Designing for the Golf Resort
Fortunately I have been part of many different golf course
designs in my career. I've designed
everything from a $15 million high end private golf club to a mom and pop nine
hole course. Experiences like these are
invaluable and teach you how to make those courses successful. It is those lessons that I carry with me to
every course I visit today. Lately I
have had to draw on these past projects as I get more involved in resort golf
design.
Golf resorts can be broken down into three types. You have the destination resort, the hybrid
resort, and the add-on resort.
Understanding what kind of resort you have plays a large role in the
type of golfer you cater too. When I
first begin a project, I look at the entire resort before I focus on the golf
course. This allows me to understand
their guests and what they are looking for in the resort. Here is an example of what I am talking
about.
Garland Resort in northern Michigan is the same type of
resort. Garland features four courses
and the largest log cabin east of the Mississippi River. Guest have been coming to Garland for years,
and they come to do one thing. Play
Golf! When a new owner took over the
resort in 2009, they brought me in to review the golf courses and make
updates. We started on their Fountains
Course with a bunker program. Once
completed we began to look at the other courses, and even have plans for a
fifth course.
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| Garland is set among dense hardwoods and towering pines. |
When you deal with a destination golf resort you are likely
dealing with multiple courses. This
allows an architect to examine the resort as a whole and then break it down
into different types of courses. The
last thing you want with a golf resort is to have all your courses play and
look the same. At Garland we are able to
create different golf courses. Our final
plan will allow us to have one course that is shorter and more playable for the
novice golfer. We may even elect to
remove all the sand bunkers to keep it different. Two of the other courses will play different
as well. One will be long, close to
7,200 yards and will challenge the better golfer. The other will be shorter, but will feature
water on sixteen holes. This will be a
shot maker’s course. The Fountains
course is the member’s course. Mostly available
to guests that live on the property.
When we build the fifth course, this will be a championship layout that
will take advantage of the natural sand deposits on the site and cater to all types of golfers. Having multiple courses
gives a resort the advantage of bringing in a wide range of golfers.
The Hybrid Golf Resort – A hybrid resort is one that
features a full resort with fine dining, spa services, off-site amenities, and
a golf course. An example of this would
be the Pebble Beach Resort. While known
for its world class golf course, Pebble also caters to the non-golfer. Guests come for the spa, the tennis club, to enjoy
the beauty of the area, and to be pampered by one of the best resorts in the world. You can spend the best week of your life
there without picking up a golf club.
But, if you’re a golfer, you bring the clubs.
The National at Eagle Creek is a resort of this type. Set in the 34,000 acre Eagle Creek State Park
south of Decatur, IL, The National features first class water sports,
outstanding camping, top ranked deer hunting, and a full service lodge. It also has one of the most scenic courses in
southern Illinois.
The National is used by all kinds of visitors. Some will come to enjoy boating on Lake
Shelbyville and camping in the state park.
Others come just to get away and enjoy time with nature. Still others come to enjoy the golf course.
The golf course was built in 1971 and is owned by the
State. After years of success, it began
to become run down and was closed by a court order in 2009. In 2010 a new management group was brought in
to revitalize the resort. Most of the
updates will need to be completed to reopen the run down lodge, but the new
group also wants to update the golf course.
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| The National located on Lake Shelbyville |
I began working with the group at this time and we are
taking our enhancements in tiny steps.
After an initial review, we determined that many of the sand bunkers
have deteriorated to the point where they must be rebuilt. These were completed that first summer prior
to the course reopening. The course has
now been reopened a couple years and work has begun on the lodge. Once that is complete, our focus can return
back to the golf course.
As one of the more scenic, and challenging golf courses in
the area, The National is creating its own niche in the market place. It is a well maintained course that local
golfers regularly play due to its challenge and beauty. Our design goals will continue to enhance the
bunkers, update the practice facility, and widen landing areas to create a more
enjoyable round. We understand that the
golf course is just part of the State Park and once the lodge reopens they will
be able to bring in a wider range of guests.
We want those guests to feel comfortable out on the course as well.
The Add-On Golf Resort – An add-on golf resort is a resort
that hosts guests for something other than golf, but decide they need to have a
golf course as an amenity. These types
of resorts include Caribbean resorts and casinos. People go to these resorts to enjoy the beach
and warm weather, or play the slots and blackjack. They do not look at these as high end golf
resorts, although some may feature a first class golf course. The golf courses here are just something to
do if you get bored for a couple hours.
Sunset Pointe in Storm Lake, IA is close to this type of
resort. The course is owned by the City
and was operated as a stand-alone, nine-hole public course. Residents enjoyed the course as it was easy
to play and you get a round of golf in after work. In 2006, Storm Lake had bigger ideas and
received funding to complete a water park, clean up the lake front,
and rebuild the golf course. I was
brought in as the golf course architect to begin work on the redesign.
As I mentioned, with an add-on golf resort, the golf course
is not the major focus of the resort. So
when we began the design of Sunset Pointe, we knew the golf course would not be
the driving force in bringing the guest.
Also, with this being a public golf course for the City of Storm Lake,
we needed to make sure the residents were happy with the finished product.
The final plan included the reconstruction of all the greens
and tees and the regrassing of the fairways.
Understanding that the area did not have sand that was acceptable for
bunkers, without paying a high cost for trucking, we elected not to install any
sand bunkers. Instead we created a
series of grass bunkers around the course that serves has hazards. This type of design has helped to have a golf
course that caters to the families that visit the water park. During this down economy, Sunset Pointe is
one of the few courses I know that has continued to attract more golfers and, subsequently,
raised its rates.
Lately I have been hired to work on another resort, Pheasant
Run Resort in St. Charles, IL. Pheasant
Run included a golf course when it was first built in 1963. Today the golf course is mostly used by the
local residents and since it resides in a highly populated area, it does
well. However, the resort is looking for
a way to get guests of the resorts to think about bringing their clubs when
they come for a stay. Planning has just
started, so stay tuned to see how this turns out.
Pheasant Run will be my fourth resort redesign in the past
five years. These experiences keep me
thinking about new ways to attract golfers, not just to resorts, but to all
golf courses. As the economy continues
to rebound people will start traveling more often and these places will be
ready.
