100% of the resort’s net profits will go to charitable initiatives.
Saint John’s Resort in Plymouth, Michigan, will open its new Cardinal Golf Course on June 22, with several other top-tier golf amenities having been constructed to complement the 18-hole course.
Golf architect Raymond Hearn was tasked with reimagining the old 27-hole layout at what was then the Inn at St. John’s on the west side of Detroit. His new main layout is a total rethink of the property to create an original experience across the rolling landscape.
“The land was a perfect setting for me to draw on my inspiration from previous Donald Ross, Tom Bendelow and Willie Park Jr. projects and one of my favorite courses, the Old Course at Sunningdale (in England) by Willie Park Jr., which I implemented on both the championship course and the short course,” Hearn said in a media release announcing the opening. “Our goal was to create a fun golf experience. I believe we have achieved that, and then some, with this project.”
The routing for the new Cardinal golf course at Saint John’s Resort in Plymouth, Michigan (Courtesy of Saint John’s Resort)
The project includes a seven-hole short course by Hearn named Little Cardinal, which plays across 7.5 acres with holes ranging from 44 to 112 yards. Also built was an 18-hole, 2-acre putting course – complete with food, drink and built-in music – that was themed after the famous Himalayas Putting Course in St. Andrews, Scotland. These are first-of-their-kind amenities for the Detroit area, and the concepts of alternative golf options have been proved at some of the top resorts in the U.S.
“These exciting golf attractions provide a relaxed environment focused on fun and offering a less intimidating introduction to the game, encouraging newcomers to want to participate, learn and improve,” Stan Witko, executive director of golf for Saint John’s Resort, said in the media release.
It’s all part of a renovation to the property formerly owned by the Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit. The property was donated in 2021 to the Pulte Family Charitable Foundation and has been rebranded as Saint John’s Resort. A $50-million transformation includes updated rooms at the resort’s hotel, a 6,200-square-foot pavilion, a ballroom and more. The charitable foundation has pledged 100 percent of net proceeds to educational and humanitarian initiatives in Metro Detroit and beyond.
Check out a selection of photos of the new courses and putting green below:
Those involved include former USGA CEO Mike Davis, Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross and Tom Fazio II.
MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. — Add one more golf course to an already large number in one of the country’s golf capitals. And the course’s ownership group has some high-profile names.
County commissioners on Tuesday approved the final site plan for Phase 2 of Three Lakes Golf Club where another 18-hole course is expected to be built. Two courses were part of Phase 1, according to county records. The are sits just west of Jupiter and Hobe Sound, where a number of PGA Tour pros currently reside.
“It is a first-rate project,” said Commissioner Ed Ciampi before the vote, which carried by a 4-1 margin. Commissioner Sarah Heard dissented without giving a reason.
The developer protected as many trees as possible in their original locations and many others the developer saved and relocated, Ciampi added.
Among those in the club’s ownership group are former USGA CEO Mike Davis, Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross, course architect Tom Fazio II and former LPGA player Lynn Connelly. The group is also involved in the Apogee Club, which is currently under construction just a few miles away.
“They will be a large employer,” he said, and will be a large contributor to local charities.
Land use attorney Bob Raynes Jr., representing the developer, declined to comment after the vote, saying he was unauthorized to do so.
Project details
The 282-acre site for the project will include the new golf course, called the North Course, eight golf cottages for short-term and weekend stays, a performance center, golf training center and maintenance building.
Three Lakes Golf Club is a private club on 1,217 acres located at 3535 Southwest Kanner Highway in unincorporated Martin County north of Southwest Bridge Road, according to county records. It’s unclear if any of the facilities will be open to the public. No homes are located on the property.
More than 28 golf courses are located in Martin County, according to the tourism and marketing office.
Rural lifestyle
In February, county officials changed the land-use designation for the golf club to the controversial rural lifestyle designation, county planner Brian Elam told commissioners.
The rural lifestyle designation has been controversial because it allows for more intense development in places like western agricultural lands.
Opponents of the designation feel it will kill the Martin County difference, which has meant limited growth.
County staff recommended that commissioners approve the Phase 2 final site plan. No one from the public commented on the proposal.
Keith Burbank is TCPalm’s watchdog reporter covering Martin County. He can be reached at keith.burbank@tcpalm.com and at 720-288-6882.
Allow us to geek out about bunker edges for a bit.
