A Golf Course Stillborn

[Marty Bonnar]

Driving out of St Andrews last weekend, we chose to take the A915 Leven road over the hill, past the Cairnsmill Caravan Park. The road runs alongside the site of the currently abandoned construction site of the St Andrews International Golf Club. Check it out on Google Earth or Maps, but not Apple, oddly.
I was quite dismayed to note the state of the site. There’s quite clearly an almost complete golf course emerging from the ground, but it’s rapidly returning to a state of the natural vegetation returning to the shaped, sculpted earthworks of the playing field.
I have no care or interest in the economics of the development, save for the thought of such an enormous waste of money, time and talent.
As our dear friend, Mr H might have put it: “What a Pity”.
Maybe sometimes egos and cash shouldn’t get quite so mixed. Just an observation. No agenda.
Cheers,
F.

[Edward Glidewell]

A different setting/locale (to put it mildly), but something similar happened near Myrtle Beach several years ago. The Ocean Ridge Plantation in NC, which is near a family beach house at Ocean Isle Beach, has four courses. However, they had plans for a fifth -- they purchased land which formerly held 36 holes belonging to a different course, and planned to develop housing with a newly designed 18.


They fully constructed at least 9 holes of the course and maintained it. You could see a couple of holes from a nearby road. The fairways were mowed, the bunkers had sand -- I'm not sure if they ever grassed the greens, because they were always covered with tarps. Regardless, the course looked ready to open at any moment and it was that way for at least a year. Now, however, it's so overgrown with weeds that it's hard to tell there was ever a design there. It was bizarre to drive by and see the empty, fully maintained course.


Lot purchasers sued the developers at one point (I think less about the course itself and more that they never built roads or ran water lines, etc.), but I'm not sure what came of it.

[Tom_Doak]

This happened a whole lot during the financial crisis, hitting new projects at all stages of construction. 


At Wicked Pony in Oregon, we had nine holes grassed and nine holes rough shaped ... by the time the bankruptcy court got around to cleaning it up, someone had stolen the pump station out of the building!

[Edward Glidewell]

Interestingly enough, the Ocean Ridge Plantation website STILL includes the logo for the fifth course, and still has an active page for it: http://www.bigcatsgolf.com/jaguars-lair/


I can't imagine why. I think it's been a decade since they stopped construction on the course.

[Edward Glidewell]

This happened a whole lot during the financial crisis, hitting new projects at all stages of construction. 


At Wicked Pony in Oregon, we had nine holes grassed and nine holes rough shaped ... by the time the bankruptcy court got around to cleaning it up, someone had stolen the pump station out of the building!

Whatever happened to the course you were supposed to build at Lake Oconee near Atlanta? I assume the financial crisis eventually killed it completely, but would have been really nice to have both a C&C and a Doak nearby (even if I never had the opportunity to play either!).

[David_Tepper]

A couple of items on the St. Andrews International Golf Club from several years ago:

http://www.golfcoursearchitecture.net/content/St-Andrews-International-build-starts

http://feddinchstandrews.com/

[Ronald Montesano]

The Belfry International, along I-90 near Rochester, NY. On the heels of the run of Ryder Cup hostings at the original Belfry, some half-wit hired Dave Thomas to build another one!! There was a soft opening (I remember seeing people on the course from the highway) but it never opened to the public. It sat on north and south sides of the highway, and one sticking point was getting access to an abandoned railway line that ran under the highway and united the course halves. The owners finally agreed to make it a public route, but by then they had wasted a few years during the bubble, and the bubble had burst. Ravenwood and Mill Creek had opened nearby, and took any remaining public green fees away from TBI.

https://rochester.enquira.com/yellowpages/sports-recreation/golf/public-golf-courses/the-belfry-international-golf-club-of-rochester-l3793.html

[Sam Krume]

Could you classify GWest at Gleneagles as a course in that mode. Don't know if it has had any play

[Adam Lawrence]

Could you classify GWest at Gleneagles as a course in that mode. Don't know if it has had any play

I don't think so, because it's still being maintained and, so far as anyone is aware, the intention is still to open it some day. Though God knows when.


Re. Feddinch, it has always struck me as an insane project ever since I first heard about it. They started construction of the golf course without having planning permission for a clubhouse in place -- and having totally antagonised the local authorities with an attitude that makes Trump Scotland look like a consensual approach. And the business model has never made the slightest amount of sense to me. Who  was ever going to pay £200,000 to join a club in St Andrews that cannot offer anything in the way of enhanced access to the Old Course? There are really only two big money super private clubs in Scotland -- Loch Lomond and Skibo -- both of which have beyond spectacular locations. A hillside outside St Andrews doesn't really cut it in comparison. All the other similar clubs in the UK are in the London area. Where all the money is.

[Carl Rogers]

Tom, The Bay of Dreams...................

[Ronald Montesano]

Tom, The Bay of Dreams...................

#TooSoon

[Tom_Doak]

Tom, The Bay of Dreams...................

Also my course in China.  But at least I got to play that one a couple of times!  I never did hit it around the Bay of Dreams, or Wicked Pony.


Ironically, the Chinese project and the Bay of Dreams were two of the projects for which we were actually paid the highest fees.

[Tim Leahy]

I can think of a few in Cali. One Nicklaus in Fresno, something Horse got three holes built to sell homes and never finished. Another near Castaic north of LA was Palmer I think. Then Trinitas south of Sac was completed but the owner never got permits and was shut down before officially opening.

[Steve_ Shaffer]

On the other hand, here's a course -  Wickenburg Ranch in AZ - that was built in 2008 and never opened for play until  2015!


http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,31090.msg604746/topicseen.html#msg604746

[Jeff Schley]

On the other hand, here's a course -  Wickenburg Ranch in AZ - that was built in 2008 and never opened for play until  2015!


http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,31090.msg604746/topicseen.html#msg604746

Wow I didn't know Wickenburg took that long........... drove past it once on the way to Phoenix... it is out there in the middle of nowhere.

[Robert Emmons]

Wicked Pony....had not heard that in a long time...RHE