Yes Maas: Super accepts challenge of grow-in battle

By MARK LESLIE The medical profession has pedia- tricians, podiatrists, internists and other specialists. Attorneys special- PACKARD PACKS PUNCH AT THE GENERAL ize in corporate, real estate, interna- GALENA, 111. — Eagle Ridge Inn & tional and other areas of the law. And Resort has begun construction on The the turfgrass profession has its own General, an 18-hole, par-72 specialties: plant pathology, turf six miles east of here. The course, set to breeding, biogenetics, golf course open in the fall of 1995, was designed by superintendent. architect Roger Packard and pro golfer The 9th hole at Steve Smyers-designed Chart Hills Golf Club in London looks scary from the tees, but a Add one more, Andy North. It is located at the entrance generous landing area lies between the two sets of bunkers. thanks to certi- of the Eagle Ridge development. Named fied golf course after Gen. Ulysses S. Grant who was superintendent native to this area, the course will also Smyers, Faldo join forces in UK Stephen Maas. feature its own lounge, restaurant, locker Maas is be- rooms, pro shop and meeting rooms. By MARK LESLIE is also working with Brit Stenson of lieved the first ONDON — Taking a page from International Management Group on person to hang up a shinglu • i e as a Steve Maas BUSINESS UP, JOHNSTON MOVES Lthe Alister Mackenzie design course designs in Asia-Pacific. HILTON HEAD, S.C. — Golf course book and blending in the modern bent- Faldo's input on design is mainly golf course grow-in specialist, period. architect Clyde B. Johnston is moving grass playing surface, American architect conceptual, Smyers said. "We bounce a One job at a time — wherever it is his office here, due Steve Smyers and British Touring pro lot of ideas off one another, especially and whether resort, private or public to a recent in- have finished their first about strategic values. Then we take — Maas' focus will be on new con- crease in business. collaboration, Chart Hills Golf Club here, those ideas and implement them into the struction. The new office is and are working on their second design. plans," he said. "It's like Jay Morrish and His luggage packed, credentials in located at 10 Office Smyers said Chart Hills and Gadbridge Tom Weiskopf. Jay said it best: Tm the hand and family in tow, Maas will Park Road, Caro- Farm, a daily-fee project planned for the author and he's the editor." show up even before the first spade lina Suite 100, suburb of Brey, are forerunners of more Chart Hills, a private club with a large of earth is turned and remain on site Hilton Head Is- work done under the Faldo-Smyers golf academy, opened here this spring. until the course is opened and a su- Continued on page 35 land, S.C., 29928. , T1 , signature in Europe and America. Faldo Continued on page 36 The phone (803- ^J**** 842-3367) and fax (803-842-6135) num- bers will remain unchanged. Morrish: COURSE PART OF BUSINESS PARK BROOMFIELD, Colo.—Professional v^A hisc golfer David Graham and golf course architect Gary Panks have been chosen to design the 27-hole Interlocken Con- &JTJL ag ference Resort. The project is the sec- ond-phase expansion of a business park development. Preliminary course de- From his early days working, sign is underway and construction is ex- first, with in the pected to begin by early 1995. 1970s and with Tom Weiskopf from 1983 until this year, Jay Morrish has had a hand in de- DEER TRACK REMAKE ON TRACK signing some of the great golf SURFSIDE BEACH, S.C. — Deer courses in America. Managing Track Golf Resort is midway through a editor Mark Leslie interviewed year-long renovation of its North Course. him while walking, and giving The 7,200-yard layout designed by Bob accolades to the A. W. Tillinghast- Toski and Porter Gibson will include designed Golf faster greens, changes in bunkering, Club. the addition of pine-straw areas and new Golf Course News: You've worked with The 7th hole at very private Double Eagle in Galena, Ohio, which Morrish says may turn out to be the best mowing patterns. Changes to the course of his American golf courses. ,, are on schedule, with the entire project Jack Nicklaus, with Tom Weiskopf and on set for completion by late summer. your own. What's the difference between working with a pro/designer and solo? GCN: What have you learned from losophies. I quite honestly am much closer Jay Morrish: I can't say there is that Nicklaus and Weiskopf? to the Weiskopf philosophy, or strategy, KERN BEGINS MISSOURI TRACK much difference. I hope I've helped them JM: A lot about strategy. What a good than Nicklaus'. For instance, in the old JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Construc- with some points they may have not under- golfer expects and wants to see. Of course, days Nicklaus would not allow you to tion has begun here on the Eagle Knoll stood, and I certainly learned from them. everybody has some slightly different phi- Continued on page 37 Golf Course. Designed by Gary Kern, the development includes some house lots that adjoin the course. Builder Tim Cox of Nixa hopes to finish construc- Jacobson transforms sand pit into double-green 9 tion within the year. An opening is sched- uled for summer of 1995. ONIEDA, Wis. — An 84-acre sand pit age constraints that to market," said Jacobson, of Libertyville. has been transformed into a par-36 golf would accommodate The double-green concept, coupled with course with nine double greens that will only nine holes of golf. multiple tees, will allow golfers to experi- IRWIN GOLF SERVICES MAY BE SOLD open