MYAKKA CITY, Fla. – The under-construction Miakka Golf Club has a lot going for it. A wide-open parcel of land with several interesting features. Two miles of frontage along a pastoral river. A former Ryder Cup captain as consultant. A successful developer with a proven track record, big plans and deep pockets.
Forget all that for a minute, and indulge this golf architecture nerd to geek out about one particular aspect of the work taking place inland between Tampa and Fort Myers on the western side of Florida’s peninsula. Because if all goes to plan, the private Miakka might have some of the coolest bunkers found in the United States.
Yes, after a tour of the property in its raw-dirt form, it was the bunkers that caught my eye. That’s because some of the best bunkers in the world caught the eyes of course architects Dana Fry and Jason Straka, who plan to model their traps at Miakka in the form of Australian Sandbelt courses.
A beautiful bunker’s edge is carved directly into a green at Victoria Golf Club in Australia. (Jason Lusk/Golfweek)
Citing the style of bunkering at such international heavyweights as Royal Melbourne, Victoria, Kingston Heath and Peninsula Kingswood, Fry and Straka plan to build traps that reach deep into greens with the putting surfaces seemingly suspended in air above the sand.
Fellow architecture nerds are granted a gasp at the daring.
“Pretty cool, huh?” Straka said with a smile during a tour of the property.
The traps in Australia’s Sandbelt around Melbourne are largely the creation of or inspired by Alister MacKenzie, the famed designer of Augusta National and Cypress Point, among others. It was on a working tour of Australia nearly a century ago that MacKenzie introduced some of the best bunkers in the world to several courses.
The best Sandbelt greens and traps are split by a knife’s edge with no fringe, no separation. With graceful curves etched directly into the putting surfaces, they are among the most beautiful and frightening sand traps in the world, often falling back into a more rugged and natural design on the far sides of the traps.
But it’s almost impossible to build such traps at most locations. The Melbourne Sandbelt is graced with dense sand, which helps the traps retain their shape. They wouldn’t work at most American courses, as the edges of the bunkers would crumble under the weight of golfers and mowers on the surfaces above – such construction would be a liability and a maintenance headache. Instead, American bunkers are normally kept at least several steps off a putting surface. Us lot have grown accustomed to the American style, most of us never realizing what we’re missing Down Under.
Fry and Straka plan to utilize a modern construction method to change all that at Miakka.
Architect Jason Straka inspects a Loksand bunker edge at Miakka Golf Club. (Jason Lusk/Golfweek)
The design team will lean on Loksand to construct bunker edges. With offices in Asia and Australia, the company Loksand has created a crimped fiber product that allows grass to grow atop it while resisting compression or shifting. The company’s methods provide the hardy bunker walls Fry and Straka need to carve Sandbelt-style traps into greens in Florida, where native sand is normally much looser.
Showing off a Loksand test bunker at Miakka, Straka threw a golf ball into the wall of the trap. It bounced off in a natural way, not some weird rebound that would be a turn-off to golfers. The Loksand bunker also supports plenty of weight. The company provided a green light for Fry and Straka to make bold choices.
“We had looked at the Sandbelt course and wanted to find a way to build bunkers like that, and this gave us that chance,” Straka said during our tour. “We tried several other options, and this just works.”
For the golf architecture nerds who have had the good fortune to play in the Sandbelt, it’s an inspiring choice.
But the property’s developer, Florida-based entrepreneur Steve Herrig, was not originally inspired by golf at all. This all started with horses.
Miakka Golf Club will be operated by the same family that owns the adjacent TerraNova Equestrian Center, which has grown into a world-class facility with incredible barns and event spaces. (Jason Lusk/Golfweek)
Miakka Golf Club sits next to Herrig’s TerraNova Equestrian Center, which he built to accommodate the growing passion for horses shown by his daughter. Starting with small plans for a barn and a place to ride, TerraNova has grown into a world-class equestrian center capable of holding national events. Herrig has laid out plans for a horse-themed community adjacent to the equestrian center, with lots ranging from five to 20 acres, each with a private barn.
A frequent participant in golf games at Gator Creek Golf Club in nearby Sarasota, Herrig – who has built profitable businesses in insurance and human resources – said he was told by friends that he should add a golf course. “Here we are now,” he said at lunch before setting out to check on construction of his Miakka Golf Club.
One of those friends from the Sarasota club – known simply as Gator by locals – just happened to be Paul Azinger, winner of 12 PGA Tour events including the 1993 PGA Championship. He went on to captain the victorious 2008 U.S. Ryder Cup squad and feature as a prominent voice in golf broadcasting for 15 years. Herrig brought on Azinger as a design consultant at Miakka.
