David McLay Kidd will build 18 holes along the Pedernales River in Hill Country outside Austin, Texas.
Scottish architect David McLay Kidd, designer of dozens of courses around the world that include the original layout at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Oregon and the highly ranked Gamble Sands in Washington, has signed on to build his first course in the southern United States.
Kidd will design the course for the new, private Loraloma community in the Lake Travis area outside Austin, Texas. The layout is scheduled to open to preview play in late 2024 with a full opening in the spring of 2025. Kidd will break ground on the course this month.
Loraloma will be a 2,200-acre masterplan community in the Hill Country, built with a goal of respecting the land’s natural beauty, as stated in a news release announcing the plans for golf. Areté Collective is the development company in charge, and plans call for premium amenities including fitness, wellness, culinary, equestrian and nature-based experiences along with golf. Turnkey homes will range from two-bedroom to five-bedroom cottages, villas and estates, with a selection of custom homesites.
An artist’s rendering shows how the David McLay Kidd-designed course at Loraloma will look near Austin, Texas. (Courtesy of the Areté Collective)
“The Loraloma landscape is vastly more visually inspiring than most of what exists in the Austin area today,” McLay Kidd said in the news release. “Our goal is to open up this compelling landscape to golfers for a world-class experience, and I will tread very lightly to preserve and protect this land so that it can be enjoyed and embraced for generations to come.”
Several of the holes will play along cliffs above the Pedernales River while others are placed atop peaks offering dramatic elevation changes and views of the Hill Country and Balcones Escarpment. The course is slated to play to a par of 72 at 7,060 yards across 120 acres. The greens will be bent grass, and the fairways will be zoysia.
An artist’s rendering shows how the clubhouse at Loraloma will look near Austin, Texas. (Courtesy of the Areté Collective)
“Areté Collective is thrilled to partner with such an accomplished architect to bring this course to life, and we hope that every member and resident who plays golf at Loraloma feels McLay Kidd’s sense of exploration and adventure while exploring this vibrant landscape,” said Tom Hogan, co-founder and CFO of Areté Collective and a former CFO of Augusta National Golf Club. “The rules of golf require the player to play the ball as it lies, and the beauty of the Loraloma course is the fact that he has designed a sustainable course around the existing lay of the land.”
These photos of the new Tom Doak-designed course at Te Arai Links will leave you dreaming of New Zealand.
Read this story, check out the photos below and then make time to search airfares to New Zealand, because architect Tom Doak’s new North Course at Te Arai Links opened this week.
Doak spent months on the seaside ground about 90 minutes north of Auckland, fashioning a complement to the resort’s highly rated South Course which was designed by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw and opened in 2022. Doak’s routing features seven holes along the Pacific Ocean, with the others flowing into what had been a pine forest on sand dunes high above the beach.
Doak, famous for layouts such as Pacific Dunes at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort in Oregon and Ballyneal in Colorado among others, also built the ultra-private Tara Iti Golf Club just up the road. By contrast, Te Arai Links offers public-access play as well as private memberships, with private and public play alternating days on the North and South courses.
Doak was hands-on for this project, climbing onto the equipment to shape many of the greens himself during his two-month stay during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022. Doak worked with shapers Angela Moser, Clyde Johnson and Brian Slawnik.
“I’m still not that great on the dozer, but I do love it,” Doak said in a media release announcing news of the opening. “Some of the results are pretty wild, like the greens at 7 and 4. Maybe too severe at first glance. But in the end, they looked really cool and we all agreed: Let’s keep that.
“To be honest, for this course to be spoken of equally, alongside the South Course, we felt we had to do more with the golf. This is legitimately great inland terrain – pure sand and dunesy, with big undulations. But we couldn’t rely on that. We agreed that if we’re going to produce something different, we should probably be a bit edgier. The overall shaping, greens and fairways, speak to that, I think.”
No. 11 of the North Course at Te Arai Links in New Zealand (Courtesy of Te Arai Links/Ricky Robinson)
The media release pointed out that Doak created several half-par holes on the 6,931-yard layout.
