Courses in Office Parks

[Steve_ Shaffer]

Do you know of courses built in or surrounded by office parks?
My former club, Commonwealth National in Horsham,PA, has 5 office buildings interspaced /adjacent to the course. Some of the buildings come into play on poorly hit shots. Buildings are on the left side of the 6th and 7th holes, both 4 pars. While playing in a four ball match, one of my opponents, a long hitter, hit his drive on the 6th hole, a dog left left, over the building onto the apron in front of the green. He chipped long and couldn't make par. My par won the hole. On the 7th hole, a short straight away 4 par, I pulled my tee shot left onto the roof of the building. The ball bounced back onto the fairway. I then took my trusty 7metal and hit the green,5 feet from the hole and made the putt for a bird.
Reading this article in today's Arizona Republic, prompted me to pose my question.
Steve

Twist on a golf development
 
 
Business park will be built around Longbow- www.longbowgolf.com

Glen Creno
The Arizona Republic
Dec. 17, 2003 12:00 AM


Golf courses typically are built amid housing projects in the Valley, but a developer is breaking the mold by planning to surround a Mesa course with a massive business park.

Daedalus Real Estate Advisors is planning the 1.8 million-square-foot Longbow Business Park and Golf Club near the Falcon Field airport and the Boeing Co.'s plant in north Mesa. The 330-acre site includes the 160-acre Longbow Golf Club bought for $7.3 million from aircraft manufacturer Boeing.

Daedalus expects to use the course as the core of an estimated $180 million combination of office, light-industrial space and retail. The project, which should break ground sometime next year pending city approvals, also could feature a business hotel.

Daedalus pumped an undisclosed amount of money into expanding the golf course and moving the clubhouse. It expects to keep the course, named for the military helicopters built nearby, open to the public and hold greens fees to under $100.

Golf gives the business park an extra attraction for the employees who will work there but also serves a more basic function: It's designed to serve as the retention and drainage system for the site.

"It's unusual for this Valley," Daedalus owner Robert McNichols said. "It's the first project I know of that's dedicated exclusively to the use of golf and business together."

Daedalus is planning about 700,000 square feet of office, 600,000 feet of light industrial and an additional 500,000 feet of mixed-use space, a combination of office, retail and entertainment. McNichols said the north Mesa area has the best demographics, "plenty of high-end disposable income," outside of Scottsdale and about 250,000 people who lack so-called lifestyle retail, restaurants and entertainment that have migrated to other East Valley nightlife and shopping hubs.

[Bill_McBride]

TPC at Las Collinas just west of Dallas is inside an office complex.  It's eerie in a couple of places playing down corridors with office skyscrapers on one side.

[Mike Hendren]

Bill,

Great line from Ben Wright several years back calling the action from the 17th at Las Collinas.  Panning back up toward the tee with a large office building in the background Wright refers to the building then offers the classic line:  "It must appeal to someone."

Mike  

[Brian Noser]

I believe that the TPC cours in Memphis some of the holes run around the FED EX office buildings run near the course. I played it once I do not remember if the whole thing does or not.

[Doug Wright]

acer,

Inverness GC is in an office park in south Denver. Now associated with a hotel on the property. Not a bad course, hosted a few Colorado Opens. Don't remember the architect but it's a '70s course so certainly not a classic. The greens have some rolls to them and the par 3s are quite good, especially the long par 3 3rd. The office buildings aren't as obnoxious or intrusive as, say, the housing at Bermuda Dunes   but it's not exactly picturesque...  

Best,

[Brad Swanson]

Ditto what Doug said about Inverness.  Played it once as a sub in the CO Am Team championship for free, wouldn't pay $$ to play it.

CheBrad Swanson

[Patrick_Mucci]

Acer2X,

Emerald Dunes started that way.

I always liked Commonwealth and thought that with a little fine tuning the course could be very good.

[TEPaul]

Acer2X and Pat:

Interesting thread with the mention of Commonwealth in Pa and Emerald Dunes in Fla. In a vague way both of them occur to me in the same way--both pretty good courses and both with some interesting strategic holes, particularly off the tee. But unfortunately, even with that both courses seem to be like 18 little separate entities probably because of the office park planning layout. Both courses put one in mind of all that a good routing needs to pass muster and the general feeling one gets on a golf course when that doesn't happen.

