Frederica Golf Club, St. Simons Island, GA

[wsmorrison]

Tom Fazio is building an 18 hole golf course, Frederica Golf Course, on St. Simons Island, GA.  Tom Paul and I were graciously shown this work in progress.  It is a project of enormous scale:  7 million cubic yards of fill are being moved (much of it from an area that will be a 250 acre lake), huge trees are being relocated, and the construction costs alone dwarf many overall budgets by a number of magnitudes.  But you know something?  It looks terrific!  The designers and construction crew (Medalist Golf) are taking great care to use natural looking lines that blend in very well with land forms in the distance.  The manufactured slopes and contours look remarkably natural on ground that is essentially flat.  Two holes (4,18) have centerline hazards short of the green.  Water comes into play on 6 holes (2,10,11,12,14,18).  With 6 sets of tees (that's a lot of tee markers), a par of 72, and 7383 yards from the Championship tees, 7068 from Medal, 6739 from Member, 6332 from Club, 5915 from Senior, and 5363 from Ladies there is yardage for any game.  

The par 3s from the Championship tees are
196,240,178,162
The par 4s
382,462,485,327,485,453,350,438,470,455
The par 5s
580,573,540,607

The grassing should be complete later this spring and the course opening sometime next year.  There will be very high-end housing around this core golf course.  It should be an interesting opening and one I anticipate being well-received.

[bakerg]

Is Sir Michael Bonnallack the co-designer on this one?  There was an article a ways back that Bill Jones was discussing future courses at Sea Island and he had stated that Fazio and Bonnallack were going to work together on one.  

[A.G._Crockett]

Two questions:

1. Where on the island is this development?

2. Will this be strictly private or is public access planned?

I ask the first because the island is rather full now, and the second because St. Simons golf has been almost completely private in the last few years.  (The exception is the Hampton Club course, I think.)

[TEPaul]

I'd say it's surely slated to be private---those are some really large numbers mentioned here. The project which includes a fairly huge amount of land I gather could have another course on it--maybe more, and it appears to be up near the north end of St. Simons Is.

It's just very interesting for such as us to see something of that construction magnitude in progress and we really appreciate all Paul Cowley did for us. Paul Cowley is definitely a fascinating guy in a whole bunch of areas--seems like architecture of all kinds--both golf and building and it was a pleasure to meet those in the Love Golf Design office at St Simons.

If any of you want to end up in one of the most pleasant and prettiest places you've ever seen you can't go wrong picking St Simons and some of those other Georgia sea Islands! Coming out of the over-trafficed mad crush of Florida it was a welcome relief for us.

[wsmorrison]

Agree with you on all counts, Tom.  Paul Cowley was a wonderful host and seems to know everyone in the town.  We had cocktails with Larry Lambrecht, an outstanding photographer, and Bob Crosby and family at the remarkable Lodge on St. Simon's.  It was a pleasure to meet some of the folks at Love Golf Design--we chatted at length with Paul, Mark, and John.  They are doing some really good work.

St. Simon's is such a lovely place, that my family and I hope to vacation there next spring.

As to Frederica GC, AG Crockett, the place will be private with very high end housing.  As Tom mentioned, the site is very vast and they may eventually be doing more than one golf course.

bakerg,
Not sure if Bonnallack was involved or not.  His name was not mentioned.  If he was involved, he should be involved on future projects.  

The course was in a fascinating stage of development, one where it was possible to see some of the various layers of construction that are involved.  I hope to see more stages of construction as I've never really seen a shaper at work and hope to see some of the great ones I've heard about sometime this season.

Regards,
Wayne

[John_Cullum]

Is the Love team collaborating with Fazio on this, or did you just happen to hook up with Paul?

The Lodge at Sea Island GC is really an incredible place.

[wsmorrison]

Sarge,

The Love team is not collaborating with Fazio's group at Frederica, nor anywhere else that I'm aware of.  Paul Cowley is an engaging personality with a lot of talent.  He's friendly with a number of people on site and they allowed us the real treat of going around and studying the property and the work while in progress.  It was quite interesting and worth not being able to make it past southern Virginia on our drive back to Philly that day.

We talked some about the golf courses around the Lodge.  I know there's a pretty darn strong pedigree with Travis and Alison among the 3 nines.  How are the courses today?  We were going to have a look around but I was a pretty poor navigator and we got there as the sun was setting.

[TEPaul]

"Is the Love team collaborating with Fazio on this, or did you just happen to hook up with Paul?"

I don't believe Love Golf Design has anything to do with Frederica G.C. Paul Cowley just wanted to show us what some really massive earthmoving done pretty darned well looked like. It's good to see that because the eathmoving is so expansive it all seems to tie together well on that golf course (they broadly sloped and contoured the entire course including a number of massive cuts for lakes). It's so extensive you really can't tell how the elevation changes on the course differs from all that St. Simon Island itself is elevation-wise unless you pay attention to how flat the island is both going to and coming back from Fredrica G.C. But that's not that easy to do either because there's a lot of tree growth on St Simon.