“At one point, we had the potential of five or six par 5s out there,” Doak said. “The course will play to a par of 71, but the routing does affect difficulty. There are some very strong par 4s on this golf course. Good short ones, too – but some real beasts. The reality is, everything on the North Course remains very close to the ocean. On any given day, each of the 18 holes can play completely differently depending on wind direction. That’s what golf by the sea is all about.”
Doak and the construction team also discovered, preserved and showcased a former Māori fort, a defensive fortification known as a pa, between the fifth tee and sixth green. It’s all part of an effort to make the property have as much of a New Zealand feel as possible.
There are further expansions planned for the resort as well. The members-only Bunker Bar, Ocean Restaurant, North Clubhouse and remaining luxury accommodations are on schedule to be completed by October 2024. The Ocean Restaurant at the South Course will open at the same time. Along with the South Course and its clubhouse, the resort’s Ric’s Pizza Barn and the gigantic putting course named The Playground have been open for a year. The property’s luxurious two-bedroom cottages and suites are set well back in the dunes.
International green fees range from $400 to $650 depending on season, as posted on the resort’s website. Second rounds played on the same day have the fee reduced by half. There are discounted fees for New Zealand residents.
“It’s honestly a dream come true, for our entire team to have all 36 holes in play,” Te Arai Links managing partner Jim Rohrstaff said in the media release. “Tom Doak and Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw have each done such incredible jobs designing these two golf courses. Their work has exceeded our expectations. Yet we’re equally proud of the casual, inclusive vibe that prevails here. We wanted Te Arai Links to feel different – to welcome and engage traveling golfers but also non-golfers, spouses and kids. It really does, and that’s rare.”
Check out several photos of the North Course, taken by Ricky Robinson, below.
Rees Jones and Bill Bergin designed the new course at McLemore that is slated to open in 2024 atop Lookout Mountain.
McLemore, already home to one of the most stunning holes in the eastern U.S. atop Lookout Mountain in northwest Georgia, announced this week the name of its new 18 holes that are under construction: The Keep.
Jones and Bergin again have teamed up to design The Keep, scheduled to open in the summer of 2024. Several holes will run along the cliff’s edge with views of McLemore Cove below and Pigeon Mountain in the distance.
No. 18 of The Highlands Course at McLemore in northwest Georgia (Courtesy of McLemore/Dave Sansom)
The name, The Keep, is a nod to imposing European castles and fortresses built atop cliffs. The Keep logo also draws inspiration from history: The back-to-back lower-case ‘k’ is reminiscent of the Chi-Rho, one of the earliest symbols of Christendom formed by the first two letters of the Greek word “Christos.”
“We’ve been looking forward to announcing our plans for The Keep for a while now, and we are excited to invite members to take part in what will be an unparalleled golf experience,” Duane Horton, president of McLemore developer Scenic Land Company, said in a media release announcing the name. “Nowhere else will you find two courses of this caliber with the breathtaking views and scenery as we have here atop Lookout Mountain. We believe the addition of The Keep to our already world-class offerings at The Highlands will make McLemore a truly national golf destination.”
McLemore has announced the logo design for its new course, The Keep. (Courtesy of McLemore)
McLemore will offer various levels of membership, and an upscale resort with a conference center – named Cloudland – is also slated to open in 2024. Cloudland will be a Curio Collection by Hilton property. Guests of the resort will be offered access to both courses after The Keep opens. McLemore also plans more high-end, custom residential development. The resort currently offers stay-and-play packages that include golf at The Highlands Course and accommodation in several luxurious cabins.
Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner sought classic inspiration when building Ballyshear Golf Links near Bangkok.
SAMUT PRAKAN, Thailand – There’s been a lot of Lido talk in recent years in golf architecture circles. A new Lido opened this summer at Sand Valley in Wisconsin, attempting to recreate in great detail the original Lido course that was built in 1915 on Long Island, New York, with a design by C.B. Macdonald – that course was closed during World War II.
But Sand Valley’s rendition isn’t the only one.
