(part 3)
*11. Lipoa Point Club, Kapalua, HI, 2005. This property is just around the corner from the Plantation Course, with just enough room for 18 holes of golf between the coastal highway and the clifftops. The idea was to do a private 18-hole course, the Cypress Point of Hawaii … and it had a few holes that would have been in that league. There were the usual archaeology issues and local politics regarding any coastal project in Hawaii, compounded by the fact that Lipoa is a prime surfing spot … I actually watched a women's pro surf event one afternoon while we were out on the site trying to figure out our routing. The resort thought all could be resolved working quietly behind the scenes, but the politics bubbled up in the press while the resort was trying to permit further development around the Village course. Basically, the resort abandoned their plans for Lipoa Point to tamp down the politics for the other development project -- which they have still never built, due to the economy.
Best hole: There was a stunning oceanfront par-3 on each nine, both of them playing downhill to greens fairly close to the surf -- one of them along the cliffs, another playing more out to sea. But I think the best hole would have been the short par-4 13th, with a tee shot from the rocks across the edge of the ocean to a fairway surmounting a ridge, and then over another dip to a raised green overlooking the ocean.
*12. Wicked Pony GC, Bend, OR, 2006. As many of you know, we got 70% of the way through construction here, when the lender that had provided the construction financing went under, and there were no banks willing or able to replace them as the Bend housing market started down in the fall of 2007. The primary investor for the project has been trying to work through a Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding so he can go ahead and finish the course. The bankruptcy court decides in March whether to let them proceed or try to divide up the pieces among the creditors. Luckily, this is the only course I've ever started to build that didn't get finished; Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw had several false starts early in their partnership.
Best hole: For most people, it would probably be the par-3 sixth, across the edge of a rocky canyon. I was pretty partial to the long par-4 ninth, with its tee shot up out of a deep crater to a fairway and green running along the rim. Those two holes actually got grassed; the par-4 14th between the rocks had not yet been finished when the project stalled.
*13. Lake Luciana GC, Aetna Springs, CA, 2006. Also in 2006, we were paid to do the grading plans for a new course in the Napa Valley area called Lake Luciana, around a large lake two miles away from the nine-hole project we built at Aetna Springs. There was huge money behind this one, and the 30 lots as part of the development were already platted … but the locals still managed to convince Napa County to deny zoning for the golf course, ruling that golf is an "urban activity" not suited for agricultural zoned areas, despite the fact that "outdoor recreation" is specifically permitted in agricultural zones.
Best hole: We had planned a tiny little par-3 hole, #16, with its green site where two little streams came together as they ran down out of the hills. At the front, the green would have been 40-45 feet wide and then dropping down both sides into the water, but you could give yourself more margin for error if you played to the back of the green, where it was quite a bit wider and there was a bank to hold the approach shots. We actually got the approval from the environmental people to build this hole despite the proximity to water; it was zoning, not environmental issues, that stalled the project.
14. Antigua, 2007. In early 2007, a land planner recommended me for a very exclusive new project in Antigua. Jack Nicklaus had done a plan for the property, but the owner was having second thoughts about using him, because he wanted his project to be uber-special and Jack was doing too many other things in the Caribbean. We spent a couple of days down there looking at his spectacular site by helicopter and by boat and discussing the deal, although I was reluctant to do anything more until the client let Jack know he was going to go a different direction; but I could not get a clear commitment out of him. Well, that was my "brush with fame" with Sir Allen Stanford, now in jail in Texas on multiple counts of fraud and offshore money laundering! In hindsight, I think the reason we never set foot on the property while I was down there is that he didn't really own it, and was afraid of being shot at if we did go on the ground! We did have a luxe dinner with [among other people] the banking minister of Antigua ... Sir Allen had the whole place wired. But I never suspected that the whole set-up might be a fraud. I normally trust my intuition on whether a potential client is someone we can deal with, so this one was a valuable lesson in caution.
Best hole: I think there would have been something like ten holes with sea frontage on this course. The housing [thirty waterfront lots for members, about 3 acres apiece] was all to be on a separate little island, so the golf course had the run of the shoreline, and there were a lot of capes and bays to be utilized. There was a par-3 at the upper end of the course much like the setting for David Kidd's 17th hole at the Castle Course at St. Andrews … and the next hole was a par-4 on along the cliff tops, playing down hill to a green site in front of a big rocky knob.