The property has a lot going for it. The course and its facilities will sit on 1,100 acres away from the planned homes. Overall, the land tilts on a plane dozens of feet down toward the Myakka River, and there’s a twisting creek bed that will be interlaced with fairways. Some 3 million cubic yards of sand will be pushed into landforms atop the site, that sand having been mined from an area that will become a lake nearer a rural highway that passes the course and sprawling clubhouse. Plans include a 12-hole par-3 course, a huge circular practice facility, cabins and a lighted putting course.
Some 3 million cubic yards of sand will be dug from a lake to sandcap the golf course at Miakka. (Jason Lusk/Golfweek)
Unlike at most Florida courses, which rely on man-made lakes for irrigation as well as shotmaking interest, the lake at Miakka won’t be in play on the main 18. Azinger, ever an angler, said he can’t wait to cast for bass in its water.
The river and its offshoots will be in play on several holes, most notably a par-3 that plays along the waterway. Other than that and the creekbed, the course will rely on Fry and Straka’s shaping to provide strategic golf interest instead of water carries, similar to the way Australian Sandbelt courses don’t feature much, if any, water.
In a state experiencing something of a golf construction boom, especially for high-end clubs with six-figure membership fees, it all serves to set Miakka apart in some ways. There will be horses, barns, firm and bouncy golf, and plenty of luxury for well-heeled members.
Less is more as Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw replace outlandish length with a focus on playability .
It’s a case of addition by subtraction at The International in Bolton, Massachusetts, as the famed team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw have replaced an emphasis on outlandish length with a much-improved golf experience on the club’s Pines Course.
Known for decades as the longest course in the U.S., the Pines opened in 1955 with a design by Geoffrey Cornish and legendary amateur Francis Ouimet. The course originally stretched to 8,040 yards, an extreme length for that time period. Nearly two decades later, architect Robert Trent Jones Jr. stretched it to 8,325 yards in a renovation.
Coore and Crenshaw have scrubbed that focus on length and difficulty in their total renovation that began in 2022. Scheduled to reopen this fall to limited member play, the private Pines is a whole new golf course. And they have removed some 1,200 yards – the combined length of three mid-sized par 4s – as the course will now play to a much more reasonable 7,103 off the back tees.
Architect Bill Coore walks the Pines course at The International in Bolton, Mass. (Courtesy of Escalante)
Not a single playing corridor or green site remains from the old layout, as Coore and Crenshaw reimagined the course to better take advantage of interesting topography and mature vegetation. Instead of length and head-banging difficulty, the Pines will now offer playability with an emphasis on natural and strategic golf holes.
“Bill, Ben, shapers Ryan Farrow and Zach Varty, and the rest of the Coore and Crenshaw team have worked their magic, taking an exceptional site and crafting what we strongly believe will be considered one of the country’s best new golf courses,” Paul Celano, director of golf at The International, said in a media release announcing the upcoming completion of the project. “Their deep admiration for courses built during the early 20th century, the so-called ‘Golden Age of Architecture,’ is an ideal match for our vision of a golf-first experience at The International that preserves and honors the club’s 120-year history.”
Another addition: The Pines will now feature fescue turf tees, fairways and rough. Besides making for amazing aesthetics in the rough, fescue provides a firm and bouncy playing surface that should highlight the strategic opportunities intended by the design team. Add in sandy waste areas carved through the pine trees, and it will be an entirely new experience for golfers versus the old layout.
The Pines is one of two layouts at The International, along with the Tom Fazio-designed Oaks course that recently received a lighter renovation by Tripp Davis. The club was purchased out of bankruptcy in 2021 by Escalante Golf, owner of golf properties in 15 states, which has invested heavily in the New England club.
Check out a selection of photos from the Pines course as the renovation nears completion.
Tiger Woods’ TGR Design firm is building its first mountain course outside Park City, Utah.
Tiger Woods will tee it up next week in the U.S. Open at Pinehurst, but in addition to practicing his golf game, the former World No. 1 took a recent detour to Utah for his other job as golf course architect.
Woods, along with design consultant Beau Welling (who runs a successful design firm of his own), recently visited Marcella Club near Park City. Woods’ TGR Design firm is building an 18-hole layout there that is scheduled to open in 2025. Plans for the mile-high-plus course, Woods’ first mountain layout, have it stretching beyond 8,000 yards.