Ballyshear Golf Links at Ban Rakat Club just east of Bangkok opened in 2021, and like its cousin in Wisconsin, this Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner design attempts to recreate many of the holes from the original Lido, sometimes in principle and at other times in detail.
At Ballyshear, Hanse and Wagner put into play many of the template holes established by Macdonald at the original Lido and beyond. The Eden, Channel, Alps, Short and Redan – each of those template holes and more are there to be played in Thailand. Such holes present shot values and demands identified by Macdonald that are now in play around the world, many of them borrowed from classic links courses. These holes are immediately recognizable to golf architecture buffs.
The back nine of Ballyshear Golf Links at Ban Rakat Club near Bangkok, Thailand (Jason Lusk/Golfweek)
Ballyshear was built on the site of the former Kiarti Thanee Country Club on a flat piece of land less than half an hour’s drive from Suvarnabhumi International Airport. The former course on the property featured tree-lined fairways and was often wet, as land in this area outside Bangkok is often inundated during heavy rains – the property is surrounded by rice fields.
Hanse and Wagner – the team behind several restorations of top classic courses, including Los Angeles Country Club before the 2023 U.S. Open – removed the trees, shaping the land into an open parcel more reminiscent of a classic links course. Much better drainage was installed, and a fair amount of engineering was necessary to create frequently rolling terrain that would hold up in the area’s climate.
That’s important, because the course needs to play relatively firm and fast to get the most of the template holes, their designs having been established on links ground and the best of them playing across sandy conditions. The ball needs to roll to make the most of such holes.
The private Ballyshear was covered with a local zoysia grass that does, indeed, play relatively firm and fast, especially in comparison to most other courses in Southeast Asia. A well-traveled player won’t confuse the conditions with those found on the links of Scotland or Ireland, but the ball does want to roll out a fair bit at Ballyshear, bringing the ground game into play.
Using the Lido templates was an intriguing idea for the Ballyshear site, as the land was flat to begin with. The original Lido was created by dredging a saltwater expanse and piling up the land until it was dry, then establishing interesting contours. Hanse and Wagner were able to do the same in Thailand. The use of the template holes from the Lido expanded on that theme.
The best part of Ballyshear: the shaping of the greens. Hanse and Wagner built some tremendous swales, valleys and ridges into these greens, many of them utilizing the traditional template greens. The putting speeds of the zoysia greens at Ballyshear will likely never be too fast, allowing the slopes to serve their purposes without getting out of hand. In that regard, they play much more like classic greens would have decades ago before the pursuit of speed rendered some classic slopes unplayable.
In all, Ballyshear (par 71, 6,690 yards) makes for a very different experience than found in much of Thailand, which has rapidly expanded as a golf destination in recent decades. From the low-slung, unobtrusive and perfectly comfortable clubhouse to all the nods at classic design, it’s a beautiful place to spend a day chasing a bouncing golf ball.
Check out a selection of photos from my recent trip to Thailand that included a stop at Ballyshear below.
Tom Doak designed Pinehurst No. 10 on dramatic ground that previously held The Pit.
Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina has picked the official opening date for its new Tom Doak-designed golf course: April 3, 2024.
Doak is building Pinehurst No. 10 on the site formerly occupied by The Pit, a course that opened in 1985 but closed during the 2008 financial crisis. Doak’s layout will be the first new course for the famed Pinehurst Resort in nearly 30 years. No. 10 will open several months before the resort hosts the U.S. Open on its No. 2 course June 13-16.
It’s a busy time around Pinehurst, as the U.S. Golf Association is building a campus that is under construction and is planned to begin to open in 2023. The resort also was selected as an anchor site for U.S. Opens and will host that tournament in 2024 as mentioned, plus 2029, ’35, ’41 and ’47.
Keep reading for the complete announcement from the resort about No. 10’s opening date:
The highly anticipated Tom Doak design, which began construction this January, will be the first original golf course Pinehurst Resort has unveiled in nearly 30 years. Its opening comes just a few months before Pinehurst serves as the site of the U.S. Open for the fourth time.
