Quintero: Rees Jones, the Shark and Unique Financing
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itwi DESIGN AIW DEVELOPMENT BRIEFS Crenshaw, Coore on top of their /design/ game Ben Crenshaw has been in demand this year. Most people are following his captaincy of the American team leading up to September's Ryder Cup. The challenges were intriguing. But the PGA Tour great also has been busy designing golf courses, including the recently opened Cuscowilla in Eatonton, Ga., and tracks at Notre Dame University and on Long Island [East Hampton Golf Club, see accompanying story], which will open next spring. Crenshaw FT. LAUDERDALE REDO COMPLETE and design partner Bill Coore have achieved PLANTATION, Fla. —Tom Pearson's their greatest acclaim for Sand Hills in renovation of Fort Lauderdale Country Mullen, Neb., Kapalua Golf Club's Planta- Ben Crenshaw Club's North Course completes a three- tion Course in Hawaii and Barton Creek in year $3.375-million capital improvement Austin, Texas, where Crenshaw was born. Editor Mark Leslie program. The project provides two caught up to Crenshaw and Coore on a job site in Texas, just before courses, a completely renovated club- the Ryder Cup. house, a new pro shop, and a modern Golf Course News: Coore and Crenshaw are no longer energy-efficient 14,000-square-foot rookies of golf course design. Have you changed your designs cart storage facility that includes stor- over the years? age space for 1,200 bags. Ben Crenshaw: We continue to do a couple projects at a time and still feel comfortable with that and with the people who FOSTER AT WORK AT SOUTHERN HILLS work for us. We can't see that changing too much in the future... TUCSA, Okla. — Golf course archi- Bill Coore: If you look at the work we did 14 years ago, you'll Cuscowilla on Lake Oconee, located in Eatonton, Ga., is the latest Coore & Crenshaw design to open. tect Keith Foster is overseeing con- see some differences. We make each course different. We don't struction, which began in September, want a stereotyped style. clientele and Kapalua — the conditions, the land, the wind. of enhancements to the Champion- When we did Kapalua and Barton Creek, they had some Anything smaller would have been unplayable. But we've built ship course at Southern Hills, site of sizable greens. The tendency was for people to say, "These guys small greens as well. the 2001 U.S. Open. During a 60-day do big fairways and big greens." We only did that because of the Continued on page 28 timeline, the greens will recapture their original Perry Maxwell sizes. Green, Aaron and Mahaffey design 9s for 27 in Florida NELSON, HAWORTH OPEN OFFICES LADY LAKE, Fla. — Hubert Green, Golf Architecture Group of Clifton, Ezell tween Juli Inkster, Nancy Lopez and Nelson & Haworth Golf Course Ar- Tommy Aaron and John Mahaffey are and Clifton on the 27-hole complex. Helen Alfredsson. chitects of Honolulu have opened new designing separate nine-hole golf courses The Villages had 126 holes of golf al- "Our premier country club has enjoyed offices in the San Francisco Bay area as part of the new Glenview Champions ready in use. The Champions complex is hosting these great professional events," and Montreal. They are located at 3030 Country Club being developed by The being targeted as the venue for future Morse said. "We felt now was the time to Bridgeway, Suite 132, Sausalito, Calif. Villages retirement community here. professional tournaments. The Villages create a fourth country club specially 94965, tel. 415-332-2889; and at 425 H. Gary Morse, chief executive officer recently hosted the 1998 LPGA Samsung designed for such major spectator events. Rue St. Sulpice, Montreal, Quebec H2Y of The Villages, selected Green, Aaron World Championship. It also is home to The best way to build a course for tour- 2VY, Canada, tel. 514-574-6551. and Mahaffey to collaborate with Villages the 1999 Villages Charity Challenge be- Continued on page 29 Quintero: Rees Jones, The Shark and unique financing Financing carefree travel: Serendipity made this 'private resort' no luggage or cleanup happen for mega-Ford truck dealer By MARK LESLIE By MARK LESLIE LAKE PLEASANT, Ariz. — The LAKE PLEASANT, Ariz. — Serendipity and a passion for the weather is getting bitter in Chicago, so game of golf. Those two factors have led Ford truck mogul Gary businessman Max Fli hops on a plane to McClung to the verge of opening a unique golf community Phoenix, is picked up at the airport by a here, boasting courses designed by Rees Jones and Greg limousine and is driven a short distance Norman along with memberships in a "private resort." to his second home where people have "The way this whole project has come together has been a bit been preparing for his arrival, stocking