“I was completely blown away by everything about Marcella,” Woods said in a media release discussing his site visit. “The amenities, the commitment to excellence, not to mention maybe the best views I have ever seen on a golf course. I told the team that this is the perfect canvas, and we just need to make sure we live up to the challenge.”
Marcella Club, laid out by Tiger Woods’ TGR Design, will be the former World No. 1’s first mountain course. (Courtesy of Marcella Club)
The private course will be situated in the Marcella Jordanelle Ridge, part of a masterplanned community that is a partnership between Marcella at Deer Valley and Marcella Jordanelle Ridge. The club, which will include private skiing, plans to cap its membership at 500.
In all, the club will offer membership amenities in three locations: Marcella at Deer Valley, Marcella Jordanelle Ridge and Marcella on Main. The club is a collaboration between Reef Capital Partners, Raintree Investment Corporation and Cross Lake Partners.
During is recent site visit, Woods and his team previewed the layout of all 18 holes, signing off on seven of them and discussing the others, as noted in the media release.
“Despite a snowy winter, we have made substantial progress on the championship course,” Beth Armstrong, managing director of Marcella, said in the media release. “The walkthrough allowed us to fine-tune the layout and features to ensure a challenging and enjoyable experience for all golfers.”
Plans for Marcella include a second 18-hole course by a designer yet to be named, a short course designed by Woods and a ski-in-ski-out lodge at Deer Valley Resort.
The Keiser family plans two new courses in Texas to be designed by some of the biggest names in golf architecture.
The Keiser family is at it again, this time with a new resort named Wild Spring Dunes planned for East Texas. Several of the biggest names in golf course architecture will bring the project to life.
Chris and Michael Keiser, sons of Bandon Dunes Golf Resort founder Mike Keiser, have acquired a 2,400-acre site not far from Nacogdoches that eventually will be home to an announced two courses at Wild Spring Dunes. Draw a triangle from Houston up to Dallas with the third point in Shreveport, Louisiana, and the resort will sit just north of the center of that triangle.
One of the layouts will be designed by Tom Doak, who has completed his routing with construction set to begin soon. The team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw have routed the second course. There also are plans for a short course, a practice center, cabins and a clubhouse. The involvement of Doak, Coore and Crenshaw is an extension of a long relationship in which they have designed world-class resort courses for the Keiser family and at other world-wide destinations that have opened with financial backing from Mike Keiser.
The site for Wild Spring Dunes in Texas (Courtesy of Dream Golf/Jeff Marsh)
Wild Spring Dunes will be part of Dream Golf, which is the collective of courses and resorts operated by the Keiser Family. The collective includes Bandon Dunes, Sand Valley and Rodeo Dunes.
Chris and Michael Keiser hit a home run on their first swing with their development of Sand Valley in Wisconsin, and the brothers announced last year their plans for Rodeo Dunes to the northeast of Denver. Wild Spring Dunes is the next in line of a continuously swirling series of speculations and rumors about the family’s future development plans. The family recently celebrated the 25th anniversary of Bandon Dunes in Oregon, which set off a trend of developers searching for remote sandy sites.
Wild Spring Dunes looks to be one more such development. The sandy terrain features considerable elevation changes in four distinct ecosystems with pines and hardwoods, steep ravines and spring-fed creeks.
“This land surprised me,” Michael Keiser said on a website announcing the development to prospective early members. “I would never have imagined this kind of property in Texas. The pine forests. The steep ravines. The big hills surrounding it. You walk the site, and it’s always changing, and you can see golf holes on every part of it.”
Chris Keiser and Michael Keiser with their dad, Mike Keiser, at Sand Valley in Wisconsin (Courtesy of Bandon Dunes Golf Resort)
As spelled out on the website, Wild Spring Dunes has solicited early members with an initial price of $65,000 until May 31, with that price then increasing to $75,000. Early members will not receive equity but will be the recipients of various perks, including having their green fees covered at what will be a public-access resort and early access to any possible real estate developments. The model is similar to how the Keiser brothers developed the popular Sand Valley, which has continued to expand and soon will be home to four courses.
Two of the courses at Sand Valley were built by Doak: the Lido, which is a re-creation of a century-old but defunct layout on Long Island, and the new Sedge Valley that is scheduled to open in July this year. As part of the communications with prospective members, Doak said he plans to make the most of 60 feet of elevation changes for his course at Wild Spring Dunes.