“Pinehurst Resort has been fortunate to be hailed as the Cradle of American Golf, and we’re grateful for all of the major championships and historic moments that have come before,” says Pinehurst Resort CEO Bob Dedman Jr. “We’re delighted to have a date to begin presenting this incredible design by Tom Doak to our guests. April 3 will not only be another great day in Pinehurst’s history, but for our future as well.”
Pinehurst No. 10 will be unlike any golf course at the resort.
While No. 10 is Pinehurst’s first new course in nearly three decades, it’s been centuries in the making. The landscape underlying Doak’s newest design features all that is natural to golf in the North Carolina Sandhills, including native wiregrass, extensive sandscape, towering longleaf pines and rolling hills. Midway through the course, though, Doak takes advantage of rugged dunes carved out by mining operations around the turn of the 20th century. The result is a spectacular course with more than 75 feet of elevation change that winds its way on a path toward delivering a golf experience like no other.
“No. 10 starts out fairly gentle, then it starts going into the old quarry works where it gets downright crazy for a little bit, then the course gets up on the hill and there’s a beautiful, sweeping view,” Doak says. “All of the holes coming in are challenging, even when you move down into the gentler terrain. It’s a dramatic golf course; more than I originally thought.”
Golfers looking to be among the first to experience playing No. 10 can reserve their stay by calling 1-800-ITS-GOLF. More information on golf packages can be found at Pinehurst.com.
“We’re excited to show off Tom Doak’s masterful interpretation of Pinehurst golf,” says Tom Pashley, President of Pinehurst Resort. “From the initial routing of Pinehurst No. 10 to the shaping and design process, Doak and his associates excelled in all regards. Our very high expectations were exceeded, and we can’t wait for everyone to see it.”
Tiger Woods and baseball star Mike Trout announced in March they were partnering to build a new private golf course, Trout National – The Reserve, in New Jersey about 45 minutes south of Philadelphia.
The routing, perhaps the most important part of the design puzzle, is now complete. The group released a map of the routing Friday in a media release, timed with a new social media video of Woods and Trout at Trout National. The course – par 72 at 7,455 yards – is slated to open in 2025.
With the course designed by Woods’ TGR Design, the club will also feature a “cutting-edge” practice range, short-game area, clubhouse, restaurant, “five-star” lodging, a wedding chapel and more.
The planned routing for Trout National – The Reserve in Vineland, New Jersey, includes a former silica sand mine and rambling farmland. (Courtesy of Trout National – The Reserve)
Trout recently spoke on Bleacher Report’s “On Base With Mookie Betts,” about what inspired him to build a course and his love of working with Woods.
Here’s the full release on how the routing came together:
The wait is over. Excited to share the latest from Trout National – The Reserve. We've finalized course routing and are continuing to make progress on this unique and exciting project with @TigerWoods and @tgrdesignbytw. pic.twitter.com/rpu2on1KUg
(VINELAND, N.J.) – Trout National – The Reserve, a world-class golf club collaboration between Mike Trout, the three-time American League MVP and 10-time Major League Baseball All-Star, and local partner and businessman John Ruga, announce the course routing by golf icon Tiger Woods’ TGR Design.
The 18-hole, par-72 golf course, which is slated to complete construction in 2025, is routed through two unique natural landscapes giving distinct character to the course. A former silica sand mine and rambling farmland offers ample playable sandy waste areas as well as sprawling fairways offering multiple routes from tee to green. Large and undulating greens with low-cut surrounds emphasize the challenging, yet fun design where risk-reward opportunities create the ideal environment.
“Some of my favorite golf experiences have been ones that have challenged my game while still having fun and that’s what we wanted to create at Trout National – The Reserve,” said Trout. “Tiger, John and I walked hole by hole and this course will do just that. Our vision and his design is creating something special here in my hometown.”
“Mike and John found a site with a lot of character to make some outstanding golf holes,” says Tiger. “The sandy and diverse terrain has so many great natural features that have given us a lot of options on how to create a world-class golf course.”