[Patrick_Mucci]

TEPaul,

I agree.

There is a loss of continuity, and intimacy that can never be recovered.

[TEPaul]

This is a quote from Pat Mucci:

"TEPaul,
I agree."

Ran:

Is there any way of hanging this quote in Broadway lights?  

[Steve_ Shaffer]

At least Commonwealth has 12 through 18 isolated from the office campus. These are most of the better holes on the course. There are at least 2 more sites left to build office buildings- one is on the right side of the 3rd hole(par 5) off the tee shot and the other is on the left side of the 9th hole(par4) off the tee shot.
Steve

[Steve_ Shaffer]

Turboe:
Commonwealth is in Horsham, near Willow Grove, in eastern Montgomery county, suburban Philadelphia. I am not familiar with the course near the Pittsburgh airport.
Steve

[Scott_Burroughs]

While Butler National is a core course, I believe it is surrounded by office complexes to the north and south.

I think it was Kemper Lakes that had a big corporate campus adjacent to it.

I seem to remember that the private golf course of Hercules (chemical company in Wilmington, DE) went around it's complex, and was also adjacent to another office building on the south end.

[Steve_ Shaffer]

Scott
I played Hercules a while ago in a GAP match. I seem to remember buildings there. The club was only  for employees of the company until a few years ago. It is now known as Delaware National.
Steve

[JohnV]

Turboe, the course you are thinking of is Southpointe Golf Club which is an Arthur Hills course just off I-79 about 10 miles south of the interchange that takes you to the airport.  It is a private course set in an office park.

I haven't been there yet, but one of the guys in our office says it is pretty good.

[Brian Noser]

I am not sure what head quarters it is. the TPC Soutwinds is there it hosts the FED-EX st jude classic.

[Big B]

At Commonwealth National, I love #6, dogleg left around the Chase Mortgage building!  Although #9 & #13 are two sweet par 4s.  Don't forget, sometimes you have to duck when the F-15s are taking off.

[klangone]

Innis Arden in Greenwich is a bit close to the Pitney Bowes mailing complex......I could tell which way a putt broke from their 6th floor conference room.

 

[davism5]

The TPC of Southwind in Memphis has holes #4,5, and 6 right  up against the FEDEX world headquarters.  The rest of the course plays through houses, apartment buildings and some other smaller business buildings.  They are planning on taking out the bentgrass on the greens and putting championship bermuda on the greens.  This is supposedly going to make the course a little tougher and make it so that the greens are not like velcroe anymore!

[TEPaul]

Big B:

Those planes next door to Commonwealth aren't F-15s they're Warthogs--the anti-tank planes that were the stars of the Gulf War!

And they are loud--make that LOUD!! Maybe twice as loud as an F-15.

Matter of fact, they're SOOO LOUD the last time Pat Mucci was down at Commonwealth playing in the Palmer Junior/Senior tournament he was trying to figure out how he could buy one of those Warthogs!  

[Brian_Gracely]

TEPaul,

Sounds like it's similar to playing at Anderson Creek in Spring Creek, NC which is just a few miles up the road from Fort Bragg (Fayetteville, NC).  Nothing like artillery and bombing practice in your backswing....BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!!  

[Tommy_Naccarato]

Arnold Palmer & Ed Seay's Empire Lakes, in Rancho Cucamonga, California and site of a Nationwide Tour event.

[Steve_ Shaffer]

There is nothing like playing at Commonwealth the week of the Willow Grove Air Show. The Thunderbirds or Blue Angels are practicing their routines and flying 300' over the 7th fairway. One year, a Stealth bomber was observed but not heard. When the show starts, the place to be is on the clubhouse deck watching the F-16s fly over the clubhouse. Unforgettable.
Steve

[Patrick_Mucci]

acer2X,

I prefer watching the A-10 Wart Hogs go wings over and turn on a dime, it's really a remarkable sight.

I always wanted the fuel concession there.

I like Commonwealth, but would alter # 13 and fine tune a few others.

I never played the previous 36 hole layout and would appreciate it if anyone can provide any insight into that course in comparison to the current one.

[ForkaB]

http://turf.lib.msu.edu/1920s/1927/2708153.pdf

Per the link above, I think the first of this genre was the Flatbush Golf Club, in Brooklyn, built in 1924.