World Trade Center University Golf Course

[jg7236]

Hello To All:

I was wondering if any of you have heard anything about the World Trade Center University Golf Course that is currently being built here in Palm Desert.  I know a descent amount about this project because my parent company is doing the planting plan for the entire golf coure and all the common areas.  How private are they planning to make this course?  What aspirations do they have for this course?  Some say they are going to try to make this course PGA Tour material, some say Shadow Creek material with big mature pines with pine straw all over the course making one feel as if they are up in the mountains, not in the blistering desert.  I was just wondering what you all have heard about this project.

Cheers,

John

[A_Clay_Man]

Hello John; While I can't speak for all, I knioow I have heard nothing and you are the teacher. So teach.

Sounds odd, World Trade in the Palm desert.

Does that area ever saturate? Oh yeah, now that the city of La Quinta is a player, Fuhghetaboutit!

[SPDB]

The name is very bizarre. Assuming it is meant as some sort of memorial, why "university" (unless, of course, the university is the memorial, and this is just its golf course.

very strange.

[RJ_Daley]

Is this project run by Japanese by any chance?  They seem to have a knack for odd ball, incongruous naming conventions for many of their products...

[Jim_Kennedy]

RJ,
Close.

Here is their website:

http://wtcu.org/

[Tommy_Naccarato]

It all sounds like something perfect for the Palm Desert to embrace. Maybe they can have a Taco Bell, McDonald's, Pizza Hut, KFC, & Starbucks strategically situated between some of the holes.

Speaking of which, when is someone going to finally embrace the commercial possibilities of strip malls between holes? Shouldn't this be common place in Golf now? Think about it, you could have a Callaway Outlet between holes 12 & 13, or a Nordstrom's Rack at holes 4 & 5. The commercial possibilities are endless!

[jg7236]

Golf Course Builder=Landscapes Unlimited

Golf Course Architect-Arnold Palmer

Landscape Architect=Pinnacle Design Group

[Jason Mandel]

Tommy said

"Speaking of which, when is someone going to finally embrace the commercial possibilities of strip malls between holes? "

Tommy,
there is an Art Hills course in which Art Hill's son is a partner in where the basically built a golf course, with housing, and yes a strip center! The course meanders through, houses and the strip center!  Its not a horrible course either, but needless to say, the scenery which includes the back of this strip center, is not exactly Carmel Bay.

The course is Waverly Woods outside of Baltimore.

Jason

[RJ_Daley]

Jim, I noted on that web site that the sections under current students, faculty and staff are "under construction".  Does that mean they don't have any students or staff?

Sometimes I just think the world is full of BS, and that ain't Bachelor of Science either...

[ForkaB]

Dick

Maybe they are actually "constructing" the faculty, staff and students in some sort of massive genetic engineering project run by mad scientists such as certain occasional contributors to this site.............

[Jim_Kennedy]

RJ,
After rolling around their site i came to the same conclusion as you, they've a P.H.D. in B.S..

[Tommy_Naccarato]

Jason, I should have realized that Art had all bases covered.

[jimbob]

The project is owned by a private foundation that wishes to not divulge its business dealings with the public at this time. The world trade center university name has been chosen because the same corporations/business entities that make up the WTC in New York will invest $$$$ to build a high tech
university of world wide renowned where students can study
for a PhD in computer physics etc.  It ia an ambitious project led by visionaries who are trying to improve the economy economy of the Coachella VAlley from service workers to high tech.

I will divulge that is a Palmer Signature design. Several
five star hotels have submitted letters of interest already.
When the university is built there will be housing. That is
some time off.

[blasbe1]

SOUNDS LIKE CRAP TO ME!!

[SPDB]

The world trade center university name has been chosen because the same corporations/business entities that make up the WTC in New York will invest $$$$ to build a high tech
university of world wide renowned where students can study
for a PhD in computer physics etc.  

The Port Authority? Larry Silverstein? I wouldn't rely to heavily on either, especially since as of last week, Silverstein is 3.5 bil. lighter than he had hoped.

[Tommy_Naccarato]

Jimbob, Tommymike here.

Whats the chances of the entire Coachella Valey turning into one gigantic Arnold Palmer golf course?

Think about it. Much more, and the entire area will melt into one big huge Ed Seay design! What a great thing for the area!

[Tommy_Naccarato]

jimbob,
tommymike again.
I forgot to ask: How much political-pull did Arnold Palmer subject the city to, in the development of this masterpiece?

[RJ_Daley]

After a long day of cyber studies on your laptop PC while never leaving your morning bed, one can retire to the University of World Trade Golf Club for an invigorating round on their championship Palmer design golf course.  Start preparing your kids now folks, they can achieve a 2.5 grade average and get into this bastion of higher learning.  And, if they can't cut the rigid academic prerequisites they can spend more time on the golf course and hone their game to receive a golf scholarship at WTCU, which will soon become an NCAA golf powerhouse.  