“The land that is home to Trout National – The Reserve has great history here in the city of Vineland,” said Ruga. “Tiger and his team were able to incorporate the history and let the land shine through in this championship golf course. It will truly be a memorable experience on the course.”
Accompanying the 18-hole championship golf course, the golf offerings at Trout National – The Reserve will also include a flexible short course and expansive putting course along with world-class practice facilities and performance center. Other club highlights include a modern state-of-the-art clubhouse, five-star lodging, innovative amenities, a chapel and more.
Major League Baseball star Mike Trout has risen to fame with the Los Angeles Angels, but the superstar hails from New Jersey and that’s where he’s building a golf resort with Tiger Woods’ architectural firm.
In a recent episode of Bleacher Report’s “On Base With Mookie Betts,” Trout talked at length about his love for the game and what led him to build his course, Trout National — The Reserve.
The original plan for the 11-time All-Star and three-time American League Most Valuable Player was to purchase an existing course that was for sale, but after COVID hit in 2020, he said things “fell through.”
We promised you all a big announcement and here it is! We are so excited to be able to make a longtime dream of mine a reality, with none other than @tigerwoods and @tgrdesignbytw. We can't wait to share more updates with you as we create Trout National – The Reserve. pic.twitter.com/V8eMGEUYdS
Trout also said that his own experience with golf, which he’s been playing seriously since he was 16, allowed him to figure out just what sort of course he wanted to bring to South Jersey.
During the off-season from his time wowing the crowd as an Angel, Trout says he’s involved a lot with the project and the meetings that are necessary, but it was harder to schedule when he was back out killing it in center field.
Recently, the city’s Planning board OK’d a construction application for more than 27,000 square feet of buildings and facilities, including an administration building, an outpost building and an equipment building.Woods and his architecture firm, TGR Design, is also creating a new short course as part of Cobbs Creek Golf Club in Philadelphia.
The course complex will also have a practice range, short-game area, clubhouse, restaurant, five-star lodging, a wedding chapel and more.
Golf fanatics can look forward to the luxury-style private course’s 2025 opening date.
Former PGA Tour star Paul Azinger and the architecture firm of Fry/Straka Global Golf Course Design have partnered to build 18 main holes and more for the new riverside Miakka Golf Club in Myakka City, Florida.
The private club will be built on more than 1,100 acres along the Myakka River about 30 miles southeast of Sarasota/Bradenton International Airport, not far from the Gulf of Mexico between Tampa and Naples. The club shares ownership and is adjacent to the TerraNova Equestrian Center and The Estates at TerraNova, with development led by Florida entrepreneur Steve Herrig.
The club will include a full-length 18-hole course, a 12-hole par-3 course, a 7-acre short-game facility, a lighted putting course and a circular practice range that includes a performance center. Along with a clubhouse, the club plans to build cabins for members and guests. Plans are for the short course to open in 2024 with the main course ready for play in 2025.
“This is one of the best natural sites for golf and one of the best teams we’ve ever been affiliated with,” Jason Straka, principal of Fry/Straka Global Golf Course Design, said in a media release announcing the club. “The property has an incredible two miles of frontage along the Myakka River with hundreds of mature oak hammocks. Just the golf club and its facilities are being built on more than 1,100 acres.
“Miakka is going to be pure golf with no encroachments or distractions of any kind. The course will resemble the celebrated courses of the Australian Sandbelt, with wide turf corridors, no rough, and distinctive bunkers and natural-area hazards jutting into the line of play.”
Azinger, a former Ryder Cup captain, grew up in Florida and lives in nearby Bradenton.
“This is my home, and it’s incredibly important to me,” Azinger said in the media release. “Steve (Herrig) and his team are absolutely committed to making Miakka Golf Club one of the very best private clubs in the world. He’s assembled an all-star team and will do whatever it takes to achieve that goal.”
Dana Fry said his design team is going to great lengths to provide superior playing conditions.