July as Thornberry Creek Golf Club. "The area where ence the golf course differently each time it The Brassie Golf Corp. of Delaware "It's beyond comprehension to see it this course was being is played. has entered a letter of intent to acquire turn out like it did," developer Jack developed was satu- While working with Jack Nicklaus Golf Golf Services. Brassie owns, Schweiner said of the Rick Jacobson-de- rated with nine-hole Services, Jacobson assisted with plan docu- builds and operates courses through- signed track. courses, so we pro- ment preparation for the dual-strategy Ren- out the United States and Canada. Irwin Each hole has multiple tees and two posed the dual strat- Rick Jacobson egade Course at Desert Mountain in specializes in course design and opera- greens or one large connected green. The egy as a means to pro- Scottsdale, Ariz. The dual strategy was tions management. dual strategy was incorporated due to acre- vide the client with a unique golf experience Continued on page 36 July 1994 31 that. It's like the finger is torqued. I'd like to find some 90-year-old con- 'The future is struction guy and get him on one of my jobs. here/ says GCN: There's something to be said for having a shaper or two who knows your style. Why doesn't everybody do that? Weiskopf of JM: We do limit it to three contractors. If we ask for so-and-so we usually get him. course design GCN: You talk about getting back to classical design. How do you define classi- By MARK LESLIE cal design? SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Wrapping up JM: I wish I knew. I can relate to his co-design work with ex-partner Jay courses I call classical design. They Morrish, Tom Weiskopf has formed his have some of these elements here. own golf course architecture company here Shinnecock, for example. There's noth- and declared the world is his stage. ing behind the greens and very few 'This is my future. This is where I want bunkers. It's a good example that you to be and what I like to do," he said of Tom don't need big mounds to stop the ball Weiskopf Signature Designs. "Playing golf going off the green. Let it go off. still remains a hobby." Tour pro/golf course architect Tom Weiskopf, left, and former design partnerJay Morrish, right, talk with GCN: What if you're Stimping greens at Weiskopf has worked to put together a Double Eagle Golf Club owner John H. McConnell at the Galena, Ohio, course. 10 or 11 — doesn't that become penal? design team since last November when JM: The greens should still be designed Morrish decided to slow down his design to hold the shots. Pinehurst #2 is a great work and Weiskopf opted to increase his Q&A: Morrish on design, superintendents... example. The edges of the greens go down own load. "I have two associates who will the slope and, if you don't put the ball in the do working drawings and help in the field Continued from page 31 Somebody's going to do it the way you proper place, that ball is going to run off and with the routings," he said. "It's taken bounce the ball onto the right half of this [developer] want it done. If you like what I down there. But what is so neat about it is, me some time. The choice is one of blend- green right here. He would close it off. We do, hire me. If you don't, hire whoever you Ross gave you the option to chip, pitch or ing personalities and philosophies and ex- will allow you to bounce the ball to a por- want. If I'm going to make bunkers in a way putt it. perience." tion of it. But we still have a nice, tucked- you think is unfair, hire somebody else. GCN: Do you think golf will go in the The response has been "unbelievable," away pin position where you're going to GCN: More superintendents are com- other direction from green? he said. "I'm overwhelmed. It has given me have to work the ball... ing on the job during course construction. JM: In maintenance, yes. Dry them out. so much confidence." GCN: To make it tougher for the pros. How much influence does he have on de- Reduce pesticides. They may even take Saying he already has seven course de- JM: Sure. sign for maintenance ease? away some of the materials that control poa signs under contract, Weiskopf attributed GCN: Weiskopf and Nicklaus can help JM: We discuss everything with the su- annua and weeds in greens. the success in part to "the package I've put design for pros. But what about the influ- perintendent. But I'm not going to let him That doesn't bother me a bit—as long as together — in regard to promotional ence on designing a golf course for the go out there helter-skelter and change our everybody does it. I don't want to be forced agreements, during construction and on- average player? design. Certainly we want to be coopera- to do it while the guy up the road is not. But going; in regard to management, by associ- JM: I rely on my own instincts because tive with them. We don't ever want to get if the whole industry daes it, I think that ates outside the company... I'm a mortal. I've always felt Nicklaus really the image we have created a monster to would be great. "We're trying to keep this under one doesn't understand how bad people are. To maintain. GCN: How about the architects taking a roof: marketing and feasibility studies, him, a bad player is a two-handicap. If For instance, [superintendent] Terry lead in doing that? Or is it not up to them? management, and design. More than half you're a 15-handicap, you're hopeless. Buchen at Double Eagle said: "Make it as JM: It really isn't. It's maintenance. our clients have needed a total turnkey There's no sense of you even