Trump reveals routing for second course in Scotland
There’s a second course coming to Trump International Golf Links in Scotland.
After the successful opening last summer of the Martin Hawtree-designed Championship Course along four miles of coastline north of Aberdeen, American entrepreneur Donald Trump has revealed plans for another layout.
This one, also to be designed by Hawtree, will start and end on an inland stretch but include a seven-hole loop (Nos. 6-12) on the far south side through dunes equally dramatic as on the first course and also overlooking the North Sea.
The par-72 layout, with five sets of tees ranging from 7,540 yards to 5,630, will occupy ground to the west and primarily south of the existing Championship Course. It will be named The Mary McLeod Course in honor of Trump’s mother, who was born in western Scotland.
The course includes a multisplit fairway par-4 fifth hole; two short, drivable par-4s (holes 9 and 12); and a double green shared by the 13th and 16h holes. The course encircles a parcel of land occupied by a local resident, Michael Forbes, who opted not to accept Trump’s buyout offer as he proceeded with plans for the 1,400-acre resort, conference center and ...
Q&A: Steve Friedlander, VP, Pelican Hill Golf Club
During his career, Steve Friedlander has run some of the largest golf resort operations in the country – Ventana Canyon, Doral and Herb Kohler’s courses at Whistling Straits, Blackwolf Run and in Scotland. Since 2008, he has been the VP at Pelican Hill Golf Club, part of The Resort at Pelican Hill in Newport Coast, Calif.
Neither the industry’s chronic problems nor the high cost of doing business in California have dimmed Friedlander’s outlook. He said 2012 was a record year, thanks largely to strong group sales, and he projects continued growth this year. Friedlander recently talked with Golfweek about business at Pelican Hill.
• • •
Golfweek: What is the business outlook at Pelican Hill for 2013?
Friedlander: Fantastic. What we’re really seeing over the last year and a half is more and more people coming to the resort to play golf, which is what we wanted. We wanted people to stay here and play golf here. So the outlook that I have for 2013 is that it will be our best year ever, which 2012 had been.
• • •
GW: In percentage terms, what kind of growth do you anticipate this year?
Friedlander: We’ll get into the double-digit range ...
Resort briefs: Royal Isabela introduces new casitas
ISABELA, Puerto Rico – Royal Isabela, a 426-acre property perched more than 150 feet above the Caribbean Sea in northwest Puerto Rico, now has 20 casitas available for guests.
Each casita is 1,500 square feet, with a private terrace, plunge pool, and indoor/outdoor space with ocean views. The casitas have one bedroom, two LCD televisions, a wet bar and complimentary Internet access.
Overnight rates are $799, and rise to $999-$1,199 on Dec. 16.
The club also recently opened Restaurant at La Casa, with farm-to-table dining using ingredients grown locally.
Visit royalisabela.com.
• • •
PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. – Old Palm Golf Club reopened its course this month following renovations to the course and practice facility.
TifEagle Bermuda was installed on all of the greens, three practice holes and the club’s 19th hole. Some greens were enlarged and reshaped, creating more slope from back to front to enhance receptivity. Old Palm’s golf studio also was upgraded with the installation of TrackMan golf radar.
Old Palm has become a popular destination for international players competing on the PGA Tour. Lee Westwood, Charl Schwartzel and Louis Ousthuizen recently bought homes at the club, and Darren Clarke is a member there ...
Golfweek's Best Resort Courses 2013
1. Pacific Dunes
Bandon, Ore., 2001
Tom Doak
Avg. rating: 9.10
2. Pebble Beach Golf Links
Pebble Beach, Calif., 1999
D. Grant, Jack Neville
Avg. rating: 8.89
3. Pinehurst (No. 2)
Pinehurst, N.C., 1903-1946
Donald Ross
Avg. rating: 8.70
4. Old Macdonald
Bandon, Ore., 2010
Tom Doak, Jim Urbina
Avg. rating: 8.67
5. Whistling Straits (Straits)
Kohler, Wis., 1997
Pete Dye
Avg. rating: 8.58
6. Bandon Dunes
Bandon, Ore., 1999
David McLay Kidd
Avg. rating: 8.30
7. Shadow Creek
North Las Vegas, Nev., 1990
Tom Fazio
Avg. rating: 8.12
8. Spyglass Hill
Pebble Beach, Calif., 1966
Robert Trent Jones Sr.