“The site in East Texas is not the sort of windblown dunes land we’ve worked on in Bandon and at Sand Valley,” said Doak, who recently opened a new course at Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina named No. 10. “It’s more like Pine Valley, rolling land that falls off on three sides into deep barrancas. Reminiscent of Pasatiempo or L.A. Country Club (both in California). Pine trees abound, as does a heathery ground cover.”
Coore and Crenshaw built the original and eponymous course at Sand Valley for the Keiser brothers, as well as designing two full-size courses – Bandon Trails and Sheep Ranch – and the popular Bandon Preserve par-3 course at Bandon Dunes for the brothers’ father. They also are building one of the first courses at Rodeo Dunes.
“It’s a marvelous place that feels as though it was destined for golf,” Coore said of Wild Spring Dunes in the communications with prospective members. “The site is thrilling, sandy, and the routing has come together very naturally. We can’t wait to see it come to life.”
The Torre Course will be the second 18 at the high-end development south of Lisbon.
Sergio Garcia has signed on to design a second course at Terras da Comporta in Portugal, which will be the Spanish LIV golfer’s first as lead designer.
Terras da Comporta already is home to the David McLay Kidd-designed Dunas Course, which opened in 2023 and has been well-received. Garcia’s addition will be named the Torre Course and is slated to open in June of 2025 about an hour’s drive south of Lisbon.
“When it comes to full-on design, this is my first project and we are very, very excited about the course,” Garcia said in a media release announcing the planned opening timeline. “It’s something that I can really put my stamp on.
“The site is located in striking scenery, just a couple of kilometers from the beautiful beaches of Comporta, and the land has all the ingredients for a spectacular golf course. It’s a beautiful spot for a golf course, and we are building it using the best sustainable methods.”
Citing former Ryder Cup site Valderrama in Spain as his favorite course, Garcia said he intends the Torre Course to play tight with small greens amid a pine forest. Work already has begun, with Garcia utilizing Olazabal Design – founded by Garcia’s former Ryder Cup teammate, José María Olazábal – and lead shaper Conor Walsh for construction. Vanguard Properties, the largest real estate developer in Portugal, is leading the project on the high-end community.
An 18-hole course will be built alongside an already existing short course by Tiger Woods.
Nicklaus Design has started construction on an 18-hole course at Jack’s Bay Club in Eleuthera, The Bahamas.
Jack’s Bay Club is a 1,200-acre resort club and community that already features a 10-hole short course named Playground that was designed by Tiger Woods’ TGR Design firm. The Nicklaus Design course will be the 18-hole, full-size counterpart to Woods’ short course.
The new layout is scheduled to open in 2025 and will be branded as the first Jack Nicklaus Heritage course. Jack’s Bay Club also will be the only Nicklaus-branded community in the Bahamas.
Jack Nicklaus himself is not involved in the project. Instead, Chad Goetz, a senior design associate at Nicklaus Design, will oversee the creation of the layout. Doug Maslo, director of development and construction for Jack’s Bay, will oversee the construction.
The course will feature several oceanside holes while interior holes will cover land said to include rolling terrain, lakes and blue holes that connect with the ocean.
“This may be the most spectacular piece of land that I have been blessed to work with in my career – this is the opportunity of a lifetime,” Goetz, who has designed courses around the world for Nicklaus Design over the past 25 years, said in a media release announcing that construction has started. “We want to create a course at Jack’s Bay that harmonizes with the environment and features strategic shot-making opportunities. Most of all, we want to create a course that is fun for all types of players and immerses them in the natural splendor of this remarkable piece of land.”
The routing and site plan by Nicklaus Design for an 18-hole course at Jack’s Bay Club in the Bahamas (Courtesy of Jack’s Bay Club)
Nicklaus Design is part of Nicklaus Companies, which Jack Nicklaus founded but is now controlled by American businessman Howard Milstein, who owns 8AM Golf. That family of companies includes Golf Magazine, Golf.com, Miura Golf and other golf brands.
Jack’s Bay Club is being developed by Eleuthera Properties Ltd. The club includes four miles of oceanfront property and a wide assortment of high-end amenities.
Trev Dormer plans to do some “different, quirky things” in his renovation of a Nebraska nine-holer.
Canadian golf architect Trev Dormer, perhaps best known in the industry for his work as an associate for the team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, has signed on for his first solo project.
Working with the farming family behind the development of the popular new Landmand Golf Club in eastern Nebraska, Dormer will completely renovate the family’s nearby nine-hole course at Old Dane Golf Club in Dakota City, Nebraska.