being out hard for me as you can. It's a challenge. Do GCN: So you are putting it in the lap of package." there. anything you want." the owner. It is the owner or greens com- Under contract are: He's never said that. That's just a GCN: Does seeing and playing great mittee that will tell the superintendent how • Vestosa in Tucson — a four-course sense I've gotten. I've always been the golf courses like this one (San Francisco they want the course. project, with two public and two private one to make certain we give poor play- Golf Club) affect your design? JM: It won't work. They want them green. tracks, that will be built out over the next ers the easy angle on the tee shots, that JM: I'd love to be able to emulate these I remember a conversation I had with Byron five years, beginning this fall when ground we get them up close and let them bunkers. They're fantastic. Nelson and he said when he was learning will be broken on one of the public courses. bounce the ball. GCN: What sets these bunkers apart? his craft, part of the challenge was the fact • Another course at Troon North, which is GCN: You've designed courses in the JM: [A.W.] Tillinghast took some rela- that one green might putt four on the under negotiation with the city of Scottsdale. desert, in the mountains, links. What is tively simple shapes, put bunkers in combi- Stimpmeter and the next one might putt • A new private facility at PGA West, your favorite kind? nations and created intricate designs. He nine. You might get a horrible lie right in construction of which will start in late fall. JM: Somebody asked Johnny Mercer, made some very simple bunkers, and some the middle of the fairway. You might get a • A private residential community in "What's your favorite song you've written?" very complicated ones. great lie in the rough. Lake-of-the-Ozarks, Mo., which will be He said, 'The next one." That's the way I One thing I'm trying to do with bunkers You had to be very innovative. It was part started this fall. feel. (that a lot of American architects aren't of golf. He said now if they ever get any Faced with this bulk of work, Weiskopf I think an architect shouldn't critique doing) is; You'll see fingers coming out of kind of a bad lie, they just scream about it. said he will continue to set Tour play aside, his own work until the course is 4 or 5 years low areas, instead of off high areas, into the He said that is wrong. And I agree with him where it basically has remained since 1983. old. I'd say the best I've worked on of that bunkers. I've seen a lot of the great old 100 percent. 'This golf course design business with Jay generation are Forest Highlands [in Flag- architects do that. It's very difficult to I think golf courses are maintained was a full-time job," he said. "It's even more staff, Ariz.], Troon and Troon North [in get the modern construction company too well. I'm just as guilty as anybody full-time now. I will play, but very spar- Scottsdale, Ariz.]. I lump all three of those to understand that because they've^ else. I want my course to be better ingly. I will never let play interfere with my together. never done it. As simple as it looks, it's maintained than somebody else's down responsibility to my clients. I'm not just I think Double Eagle [in Galena, Ohio] very difficult to get a contractor to build the road. putting my name on these projects. I will will prove better than those. And one we continue to respect my clients and their will never equal again is Loch Lomond [in needs in time, not just in using my name. Scotland].

"It is attention to detail that gave Jay and GCN: How much does ease of mainte- AMERICA'S PREMIUM HIGHLIGHT GOLF HOLES, me our respect in the industry. I'm going to nance affect your design? HEAT-TREATED IMPROVE VISIBILITY,; TOP-DRESSINGS and SPEED UP PLAY with take it to another level." JM: We're not creating a paradise for a He said he is interested in projects the superintendent. We're creating a golf U.S. GOLF HOLE PARTAC SOIL CONDITIONER world over — "if I have the time and they course. And our courses are much easier GOLF COURSE IMPROVES AERATION AND DRAINAGE BETTER THAN SAND are the right people in the right market and to maintain than some I've seen. We do try TOP-DRESSING YET RETAINS NUTRIENTS & MOISTURE! TARGETS with good land." He is involved in talks to make it easier around the green, but concerning three courses in Mexico, which, once in awhile you have to build in a bun- he said, "is busting out," and others in ker that they [grounds crew] are really SAND South America. going to have to take care of. FOR >T REPAIRS • • • GCN: Do you find a conflict between the The Ultimate Solution to Unsightly Divots at Televised Golf Tournaments A key player on the Weiskopf team is demands of a superintendent wanting a WMW« and other Sports Events! former Pebble Beach assistant superinten- course that's easier to maintain, and your PLUS CONSTRUCTION, AVAILABLE NATIONWIDE GREENGRAPHICS* GREEN CART PATH, SAND TRAP, AND dent Dave Porter, who holds degrees in own desires to make a course that's fun and DIVOT REPAIR MIXES 800-247-2326 PERMANENT TURF COLORANT SAND TRAP PUMPS agronomy and aeronautical engineering difficult to play? IN N.J. 908-637-4191 RAKES, PLUG PUSHERS, SQUEEGEES PARTAC PEAT CORPORATION and has helped build golf courses, includ- JM: My philosophy is, there are 100-and- lYRAR® AND MANY MORE GEOTEXTILES & TURF BLANKETS KELSEY PARK, GREAT MEADOWS, N.J. 07838 ing Loch Lomond in Scotland. some-odd architects in our society. ORLANDO (FL) MEMPHIS (TN) RENO (NV) GOLF SPECIALTY PRODUCTS