“The entire 7,700-yard golf course will be sand-capped with a proprietary blend of sand and Profile soil conditioner,” Fry said in the media release. “Everything but the greens will be sodded. In addition, the entire course will have substantial underdrains to ensure fast and firm playing conditions year-round. Recently, Miakka secured 1,600 acres of adjacent land and will be the first course in Florida with its own sod farm. This is where they’ll grow the Stadium and Lazer Zoysia grass that will be used on the fairways, tees, and green surrounds.”
A 400-year-old castle. Crisscross fairways. Stunning ocean views reaching from water’s edge to higher and farther back. A giant rolling hill. A front nine loaded with par 4s, then a more conventional back nine with two par 3s and two par 5s. Expect humps, bumps, hollows and fun bounces, all along the northern Scottish coastline not far from Inverness.
Tom Doak’s routing for the yet-to-be-named second course at Cabot Highlands was released by the resort’s Canadian-based ownership group this week. It’s a sure bet the famed American designer utilized his vast knowledge of Scottish golf design – accumulated through years of on-the-ground study of the country’s greatest natural links – to create this much-anticipated layout that should open to preview play in 2024 and fully in 2025.
The routing plan for the new Tom Doak-designed course at Cabot Highlands in Scotland shows No. 1 to the left before the layout crosses an estuary and plays to a far point along the coast to the right, then returns to an 18th hole that crisscrosses the first hole. (Courtesy of Cabot)
There’s just one thing: The second course at Cabot Highlands won’t sit on traditional links land. Instead of a totally natural golf site, this property has been farmed for decades, much of it pressed smooth as it rolls past the castle and down that gorgeous hill toward an estuary and the Moray Firth beyond.
That means Doak and his Renaissance Golf Design team have been tasked with creating much of the shot-making drama. On a piece of land that has seen farm tractors instead of greens mowers, they must interject the fun and intricate terrain features that make up the best of Scottish golf.
Doak, of course, knew this when he accepted the job. His stated goal from the beginning: Take what the land offers, don’t overcook anything and, when in doubt, take a drive along the coast for a design refresher at some of the best links courses in the world. It might be St. Andrews to the east, or Royal Dornoch on the opposite side of the firth. Just along this little section of seaside, there’s a wide sampling of classic Scottish links courses to provide inspiration.
Tom Doak discusses his new course at Castle Stuart/Cabot Highlands near Inverness, Scotland. (Jason Lusk/Golfweek)
“The good thing about trying to do this in Scotland instead of in Florida is, if you’re ever not sure, you drive right over there (pointing out window), or drive up north, and go have a look at a few other courses,” Doak said during a tour of the land in late 2022 as he worked on the routing. “You know, I think most architects, we do too much. The things that are cool about the contouring here (in Scotland) is that it’s small scale and it’s wrinkly, but there are large expanses of fairly flat stuff in with that. It doesn’t just keep going with jittery contours forever. Even the most complex golf courses have big areas of relatively flat areas. …
“You think about it, we’re working on something now that we’re trying to bring in some links contours, so it’s almost like we’re going around and looking at things and sampling (other courses). Like, ‘We could do something like that little stretch somewhere else.’ “
Gil Hanse and Mark Parsinen designed the original 18 at what was then named Castle Stuart in Scotland. Rebranded as Cabot Highlands in 2022, the highly ranked layout plays along the Moray Firth. (Jason Lusk/Golfweek)
A similar recipe already has proved successful at Cabot Highlands, which was known as Castle Stuart until 2022 when Cabot purchased it. The original course on the property – which is still called Castle Stuart Golf Links – was designed on similarly farmed land, and that cliffside layout by Gil Hanse and Mark Parsinen that opened in 2009 has climbed to No. 4 on Golfweek’s Best ranking of modern courses in Great Britain and Ireland. It’s a layout that’s never feels overdone, with manmade features that appear natural in their jaw-dropping setting.
Doak’s course is intended to complement that original layout and secure for the resort a spot on even more must-play lists.