The Andersen family bought an 18-hole course in 2007 and converted it to nine holes, the current Old Dane. Dormer’s plan is to tear out the entire course and introduce a 12-hole routing that can be played as loops of six, nine or 12 holes across 93 acres of what is currently flat ground. Dormer’s team will build a lake that will provide fill to introduce elevation changes.
“There will be different ways to play the course – I just wanted to get as much golf on the property as I could,” Dormer, who recently completed his work at the new Point Hardy Golf Club at Cabot Saint Lucia in the Caribbean, said in a media release announcing the renovation of Old Dane. “It’s a dead flat site, so I’m trying to do some different, quirky things – a tee shot over the previous green for example. I think it will be significantly more fun and more interesting, and I hope it raises some questions among those who play it.”
Trev Dormer’s routing plans for the soon-to-be-remodeled Old Dane Golf Club in Dakota City, Nebraska (Courtesy of Old Dane Golf Club/Trev Dormer)
The current version of Old Dane will shut down in October, with Dormer and his crew immediately beginning the renovation, which will include the removal of the current driving range. Dormer expects the new, walking-only version of Old Dane to open in 2026.
The operators expect the green fees to remain substantially near the current $15 for nine holes and $25 for a double-loop of 18 holes. Dormer said he hopes to attract new players, especially children and families, to what will be an entirely new course.
“There will not be a single square yard of ground on the property that is untouched by the plow,” Dormer said.
The Andersen family has been in the golf news in recent years after employing King-Collins Golf Course Design to build the large-scale Landmand, which opened in 2022 to become the Golfweek’s Best No. 1 public-access layout in Nebraska and tie for No. 26 among all modern courses in the U.S.
Old Dane sits even closer to the Iowa border, about an 8-mile drive to the northeast of Landmand. Old Dane is about a 15-minute drive from Sioux City, Iowa, and is close to Sioux Gateway Airport.
“This project is about finishing what we didn’t completely do when we built the course originally,” owner Will Andersen said in the media release. “We bought the course because my dad wanted a place to go and hang out with his friends, and we achieved that, but we didn’t do that much with the golf course. The irrigation system is 23 years old, and it’s falling apart.”
Trev Dormer, right, speaks with Bill Coore, center, and Ben Crenshaw during construction of the recently completed Point Hardy Golf Club at Cabot Saint Lucia. (Jason Lusk/Golfweek)
Dormer worked briefly with King-Collins on Landmand, and Andersen was impressed with Dormer’s efforts. Dormer started his career in the early 2000s and has worked with several top architects including Ron Prichard, Rod Whitman, Nicklaus Design and Gil Hanse.
“When I thought about rebuilding Old Dane, I had a chat with Rob Collins (of King-Collins), and he confirmed my thought that Trevor would be the right candidate to do the job,” Andersen said.
Cabot Highlands in Scotland reveals the name and logo for its new Tom Doak-designed layout.
Cabot Highlands in Inverness, Scotland, has chosen a name for its new Tom Doak-designed course that is now scheduled to open for preview play in 2025: Old Petty.
The name is a nod to the Old Petty Church, which was built in 1839 and sits off what will become the 16th green. The now-unused church is believed to sit at the site of an even older church, and the Old Petty Church is reported to have hosted an unusual custom: Mourners in the early 1800s would run to the church’s graveyard during funerals while carrying the coffin.
The logo for the new Old Petty course will be the highland cow, or “Hairy Coo” as the locals call them.
Cabot revealed the logo, based on a highland cow, for Old Petty, the new course being built by Tom Doak in Scotland. (Courtesy of Cabot)
Cabot revealed Doak’s planned routing for Old Petty last summer, with holes passing a 400-year-old castle that provided the previous name for the property, Castle Stuart, before the Canadian-based Cabot bought it and rebranded the northern Scottish resort in 2022.
Old Petty will be on the southwest side of the property’s original Castle Stuart Golf Links built by Mark Parsinen and Gil Hanse, which ranks as the No. 4 modern course in Great Britain and Ireland. Built on land that was previously farmed, Old Petty will wrap down and around an estuary, offering stunning views and a layout that crisscrosses in a huge shared fairway for Nos. 1 and 18.
Cabot also plans to extend the unique white clubhouse to include a new whiskey and cigar bar, a clubhouse grill bar and a chophouse restaurant.
Check out several recent illustrations that provide a glimpse at how Old Petty might look.
