[Mark Brown]

Has anyone seen or better yet played Fazio's Shadow Creek East -- Frederica GC on St. Simons Island -- I haven't had the time to make the 1.5 hour trip. Fazio says it's the next step in the design and construction of man-made courses, a level or two higher than Shadow Creek.

 

[Anthony_Nysse]

Mark,
  I'm going down to play Seaside at Sea Island and was hoping to possibly get a glimpse of it. It's very hard to get on, but the pics I've seen and what I've heard from our pro says it's incredible the amount of earthmoving that was done!
Go to...www.medalistgolfinc.com Once on the web page, go to "past projects" and you'll see Frederica.

Tony Nysse
Asst. Supt.
Long Cove Club
HHI, SC

[TEPaul]

The guy to ask on here about Frederica is Paul Cowley since he lives on St Simon Island and has followed this whole project.

He took us over to Frederica maybe a year or so ago when it was about in the middle of the project----everything was shaped, greens floated and ready for seeding etc.

Whenever I see a golf course like that one I'm always dying to know what it looked like generally or specifically before the project was started.

I gotta say in praise of Fazio and his operation, even if there's no question he did an absolutely massive amount of earth-moving it's pretty hard to tell exactly how or where. In other words if someone did not know that island is basically all flat they may not ever pick up on the fact it didn't look like that golf course before it was built.

[wsmorrison]

Adam Messix was there not too long ago and played the course.  I know he enjoyed the experience.  Perhaps he'll comment on here at some point.  The housing that will support the massive project should be a grand slam home run from a developer's point of view.

Tom and I were there a year or so ago with Paul.  I haven't been on that many construction sites but this was massive.  The contours seemed well-shaped.  They dug one or two massive lakes and I believe moved 7 million cubic yards of earth in the process!

[Mike_Young]

I played it in November.  Nice job, lot of money spent...I think the tree planting was more than the dirt move if not mistaken.  Supposedly the housing will be discreet yet large...  St simons has changed...at one time it was driven by resort services now it is definitely a real estate company.

[Peter Pallotta]

some early morning (for ME at least) thoughts:

It takes talent to SEE a golf hole, there, in the land itself, as the land itself lies and as nature itself has laid it out

It takes talent to IMAGINE a golf hole, on land that nature had not, perhaps, intended for golf

It takes talent to SHAPE the land when necessary, as to imitate the wisdom of nature;

and talent to STAY one's hand, as in honour of that wisdom;

and talent to KNOW the difference

It takes talent to make MUCH from little, and to make the SIMPLE from the grand    

As so, in short, and in the words of Henry Wiggens: "From now on, I rag no one."

Peter
(who has to decide right now whether to have a mug of espresso or to just go back to bed)

[TEPaul]

Actually, Wayne, we didn't tell you this but Fazio moved about 700 trillion tons of earth down there. The island may look old to you but it isn't. The whole island was created by Tom Fazio. Five years ago what is now St. Simon Island was right about in the middle of the Intercoastal Waterway.  

Some say Tom Fazio's great grandfather actually moved enough earth down below St. Simon Island to create the entire state of Florida. The idea was to create what was referred to back then as "America's Penis". It was all very futuristic and it was only supposed to be apparent from space. Unfortunately when it was done flying hadn't been invented yet so noone could check out how it looked back then.

But now that we can get into space it can be seen for what it was supposed to look like. And it's clear that Tom's great grandfather was not as accomplished at earth moving as Tom is. Just ask yourself---do you know ANYBODY who would want a penis that looks like the State of Florida from Space?

[wsmorrison]

Thanks for the side-splitting laugh Tom.  Now I have to do a conference call with Geneva and Singapore.  I'll probably bust out laughing thinking of this funny post of yours.

We have a conference call of our own with Michigan later today, don't forget!

[TEPaul]

Suck it up, Pal---it's way too early in the morning for this kind of humor.

PeterP:

Regarding your post #5, you're right---in that sense nobody has the imagination and talent Tom Fazio does---not even close. Other than TomF, though, I'm not too sure who's actually been given those kinds of opportunities.

[Scott_Burroughs]

From the link that Tony provided above:

[SPDB]

Paul -
Do you know who was the design associate from Fazio who worked on this?

[TEPaul]

Wow, look at those photos of the finished course. I think I liked the look of the place better when it was just shaped in and still in dirt.  

The look of that course seems to be an interesting juxtaposition of some fairly clean looking ultra "stylizing" on the inside that seems to morph into more ruggedness the farther off line one hits the ball. Interesting idea although the outside roughness may just be immaturity at this point. Not to say the course may not play great---just an interesting look. There's not much that's not totally thought through about that course. Check out the shapes and formations of some of the trees etc. Do you think that's happenstance of accident? No way Jose.

SPDB. I think we met the project manager down there but I'm terrible on names. He was a most interesting guy though---great to talk to about the course. Paul sure knows him. I don't know where PaulC is today but if I were to guess I'd say he's probably studying everything available on the Arts and Crafts Movement.  

[rocket]

SPBD  I believe the associate was Shane Robicaud.

[Mark Brown]

Scott,

Thanks for the photos. It seems to be one that you have be there. I know they moved hundreds of relatively mature oaks and pines. When I get there I'll report back. Look forward to your comments Anthony.

[Jim Nugent]

Just ask yourself---do you know ANYBODY who would want a penis that looks like the State of Florida from Space?

Tom -- depends how big it is.  

[paul cowley]

SPDB et al....I've been working away from my keyboard but;

Yes, Shane was one of the full time associates, but I feel the project had a lot of support from the entire organization starting from the top....whom I met more than once on his commute to and fro.

I have yet to play the course, but the scale, scope, and attention to detail is as has been described.....they have very successfully built a site similar to the one we will have at Golden Ocala, a course on another thread that we hope to start this summer.

[Adam_Messix]

Frederica Golf Club is a great place, with an excellent course.  As far as the pictures go, the 2nd picture is of the dogleg 2nd and the straight away third, both pretty strong par fours.  The next to last picture is of the excellent green.  The third picture is of the 13th hole on the left and 15th hole on the right.  The tee shot on 13 reminded me of the same hole at Camargo with water replacing the deep valley on the right.   The last picture is of the short 11th, the 17th green, and the beginning of 18 I believe.  The par 5 finisher is the best hole on the course in my opinion.  The entire play of the hole is dictated by the water left and a bunker in the center of the fairway.  It's a very long three shot hole going right of the bunker, yet reachable if you hug the water line.  

The greens at Frederica are massive, with plenty of internal contouring.  It's a shame that the picture of #10 is just a closeup of the flagstick as the green contouring there is serious.  As has been said earlier, there was a huge amount of dirt moved  here, yet the golf course doesn't look manufactured at all.  I made it a point to look at my surroundings while playing many of the holes and I was amazed at the general flow of the land appeared to be natural even though we all know it was moved.  

The natural look of the out of play areas is a nice touch.

As an aside, Frederica has the neatest half way grill I've seen.  It's an open air grill with a full bar.  They serve these hamburgers on hot dog buns (similar to Olympic Club) that are awesome.  

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