|
|
 |
|
| Best Practices: Property |
Master Strokes
Ian Keown
10/01/2005
|
The most sophisticated private courses are engineered and built by the
same specialists who create famed professional courses around the world.
Huizenga’s Floridian was designed by Hall of Fame golfer Gary Player. Pascucci
commissioned Tom Doak, principle of Renaissance Golf Design to co-create
Sebonack with golf legend Jack Nicklaus (“We’re neighbors in
Florida”).
 Discounting neighborly connections, the first step most
prospective course owners take in creating a signature course is to enlist a
designer from the 170-member roster of the American Society of Golf Course
Architects. Golf course architects are like caddies—experts who guide owners
through the hazards of unknown terrain. Besides their engineering skills, course
architects and their teams have experience with permits and ordinances, and when
they cannot find all the answers themselves, they can recommend local lawyers or
environmental engineers who can shield owners from uncomfortable questions such
as, “Why are you chopping down 100 trees when only a handful of people will ever
play on the course?”
Tim Nugent of Nugent Design welcomes inquiries from
private owners now that he is accustomed to their demanding natures. “Working
with an individual is often easier than dealing with a club’s committee,” he
notes. Nugent’s company designed a nine-hole course, the Dunes in New Buffalo,
Mich., for Mike Keiser, cofounder of Chicago’s Recycled Paper Greetings. “On the
other hand, these individuals are very successful entrepreneurs; they know what
they want, and they want it sooner.”
The costs for building a
private course are like a 31-handicapper’s tee shots: all over the place.
Beightol’s backyard course cost roughly $400,000, while Pascucci will not
dispute an estimate of $90 million to build Sebanock, a figure that includes $45
million for 300 acres of prime oceanfront property between the Shinnecock and
National golf clubs. Golf course architects point out that the almost
innumerable variables involved at different sites—the number of holes, the lay
of the land, climate, drainage, the owner’s vision and how often that vision
fluctuates—make it impossible to come up with a neatly packaged price. Beware of
any course designer who offers one.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