This sounds like it might be funded and conceived by the same people that recently brought us that epic movie, 10.5.

[Lynn_Shackelford]

Isn't this the brainchild of Dick Oliphant?  He is a successful businessman and former Mayor of Indian Wells.  His desire is to leave a legacy of upgrading the desert's culture.  I think he proposed 5-7 courses at one time and it was met with outrage.  His first golf project in the desert was Palm Desert Resort (I think that is the name).  He designed it.  It isn't much of a course, but the homes and condos sold big time.
Anyway, I believe it is located out by the interstate #10, so there might be some wind.
Question for Tommy.  Does anyone know who is going to take the lead for Palmer design with Ed Seay's failing health?
Any hope for more interesting designs?

[jimbob]

Lynn, you are thinking of the Intellegent Communities project waaaaaay north of the 10 in Sky Valley. That one's dead. This is the old North Star project, bewteen cook and monterey, north of the ten. I think Eric Johnson is the lead designer. Dick Oliphant is also involved in WTCU.

Tommy, actually it would be a blend of Ted Robinson, Palmer, and Lee Schmidt if you asked me.

Actually, I am surprised we aren't talking more about the
36 holes of Nicklaus in Indian Wells currently under construction. A much sexier project.

Tommy, talk a ride through CArbon Canyon sometinme and check out the new Norman track in Chino Hills. They are
scheduled for grassing in fall.

They had a pre sale event a week ago and sold out over 300
memberships.

[Tommy_Naccarato]

jimbob,
I was out there about 8 months ago, in fact drove all the way to the top of the former secret military thing up there, just to look down, and just saw a mass of grading.

Maybe I'll try to get out there this weekend again. It's only about a half-hour away.

Yes, I didn't forget about the Mass Ted and Lee Schmidt, but all of the Palmer courses poping up there--more specifically North of the 10 where it was still some interesting smaller sand dunes which to work with, and I think of what I saw at MV of LQ and shudder.  

Don't get me wrong here, there were some O.K. holes which some of the cognescenti here would like, simply because they put their game ahead of nature and feel.

I'm totally against golf architects trying to control play with a one-track mind. (You know, CONTAINMENT____o____CONTAINMENT)

[jpj]

It has been some time since the subject of the WTC golf course has come up. Two holes are grassed already. The developer has donated it to the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic.

[SPDB]

It has been some time since the subject of the WTC golf course has come up.

There is probably a good reason for that.

Two holes are grassed already. The developer has donated it to the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic.

Huh?

[Steve_ Shaffer]

Here's the deal:

NorthStar course will be on par with best

 By Larry Bohannan
The Desert Sun
December 17th, 2004


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So just what is it that the Berger Foundation is giving to the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic when the Classic takes ownership of the Classic Course at NorthStar in the coming weeks?

According to the man who has overseen the building of the course for the Berger Foundation, the Classic is being given a big layout that has been shaped as much by the needs of a variety of groups as by the bulldozers that are still rumbling across the 220-acre project.

"We designed this golf course originally with the idea that this would be a tour course," said Dick Oliphant, the project manager at NorthStar for the Berger Foundation. "I can tell you there are some challenges to building a tour course."

What most people rave about with the NorthStar course, including Classic executive board member John Foster during Wednesday’s announcement, was the kind of golf course pros will find when NorthStar enters the Classic rotation in 2006. The layout includes dramatic features with 30 acres of lakes, sweeping views of the entire course and the surrounding area and even amphitheater settings around some of the closing holes to give fans better views of play.

But none of those features will come without a sort of design by committee, Oliphant said.

Needs of the many

"We have the Arnold Palmer design group as the architectural group," Oliphant said. "We have the PGA Tour, so we have different divisions of specialty from agronomy on, that look at the course from the standpoint of the player, tee to green, the playing experience and so forth."

Then, of course, there are the new owners.

"The Bob Hope group looks at it from the standpoint of spectators and sponsors and parking," Oliphant said. "So we have to design around those interests."

These are the same concerns that have gone into the building of SilverRock Resort in La Quinta, another course that will join the Hope rotation in 2006. SilverRock, developed by the city of La Quinta, is set to open in four to six weeks, while NorthStar won’t open until November.

For Oliphant, the needs of the diverse groups have actually propelled NorthStar to unmatched quality.

"It is going to be an experience for the tour player that they will remember and talk about," Oliphant said. "Hopefully, this golf course will get ranked somewhere near the top of the courses (on tour). It will probably never be called Augusta, but I would hope someday it has that kind of feeling."

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