Good article:
http://tinyurl.com/2m29tc
An interesting article by a reporter who knew very little about golf. I know -- I was at the site the day Nicklaus was there. Hard to say how good the course will be, but the holes that head near the rocky shore will certainly be incredible. Nicklaus spoke of offering the "openness of Pebble and Cypress" as his references for the course, and said the playing areas would be wide. There's a lot of clearing left to be done and Jack said he hadn't even seen the far side of the property that plays to an ocean inlet. He spent a couple of hours touring the site, then met with the well-to-do clientele, before flying to Victoria. He then spent part of the day at his project on James Island, initially 12 holes designed for the McCaw Bros. It is being expanded to 18.
All in all, Wyndansea (Wind-and-sea, get it?) has the potential to be great. But it is five hours from anywhere, which is definitely a drawback.
Oh, and the photo you are seeing is of the par three 15th -- about 192 yards straight across the water. Very dramatic. It was mocked up for the sales event, so I'm not clear on whether the final bunkering will have the rough edged look.
I just hope it doesn’t turn out like that Bear Mountain in Victoria. What a mess! There are houses on most holes now. The whole course has this really manufactured feel to it and there isn’t much character to the place at all. Don’t get me wrong, the course was constructed top notch, but I personally found the bunkering and mounding pretty unimaginative. It reminds me of the Okanagan Golf Club’s Bear course, which is one of the worst courses in the Okanagan in my opinion.
The second course they are making at Bear Mountain (the Valley 18) looks promising, however, and a little less crazy. I walked some of it and most of the holes have been shaped. It is apparently being built by the same guy that is building Wyndansea. I will not make the same mistake that I did with the original BM course and will play this one right when it opens (before the adjacent land is cleared and the houses are built).
They must also be planning on developing James Island sometime soon. I imagine it would be highly unlikely that the owners would finish the course off after all these years and not develop the island (like was planned in the 90s). Do you know anything more about that Robert?
Here’s a picture of the island. The holes in the original design that weren’t built were going to be located in the bottom right corner of this photo. I don’t know if Nicklaus has changed the routing since then.