of serendipity," said McClung, who is the world's largest Ford his favorite foods in the fridge, moving truck dealer with his Midway Ford/Sterling Truck Center in his clothes onto hangers, and arranging Kansas City, Mo., and six other locations in Missouri, Kansas his preferred tee times. and Arkansas. "You have a problem and walk around and bump This scenario is part of the dream that into the answer." Gary and Lea McClung envision for Examples abound around this project, called Quintero Golf Quintero Golf & Country Club in this & Country Club: Phoenix suburb. • The Rees Jones Connection: McClung and wife Lea are "Carefree travel," said McClung. "No members at Troon Golf and Country Club in Scottsdale, where luggage or cleaning up when arriving and they met course architect Cabell Robinson at a dinner party. leaving. It's like a private resort." Robinson introduced the McClungs to Jones, who not only He and his wife belong to six clubs, jumped aboard the project but helped select the property. McClung said, "and all are wonderful, but • The Greg Norman Connection: When searching for a way none has all the elements we think would to contact Norman, McClung received a free gift in the mail, a fit a certain niche in the market." subscription to a newsletter which told readers Norman's phone Besides two courses designed by Rees number. Lead architect Jason McCoy was in the office when Jones and Greg Norman, Quintero's 826 McClung called, and, with Norman, visited the property shortly acres will include a wide variety of proper- afterwards, both declaring they were ecstatic with the site. ties: large estates up to 20 acres; one- to • The Tony Roberts Connection: Who also happens to be- Continued on page 30 Continued on page 31 DESIGN AÍID DEVELOPMENT Q&A: The century's The Ryder Cup, the Country Club and Carnoustie Green, Aaron and With the British Open at Carnoustie in Scotland in the recent past, and Mahaffey team up best architects looking ahead to the Ryder Cup at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., where Continued from page 27 Who do you think are the top five archi- he would captain the U.S. team in September, Ben Crenshaw was asked to nament play was to bring in the guys who tects of the 20th century? Ben Crenshaw compare the two designs. have been winning the tournaments." has his thoughts. "I opted not to play in the British Open this year," he said. "But I have played The nine by Green, Aaron and Mahaffey "I'd have to start with [Donald] Ross, Carnoustie. And The Country Club is so entirely different. Carnoustie was a very will have distinct identities reflecting the [A.W.] Tillinghast and [Alister] difficult course before this year. The setup [for the Open] was amazing. It was styles and experiences of each man. Mackenzie," he said. "I would have to unbelievable to watch it on TV. A links course like that, to me, should have a little Green, a 19-time winner during his 26 include Charlie [C.B.] Macdonald. I might more room to play. My gosh. So far as the shot values, Carnoustie remains one years on the PGA Tour, worked with Fuzzy put Harry Colt in there. It's tremendously 'of the toughest courses in the world. The Country Club is a totally different Zoeller in designing the Tournament Play- difficult to leave some people off that list. proposition. Bill Flynn and Howard Toomey were two wonderful architects. It is ers Club at Southwind in Memphis, Tenn. How do you leave out Perry Maxwell, or very natural and they have beautifully depicted shot values on that terrain. Their "I've tried to utilize my experience from [Englishman] Herbert Fowler? bunkering is wonderful — the positions, the things you are required to do with playing some of the best courses around Crenshaw's course design partner Bill the ball, the contouring. You feel you are playing against New England terrain. the world — to create a course here at Coore added:I "f you asked who influ- Carnoustie has always been a harsher test of golf. There are some very difficult Glenview that is challenging, yet memo- enced or guided course architecture, I holes at The Country Club, but it's pleasurable and thought-provoking, too." rable for those who will play it," Green would choose those names. But if you Asked which type of course favors Americans and which their opponents, said. "The greens will be large enough to asked who had greatest impact, Pete Dye Crenshaw replied: "Most people would say we need a straightforward American accept a shot and open enough in the has to be up there with any of them." golf course. But that was the way Oak Hill [in Rochester, N.Y.] was set up, so front to allow for a golfer to run the ball "If you ask about Influential,' Bill is right," I don't really know these days.