Avg. rating: 7.87
9. Ocean Course
Kiawah Island, S.C., 1991
Pete Dye
Avg. rating: 7.85
10. TPC Sawgrass (Players Stadium)
Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., 1981
Pete Dye
Avg. rating: 7.80
11. Bandon Trails
Bandon, Ore., 2005
Bill Coore, Ben Crenshaw
Avg. rating: 7.61
12. Harbour Town
Hilton Head, S.C., 1970
Pete Dye
Avg. rating: 7.38
Kohler, Wis., 1988
Pete Dye
Avg. rating: 7.31
Saucier, Miss., 2006
Tom Fazio
Avg. rating: 7.30
15. Homestead Resort (Cascades)
Hot ...
Auberge Resorts goes northwest; Justice expands
Boutique operator Auberge Resorts added its first Northwest property, taking over management of the 48-room lodge at Pronghorn Golf Club & Resort near Bend, Ore.
Pronghorn, a 640-acre property, was acquired earlier this year by The Resort Group, based in Honolulu. Troon Golf continues to manage Pronghorn’s two golf courses.
“Over the last 90 days, we looked at how to relaunch the property back into the market,” said Spencer Schaub, general manager of Pronghorn. “It made sense to have a very strong boutique brand like Auberge and continue to have a strong golf brand like Troon and a strong real-estate brand like Sotheby’s.”
Pronghorn originally was envisioned as a private retreat, with courses designed by Jack Nicklaus and Tom Fazio. In recent years the Nicklaus course has been opened for public play and ranks No. 6 on Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play in Oregon. In recent months, the Fazio course has been added to stay-and-play packages for guests staying two or more nights and playing multiple rounds.
Auberge is best known for its luxury resorts in California’s Napa Valley and near central Colorado’s ski resorts. It also operates Palmetto Bluff, home to May River Golf ...
New partnership
BOYNE FALLS, Mich. – Boyne, the northern Michigan resort operator, will be booking rounds at Forest Dunes Golf Club through its golf packages as part of a partnership with the Roscommon, Mich., course.
Rounds at Forest Dunes start at $59, including cart, when booked through Boyne. The addition of Forest Dunes brings the Boyne portfolio to 11 courses.
Forest Dunes is a Tom Weiskopf design that is ranked No. 3 on the list of Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play in Michigan. Forest Dunes’ location in Roscommon probably will make it most appealing to golfers driving up to Boyne’s three resorts from the southern part of the state. The course is located 60 miles south of Boyne Mountain Resort, 80 miles from Bay Harbor, and 90 miles from Boyne Highlands Resort.
Forest Dunes was purchased last year by Lew Thompson, a trucking executive from Huntsville, Ark. Thompson is in the process of building a 22-room hotel onsite to accommodate stay-and-play guests.
Separately, Boyne also is making changes to two of its properties in time for the 2012 season.
A spa with four treatment rooms is being added at Boyne Highlands, with a tentative opening date of May 25.
Also ...
Prince Course reopens following renovations
Kauai, Hawaii – The Prince Course has reopened following a year-long renovation overseen by Robert Trent Jones Jr.
The greens were rebuilt with SeaDwarf Seashore Paspalum turf, new tees were added, bunkers were remodeled and fairways were widened. The 13,000-acre practice area and 60,000-square-foot clubhouse also were upgraded.
Visit www.princeville.com.
• • •
Spring Island, S.C. – Old Tabby Links closed March 12 to undergo a restoration by Arnold Palmer Design Co., which did the original design.
Plans call for a new irrigation system, regrassed greens, and restoration of the course’s natural character. Some greens will be moved away from encroaching shade, some bunkers will be rebuilt, and more of the natural, sandy terrain will be exposed. The work should be done by fall, with Old Tabby scheduled to reopen this November.
Visit www.springisland.com.
• • •
Notable – The Prairie Club in Valentine, Neb., hired Mark Aulerich as general manager. Aulerich most recently served as general manager of Shooting Star in Jackson Hole, Wyo. The Prairie Club is managed by KemperSports. . . . The Rim Golf Club in Payson, Ariz., hired Steve Nordstrom as general manager. Nordstrom previously had been GM and chief operating officer at Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club near ...
Ugadale Hotel reopens at Machrihanish
Machrihanish Golf Club always has been a somewhat underappreciated treasure of Scottish golf. There are two obvious reasons why that would be the case: Machrihanish, on the Mull of Kintyre in southwest Scotland, is remote and difficult to reach; and when you finally arrive, there historically has been a shortage of good lodging at the course or in nearby Campbeltown.
