DEVELOPMENT BRIEFS DESIGNING ON THEIR OWN: Bill Love & John Fought Ault-Ciark lose associate Cupp colleague goes solo By MARK LESLIE URORA, Ore. — After a success OLLEGE PARK, Md.—Saying that fui apprenticeship with Ro- after 18 years working with Ault- Abert Cupp, former PGA Tour CClark & Associates the time had player and 1977 U.S. Amateur champion come to practice on his own, golf course John Fought has stepped out on his own architect Bill Love has hung out his own as a golf course architect. shingle here. Fought, 42, has founded John Fought "There is a lot of competition, but I Design and aligned his company as a think I will compete effectively," Love wholly owned subsidiary of OB Sports, a said from his new developer and operator of upscale public headquarters. "I in- and resort golf courses based here. Fought tend to concentrate will be the lead designer on OB develop- WALLEY FORMS DESIGN FIRM on a few projects at a ments and plans to pursue his own design ANN ARBOR, Mich. — A new com- time." projects throughout the world. pany focusing exclusively on design, The University of If the measure of an architect's work is consultation and development of golf- Virginia's first gradu- the caliber of championships hosted by related projects has been formed here ate student to base a his or her courses, Fought should be by Mark Walley, formerly a principal master's thesis on feeling good about the direction of his in the architectural landscape com- Bill Love golf course design, career. He worked closely with Cupp on pany of Bills/Childs Associates. Love joined Edmund Ault's firm immedi- Pumpkin Ridge in Oregon, host course for Walley is in the process of signing ately after earning his master's degree in the 1996 U.S. Amateur won by Tiger Woods. several clients in the southeastern landscape architecture in 1978. Woods' record-setting third U.S Amateur Michigan region. He intends to con- He has been in the business during John Fought, right, checks blueprints on a job site win in front of large galleries and television trol the growth of Golf Services Group Continued on page 32 along with C.A. Roberts III of OB Sports. audiences in late August brought Pumpkin by selectively handling only projects Ridge a level of exposure usually reserved to which he can devote appropriate for Grand Slam events. personal attention. The firm is located While it is the most well known, Pump- at 206 S. Fifth, Suite 200, Ann Arbor, kin Ridge is just one of several well-re- Mich. 48108. garded Portland-area projects with which Fought has been involved. Fought and GEORGE REDESIGNING BELLE HAVEN Cupp each designed an 18-hole course ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Lester for The Reserve Vineyards and Golf Club, George of Colonial Golf Design Inc. in which is scheduled to open in 1997. Richmond has been hired as the archi- Fought also worked with Cupp on the tect for Belle Haven Country Club Crosswater Course at Sunriver, named here. He will redesign several holes best resort course by Golf Digests 1995. immediately and then lead develop- Fought was lead designer at the Langdon ment of a long-range master plan of Farms Golf Club, a links-style facility renovations to the golf course in the where he maintains his home office. months to follow. The original course "I'm thrilled to see such great courses was designed by Leonard Macomber being built in Portland because it's my and opened in 1954. It has been home," said Fought. "However, I'm also through several remodeling phases looking forward to doing projects every- since then, the last one in 1969. where. At this point, my options are wide open, and I'm really having fun." JACOBSON INKS VA. PROJECT The 8th hole at Dauphin Highlands, designed by Bill Love while with Ault, Clark & Associates. PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY, Va. — Rick Jacobson is designing an 18- hole upscale public golf course south- Hurdzan, Cook Ken Kavanaugh, west of Dulles Airport here. The 6,900- yard, par-72 layout will traverse open collaborate again fields, woodlands and undulating ter- an evolving style rain, and offer grand views of the roll- PALM DESERT, Calif. — Golf ing foothills of the Shenandoah Moun- course architect Michael Hurdzan A plus-1 handicapgolfer, Ken Kavanaugh tain Range. The project also includes is teaming with PGA Tour pro has been designing golf courses since 1985. an 8,000-square-foot clubhouse, and a John Cook to design the new, His first experience in course design came in 45-tee practice range, with a short public Desert Willows North 1981 when he was project manager game practice area and lesson tee. Course here, the first of two 18- for Fred Enke Municipal Golf hole courses for the 540-acre Course in Tucson, Ariz. His PALMER PROMOTES CAD ASSOCIATE Desert Willows development. Southwyck Golf Club outside PONTE VEDRABEACH, Fla. — Eric The $9.6 million, 18-hole public Houston opened to praise in Wiltse has been named manager of com- championship-caliber course will 1989 as did Orchard Val- puter design with Palmer Course De- give the city its first municipally ley Golf Course in Aurora, sign Co. Wiltse owned links. The course is sched- III., host of the 1996Illinois State Open. The joined Palmer in uled to open by February. Resort at Gold Canyon s 11th, 12th and 13th 1989 and is attend- Hurdzan and Cook have said the holes are ranked in Arizona's top 10. ing Florida Com- goal is to make the track one of Golf Course News: Your