As for all the Love team is doing I'm sure Paul Cowley can tell you about that better than me. One nice little nugget about the Love team (Davis and Mark apparently) is they were powerfully affected by the design of Chicago G.C. They said they're interesting in doing a variety of things in the future but I wouldn't be lying to tell you they sure seem to be great big fans of Raynor!

 BTW, all three of us were agreeing about the talent Fazio & Co has if enormous and large scale projects are your thing. But that's no revelation to me---because I never said Fazio didn't have real talent in huge vision projects. All I ever said about Fazio is I just wish he'd stick to that because that's what he's really good at---probably far better than anyone else!

He's efficient as hell too, apparently. PaulC asked a few of his friends out there on Medalist Golf (contractors) if they were on schedule and they said--Hell yes they were even ahead of schedule. I very discreetly asked a few of them if they were on budget too but the only answers I got was either;

"What's a budget?", or,

"I don't like the sound of that word, it sounds vaguely cheap  and what we're doing out here if it's anything it ain't cheap!"

[John_Cullum]

I thought that it was probably the case that you linked up with paul while on the Island as opposed to a collaboration. And I am glad to hear that the Love brothers know who Seth Raynor is, and they may incorporate some classic ideas into their work. I don't believe they have employed any yet, but I could be mistaken.

[paul cowley]

tom and wayne ...

 thank you for your generous comments and we enjoyed your visit as well.

i'm curious ....how much time elapsed from walking in the door and your first posts?
i noticed wayne was first but i assumed you dropped him off tom.
...its good to have you both back.

[Bill Gayne]

Wayne and Tom,

Sounds like a great trip to St. Simons and Sea Island. My first trip to coastal Georgia was as a boy in the early 70s and I have returned sporadically. The growth has been enormous but well managed. It always has been and still is a delightful place to visit. The Lodge puts on a great New Years Eve party.

Anyway, I was surprised that they were allowed to move 7 million cubic yards of fill in what is essentially coastal marsh and wetland. Did they discuss the permitting process and if there were any significant enironmental issues or roadblocks?

Thanks,
Bill

[paul cowley]

bill...actually i think the course requirements were more like 4 million yards.
 from what i have seen ,all the excavation and fills were in 'upland' not wetlands ,which normally does not require any special pemitting issues.
 the scope of work was over a large area which allows for natural tie ins to the existing terrain as tom and wayne have mentioned.

..calling any Fazios out there to help with this ,as Love is not a participent ,just an interested observer  

[Steve_ Shaffer]

Tom and Wayne
I remember reading about Sea Island in this article in Cigar Aficionado and Sir Michael Bonnallack's name was mentioned as a co-designer of Frederica GC:
www.cigaraficionado.com/Cigar/CA_Archives/CA_Show_Article/0,2322,1395,00.html


"...As if all that's not enough to say grace over, Bill Three is planning to build another golf course on a 3,000-acre site on the north end of St. Simons Island in nearby Frederica Township. The course is being designed by Tom Fazio and Sir Michael Bonnallack, the former longtime secretary of the Royal and Ancient. The development, which will be known as the Frederica Golf Club, will include 350 home sites, a spa, a fitness facility and an equestrian center..."



Steve

[Sam Maryland]

I very discreetly asked a few of them if they were on budget too but the only answers I got was either;

"What's a budget?", or,

"I don't like the sound of that word, it sounds vaguely cheap  and what we're doing out here if it's anything it ain't cheap!"

sounds like a good way to go broke...

SM

[Tommy Williamsen]

I thought the course was open.  I was invited to the member/guest a few weeks ago but was unable to make it.

[Sam Maryland]

it's open.

matter of fact, the pictures in the Brandt Snedeker instructional this month in Golf Digest were taken at Frederica...

...it's also going to change ownership before long.

SM

[Steve_ Shaffer]

Wayne Huizenga is the new owner.  National memberships are available.

Nice adver/story in Executive Golfer:


http://www.executivegolfermagazine.com/images/Frederica.pdf

[Carl Nichols]

Has anyone played Frederica?  I'm going to be down there in late September and may have a chance to play it.

[fred ruttenberg]

It is a fine golf course and youshould play it if you have the opportunity

[Howard Riefs]

Has anyone played Frederica?  I'm going to be down there in late September and may have a chance to play it.

Carl,

While I've never played Frederica, if you play Seaside (or the other Sea Island courses) be certain to reserve Tom McLaughlin as your caddie. He's definitely one of the best caddies at Sea Island. I played two rounds with him back in March and would highly recommend him to anybody.

[Robert Emmons]

Play it. Wonderful place to spend a day...RHE