Machrihanish is still difficult to reach, but a big step recently was made to solve the accommodations problem. Southworth Development last week opened the renovated Ugadale Hotel, which sits across the road from the Machrihanish clubhouse. The Ugadale has 22 rooms and suites, ranging from 267-556 square feet. The building is more than 100 years old and had been in a state of disrepair until Southworth renovated it.
Lodging has been a particularly pressing issue since the 2009 opening of the neighboring course, Machrihanish Dunes. The Ugadale Hotel complements the Ugadale Cottages, eight two-bedroom golf cottages built by Southworth. Twenty-four additional cottages are planned.
In addition, Southworth is redeveloping The Royal Hotel in Campbeltown, six miles from the golf courses. The Royal, which dates to 1907, will have 23 rooms when it reopens in May.
The Ugadale Hotel includes a ...
Briefs: Fairmont Southampton to host Par-3 championship
Southampton, Bermuda: The third annual Bacardi National Par-3 Championship will be held March 23-25 at the Fairmont Southampton Golf Course.
The tournament is a two-day, 36-hole event played over an 18-hole par-3 course designed by Ted Robinson. The tournament will have professional and amateur divisions for men and women, and also a new open division for senior men and women.
The tournament has attracted some top talent. Defending champion Nick Taylor, the former Canadian Amateur champion and Ben Hogan Award winner, is scheduled to compete, as is former PGA Tour player Ian Leggatt.
Entry fees are $250 for professionals and $175 for amateurs. The fee covers the tournament, one practice round, continental breakfast on tournament days and a cocktail reception. The Fairmont Southampton also is offering a tournament package.
Visit www.fairmontgolf.com/southampton.
• • •
Black Butte Ranch, Ore. – Black Butte Ranch, a 36-hole resort located 30 miles northwest of Bend, plans to reopen its Glaze Meadow Golf Course this year following a $3.75 renovation overseen by John Fought.
The course is being lengthened by 400 yards, to 7,000 yards, and Fought has rebuilt all greens and tee boxes. The front nine holes will reopen after Memorial Day, with ...
Resort briefs: Turtle Dunes opens in Acapulco
Acapulco, Mexico – Turtle Dunes Country Club, a Tripp Davis design, has opened on the grounds of the Fairmont Acapulco Princess and the Fairmont Pierre Marques.
The 7,250-yard layout is located within the master-planned community of Princess Diamante and will be accessible only to members and guests of the two Fairmont hotels. Turtle Dunes is home to the only Lorena Ochoa Golf Academy, and Ochoa’s coach, Rafael Alarcon, directs the teaching program.
Troon Golf, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., manages Turtle Dunes.
The golf course’s name is derived from the fact that Revolcadero Beach is an annual nesting ground for the Olive Ridley, Black and Leatherback turtles. Each year staff from the Pincess hotel gathers the eggs, hatches the turtles and returns them to the sea.Visit www.turtledunescc.com.
• • •
Brewster, Mass. – Ocean Edge Resort & Golf Club on Cape Cod is in the midst of a $5.3 million room renovation on The Mansion side of the property.
All 90 Mansion guest rooms are being overhauled, with work scheduled to be completed April 1. Linda Snyder Associates Inc., a Torrance, Calif., firm, did the interior design work.
The work includes: romanticized betting, which include custom embroidery on pillows and ...
Do-over at Dorado
DORADO, Puerto Rico – On a recent, muggy Friday morning,bulldozers rumbled and workers scurried about near the 18th green of the newly renovated East Course at Dorado Beach Resort & Club, tearing down the old clubhouse to clear room for two private villas expected to fetch $7.5 million apiece.
On a separate site nearby, more workers and heavy machinery were in the initial phase of erecting a seaside, 115-key Ritz-Carlton Reserve, only the second hotel from Ritz’s top-shelf brand to be built worldwide.
While most resort projects in the Caribbean and U.S. are stalled, if not dead in the water, the entire northwest corner of 1,400-acre Dorado Beach Resort is one giant construction zone manned each day by 500 workers. That number is expected to grow to 700 in the coming months as the $342 million first phase of redevelopment kicks into high gear. Eric Christensen, the resort’s CEO and the man charged with overseeingthe rebirth of the Caribbean’s first major golf resort, understands what an anomaly this is.
“Almost everybody else I know in my business is out of work these days,” Christensen said.
This is the third act in the story of Dorado ...