first design munity College of the top 10 in the state. job was nine holes for Roy Rodgers and Jacksonville, • • • Dale Evans. How did you land that job? working toward Hurdzan announced another Ken Kavanaugh: I graduated in 1976 in his degree. His new project in the West — an 18- landscape architecture and practiced it for duties include hole executive course at the Key- 10 years. Everybody I met knew my goal Eric Wiltse , • t i stone Resort, a four-season desti- was to design golf courses, so the word got preparation of de- nation resort 70 miles west of around out here. Roy Rodgers and Dale tailed construction plans and specifica- Hurdzan Design Group lead architect Dana Fry (left) Evans were involved with Thousand Trails, tions, perspective drawings, graphic and Denver. Hurdzan's design will talks over construction plans for Desert Willows North complement the existing 18-hole Course with Golf Dimensions' senior construction a group that builds destination RV resorts color presentations, and computer-aided Continued on page 31 Continued on page 36 design (CAD). manager, Ruben Ramirez. YOUR "ONE-STOP" SOURCE HIGHLIGHT GOLF HOLES, FOR AMERICA'S LEADING IMPROVE VISIBILITY, GOLF SURFACES & SUPPLIES! & MAINTAIN CONSISTENCY THE POROUS CERAMIC SOIL CONDITIONER U.S. GOLF HOLE PARTAGOLF COURSE C PARTAC Ntty TOP-DRESSING 1 r TARGETS l* * COLORED CERAMIC Rees Jones restoring Ross' River Oaks GREEN SAND HOUSTON — River Oaks Country Club Club members are expected to vote on DIVOT REPAIR MIX here has hired Rees Jones to master-plan the proposal at the end of this year, with PARTAC® GREEN SAND BLENDED WITH PARTAC® PREMIUM a restoration of its Ross track. Built in the work expected to get underway in the TOP-DRESSING FOR EXCELLENT mid-1920s, River Oaks has since been winter of 1997-1998. GERMINATION AND extensively re-routed, its greens and tees 'There are no photos of what was there," DEEP GREEN COLOR! ACCU-TECH THE BEST DIVOT REPAIR MIX AVAILABLE! PRECISION CUP CUTTERS totally redone and other changes made, Weisser said, "But they do have some FLEXIBLE GOLF COURSE MARKERS AVAILABLE NATIONWIDE so that only about 50 percent of the holes working plans that will help. More than TURF DRAG MATS & BRUSHES SAFETY FENCING & BALL NETTING 800-247-2326 Terra Flow are similar to their original layout, ac- anything, we want to restore the Ross IN N.J. 908-637-4191 Drainage Systems cording to Jones design associate Steve character. It's a wonderful site on a bayou TYRAR. PARTAC PEAT CORPORATION AND MANY MORE KELSEY PARK, GREAT MEADOWS, N.J. 07838 Weisser. So Jones intends to restore the ... and with land movement — topography GEOTEXTILES & TURF BLANKETS GOLF SPECIALTY PRODUCTS ORLANDO (FL) MEMPHIS (TN) RENO (NV) course to the Ross style. not expected in Houston." CIRCLE #126 Love goes solo "WHITEMARSH Valley Country Club. Continued from page 29 lean times and, in the 1990s, in a boom period, which he expects We've been around a long time — over 75 years. will continue with public facili- ties being the driving force. "There are so many golfers The players demand impeccable turf and we deliver. But the highest who need a place to play, and they need an interesting and exciting place," he said. "The standards around here are those I set for myself. high-end public course will be developed more and more fre- quently. But 'high-end' to me I have the future of the course to think about. So, I make sure the herbicides doesn't equate to a lot of money to build or a lot to play. "I think there is a middle I use to keep the course gorgeous are also respectful of ground that will allow courses to be built and maintained for a I try to make sure the course the world will be reasonable cost that means lower the environment. and greens fees... You don't need to spend $7 million or $9 million." around for another 75 years. Pendimethalin is the turf herbicide that A key for this type of project, he said, "is making it efficient for maintenance. Then the good meets these standards year after year" conditions will draw the people. It goes hand in hand with good design." His design style, Love said, is to make a course compatible with the existing site, "to make it ap- pear and feel as natural as pos- sible and at the same time create drama, keep you awake and pique your interest. "One of the things I think is so important in design and which sometimes gets overshadowed by other things like the environ- ment and playability, is aesthet- ics," he added. "That is abso- lutely mandatory." Chairman of the American Society of Golf Course Archi- tects' Environmental Commit- tee, Love said the industry is "a long way out there [in protect- ing the environment], but there is always more to be done. "Certainly our goal is to make sure we dispel the viewpoint that golf courses somehow harm the "I've got some environment or wildlife. The golf industry has been aware of envi- ronmental issues for a number of pretty broad shoulders. years and putting into practice good design and management for quite some time. That is not to say The future's there isn't room for improvement." For his part, Love intends to 7 remain active in the ongoing dis- on them/ cussions between the golf and environmental communities. Tony Gustaitis, CGCS And he is already active in his new design firm. He has hired a draftsman and an office manager and is in the development stages of two projects in Maryland and one each in Virginia, Pennsylva- nia and Nebraska. CIRCLE #125