, but, says Daly, rightly reflect his love of Irish links golf and fit this particular piece of dirt perfectly. “It’s kind of like the courses in Ireland — it’s got the length, but it doesn’t have the pot bunkers in the middle of the fairway, which I can’t stand,” he told a crowd of inaugural tournament players and media in October. “We opened a course there last year called Blarney, with the dry grass along the sides, beautiful fairways. It reminds me a lot of Ireland.” “I was born pretty close to here, so it’s neat. My name will be on this course forever, even when I’m gone. I don’t think Nicklaus and Palmer can keep up with all their projects, they’ve got so many courses around the world, but [the feeling] its amazing. It makes your name carry on for a long time, and that’s kind of what you want in golf.” By all accounts they’re happy he did. Daly’s thoughts after touring the finished product? Positive, of course, though he wouldn’t mind making a few tweaks, especially on the epic finishing hole. “I want to make it fair for the amateur and very hard for the pro, very challenging from the back tees,” he said. “No. 18, we’re thinking about making it 709 yards, a par 6, if everybody’s OK with it. There might be one par 6 in California, but there’s not a lot of them anywhere in the world. That would be really cool.” For now, Sevillano Links leaves the fine taste of a rare wine — or perhaps a unique olive — on a discerning player’s palate. “I want people who play it say, ‘Hey, this is great, I can’t wait to come back and play it again.” YOCHA-DE-HEHot on Sevillano Links’ heels is another Native American resort-based course set to debut soon — this one at Cache Creek Resort on Highway 16 in Brooks, Calif., an hour from Sacramento and 90 minutes from San Francisco. The popular Bay Area getaway spot will become a golf destination overnight as its new Yocha-De-He championship course puts designer Brad Bell of Coyote Moon fame back in the NorCal spotlight. The course winds through a stellar landscape of low-lying hills, valleys, vineyards and old oaks, capping out at 7,303 yards from the tips. It’ll be operated to a well-oiled “tee” by Troon Golf. This should be good. We’ll let you know just how good. UPDATE! A sneak FG preview in mid-December confirmed our expectations, then blew by them. This course is good, perhaps Bell's best work, at least outside of Coyote Moon. He did an expert job of taking pretty much flat, treeless terrain and, through spot-on earthmoving work and ingenious routing, creating a course that's built to last — and will be priced to fit the budgets of folks who love to stay and play just over the hill at Cache Creek Resort. Right now the conditioning is flawless, and from the opening, 160-foot-drop tee shot (think Wente Vineyards, but even taller), Bell draws you into a super-quiet, secluded nature-meets-golf sanctuary. No power lines, no houses, no distractions but bird calls and big, rolling greens and finely rendered water features. We'll be back with a full review sometime in ’08. FG Bandon Crossings Bear Mountain Valley Course Coyote Springs Industry Hills The Journey at Pechanga Montesoro Pelican Hill Sevillano Links Yocha-De-He reader comments
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Signature SeriesDecember 2007
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