Resort's finest
Bandon, Ore., 2001
Tom Doak
Avg. rating: 9.21
Bandon, Ore., 2010
Tom Doak, Jim Urbina
Avg. rating: 8.83
Pebble Beach, Calif., 1999
D. Grant, Jack Neville
Avg. rating: 8.83
4. Whistling Straits (Straits)
Kohler, Wis., 1997
Pete Dye
Avg. rating: 8.64
5. Pinehurst (No. 2)
Pinehurst, N.C., 1903-1946
Donald Ross
Avg. rating: 8.44
Bandon, Ore., 1999
David McLay Kidd
Avg. rating: 8.30
7. Shadow Creek
North Las Vegas, Nev., 1990
Tom Fazio
Avg. rating: 8.06
8. Spyglass Hill
Pebble Beach, Calif., 1966
Robert Trent Jones Sr.
Avg. rating: 7.86
9. Ocean Course
Kiawah Island, S.C., 1991
Pete Dye
Avg. rating: 7.82
10. TPC Sawgrass (Players Stadium)
Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., 1981
Pete Dye
Avg. rating: 7.78
Bandon, Ore., 2005
Bill Coore, Ben Crenshaw
Avg. rating: 7.63
12. Harbour Town
Hilton Head, S.C., 1970
Pete Dye
Avg. rating: 7.40
Saucier, Miss., 2006
Tom Fazio
Avg. rating: 7.35
14. Homestead Resort (Cascades)
Hot Springs, Va., 1923
William S. Flynn
Avg. rating: 7.30
Kohler ...
Dominican resorts undergo changes, expansion
Punta Cana, Dominican Republic – Salamander Hotels & Resorts is now managing Sanctuary Cap Cana, a 176-room oceanfront resort.
The Cap Cana development in which the Sanctuary is located also is home to Punta Espada Golf Club, a Jack Nicklaus seaside design ranked No. 1 among Golfweek’s Best Caribbean Courses. The resort is on the east coast of the Dominican Republic, just south of the Punta Cana International Airport.
Virginia-based Salamander plans to transition away from Sanctuary’s all-inclusive, couples-only format, though existing all-inclusive reservations will be honored. Salamander plans to begin offering a la carte dining by Oct. 31, and families will be able to book packages starting Dec. 12.
Salamander also plans to establish an adults-only section in an area called “The Castle,” which has its own reception, bar, lounge and infinity pool, as well as swim-out villas. Salamander’s stated goal is to turn the Sanctuary into a AAA Five Diamond property.
The resort will become part of Salamander’s Grand Resorts at Cap Cana collection, which includes nearby sister properties the Fishing Lodge and Ocean Club.
The Fishing Lodge, a 298-villa property that is scheduled to open Oct. 12, has the largest inland marina in the Caribbean ...
McConnell Golf adds a TPC to its portfolio
RALEIGH, N.C. – McConnell Golf LLC has acquired TPC Wakefield Plantation from the PGA Tour.
The purchase brings McConnell Golf’s portfolio to eight courses – six in North Carolina and two in South Carolina. TPC Wakefield Plantation, a Hale Irwin design, opened in 2000 and sits on 217 acres. The course hosts the Nationwide Tour’s Rex Hospital Open.
In February, McConnell Golf acquired Sedgefield Plantation, the Greensboro, N.C., course that hosts the PGA Tour’s Wyndham Championship.
McConnell Golf sells a $10,000 national membership that provides access to all eight clubs that the company operates.
Visit www.mcconnellgolf.com
• • •
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. – Burroughs & Chapin Golf Management and Myrtle Beach National Co. have merged, creating a company that operates 24 courses at 20 facilities. The companies will be equal partners in the new venture.
Among the courses operated by the merged firm are Grande Dunes, Pine Lakes, Tidewater and Pawleys Plantation.
Visit www.mbn.com and www.bcgolfmanagement.com.
Express Lane: It's not just for groceries
If you want to play fast at courses operated by OB Sports, it helps to get in the Express Lane.
The Scottsdale, Ariz., course-management firm is expanding its pace-of-play initiatives with the gradual rollout of its Express Lane program to its 42 courses.
The program varies slightly from course to course, but the basic concept is simple: Players who secure tee times during the first hour of business have to play in less than three hours, 45 minutes. The players are informed of that policy when they schedule tee times. The deal is sealed on the first tee, where the starter has players sign a form agreeing to the time limit.
Seven OB Sports courses now use the Express Lane. Sedona (Ariz.) Golf Resort launched the program this month, blocking off the first eight daily tee times for speedy players. “I don’t think we’ve had anyone come close to going over (the 3:45 time limit),” said Jeremy Hayman, the club’s general manager.
Players are informed that they might be asked to skip a hole if they’re not on pace.
“Our customers respect the fact that we’re serious about it,” said Kris Strauss, OB Sports ...
Previous Next
