This is great news for the AZ golf scene.I posted this under the previous thread "Potential Bill Coore Project" but it may get lost there so here it is again:
It's not potential anymore:
From today's East Valley Tribune
Sports Update
We-Ko-Pa to add another 18 holes
By Bill Huffman, For the Tribune
The East Valley will add yet another upscale golf course in 2006, when We-Ko-Pa on the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation debuts its second layout near Fountain Hills.
According to Jeff Lessig, the general manager at We-Ko-Pa, a deal has been struck with the noted architectural team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw to design the second course.
"We have a verbal agreement. In fact, Bill Coore already has been out here seven or eight times walking the (proposed) property,’’ Lessig confirmed. "(The new course) will be located to the north of the existing 18 holes and served out of the same clubhouse.’’
When the second course opens sometime next spring, it will be the first upscale course built in the East Valley in the past four years. The last high-end, daily-fees course built in that area was the Faldo Course at Wildfire, which opened in January 2002, shortly after We-Ko-Pa opened in December 2001.
Coore and Crenshaw, whose only other effort in Arizona is Talking Stick Golf Club on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community near Scottsdale, are known for their minimalist layouts, meaning they fit the course to the lay of the land.
Coore, whose office is in Austin, Texas, but lives in Scottsdale, called the We-Ko-Pa assignment a "big challenge.’’
"The first course is so special, and has been so wonderfully received, that we want (the second course) to be a complement, not a competition,’’ Coore said of the original Scott Miller design. "It’s a tall order, just like what we’re doing now with the (third course) at Bandon Dunes.’’
Crenshaw and Coore’s other works include Barton Creek in Austin, Cuscowilla in Georgia, the Sand Hills in Nebraska and the Plantation Course at Kapalua on the Hawaiian island of Maui.
Coore said it’s too early to say just what the second course at We-Ko-Pa will look like when it’s finished.
"This is such a quality piece of property, and we’re trying to spend as much time as we can on it to get the best sense of what we’re going to do,’’ he said. "We have some ideas on what a few of the holes will look like, but not how they are going to be linked together.’’
Coore said he hoped routing plans would be finalized and approved by the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation and O.B. Sports, which manages We-Ko-Pa, sometime in March. Construction would then start in July or August.
"The property that is being set aside for the second course is different from the first course,’’ he said of the land, which has more elevation. "So we try to let the site guide us as to what style of course we’re going to build. . . .
"I think even if Scott Miller were to have done this course, it would be different than the first one.’’
Lessig said that Coore and Crenshaw were the winners in a derby that saw 14 architects — "the cream of the crop’’ — present possible scenarios for the second course. The list was then narrowed to four architects, with Coore and Crenshaw getting the nod.
"They’ll have a free hand in its design,’’ Lessig said. "Our goal is to have another 18 holes equal in quality to what we have but different visually in its style.’’
The second course at We-Ko-Pa is a continuation of plans to enhance the Fort McDowell community’s casino complex. It also includes a 247-room Radisson resort, which is under construction between the casino and the golf course. The resort will be completed later this fall.
Lessig said that while he agrees that Arizona has too many courses (almost 400), We-Ko-Pa is slightly different than its competition.
"We’ve exceeded our expectations here in the past two years,’’ he said. "We’re not necessarily at 100 percent capacity, but we’re not chasing rounds.’’
In addition, Lessig said, costs to build the second course cannot be compared with what it would cost to build on public land, as the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation already owns the land and water rights. That means the only costs for a second course would be for construction and the fee for Coore and Crenshaw.
"And there’s just no way to know what those final numbers will be yet,’’ Lessig said.