The routing map shows seven par 4s on the front with an 18-hole par of 72, the layout sweeping from a high point across land formerly occupied by the driving range, down past the castle then around and over the estuary. It extends to a point that, from the clubhouse, appears to be miles away across a small bay. It’s an out-and-back routing that doesn’t return to the clubhouse until No. 18, the line of play for which crisscrosses that of No. 1 in one huge and shared fairway. For much of the journey, Moray Firth and the surrounding mountains will provide plenty of eye candy.
And Cabot isn’t stopping with the new course. The company is pumping in capital to make the entire property even more appealing, with an expansion of the clubhouse underway and new real estate opportunities.
“In the historic home of golf, we looked to Tom to create something special, and perhaps unconventional by modern standards,” Ben Cowan-Dewar, CEO and co-founder of Cabot, said in the media release announcing the routing. “His vision of resurrecting an old true-links style course will serve as a great complement to the beloved (and original) Castle Stuart Golf Links. We hope to create an awe-inspiring destination anchored by incredible golf that will stand the test of time for generations to come.”
VINELAND, N.J. — A complete development plan for Trout National – The Reserve is expected to arrive at City Hall in about six months, and developers of the championship-style golf course are forecasting construction work starting in 2024.
The project design for local government review and approval purposes is happening in two parts. The public now is able to look over the relatively simple details for creating the outlying features of the course, which is going into an approximately 280-acre corner of East Vineland.
At its July 12 meeting, the Planning Board heard from representatives of the project team working for landowner NEP Real Estate of Vineland NJ Urban Renewal LLC. The goal at present is to have the course in use in 2025.
Trout National will be hidden by miles of walls, landscaping
Board members unanimously approved the design for a four-building maintenance area and about 4.5 miles of perimeter walls. The walls, mostly textured concrete panels, and extensive landscaping are promised to seal off the course from view and to a great extent from sound.
“We anticipate being back before the board in about six months or so with the overall site plan for the entirety of the project,” project attorney Michael Fralinger said at the hearing Wednesday night. “You can imagine, with 281 acres, with the perimeter fencing and the walls that are being constructed, it’s going to take a while.”
The 280 acres approximately are off Hance Bridge and Mays Landing roads, sections mostly zoned for agricultural uses and woodlands. One small area is designated a redevelopment area.
The Vineland Planning Board on Wednesday night reviewed and approved a first phase site plan for Trout National _ The Reserve, a golf course proposed for East Vineland. Project attorney Michael Fralinger (left) and engineer Tim Ruga testified on features of a maintenance facility and the extensive perimeter wall system. The exhibit next to them is the site plan map. The next plan to be submitted will be for the golf course proper in about six months. Photo: Joseph P. Smith/Courier Post/USA Today Network)
The property does have an industrial past as a sand mine and an industrial present as home to Northeast Precast and its related private business park. The property is near Route 55, and beyond that Millville.
“We have about 99.8 percent of what we need for the overall site plan,” Fralinger said. “But it’s just being properly positioned. We have some of the best experts — I’m just going to say it — in the world who are working on this project.”
TGR Design, a company owned by golfer Tiger Woods, is designing the course. Architectural work is by Marsh & Associates Inc., a specialist firm. The project was disclosed in March.
One planning hurdle for the approval was the massive use of walls in an area where traditional fencing is the rule.
Chain link fencing is to be used inside some wooded sections to avoid large scale removal of trees. Stamped concrete walls varying in height from 6 feet to 8 feet to 14 feet will range most of the perimeter, however.
Security guarantee for golfers, entourages a design priority
Engineer Steven Filippone is consulting on the design. His background includes designing golf courses in the state. The use of walls provides security as well as aesthetics and is not really an option, he said.
“When we talk about world-class golfers coming to a location like this, it’s not just the golfers,” Filippone said. “They need to be safe and secure. It’s not just the golfers who come. It’s their family. It’s their trainer. It’s their sports management team.
“These are world-class people,” the engineer said. “If you turn on the Golf Channel or turn on any golf tournament, they have an entire contingent that come along with them. They won’t come to this site if it’s not safe and secure.”
Filippone said the walls, made to look as if assembled by stacking slate, will have landscaping weaving along both sides on a scale rarely seen on any other kind of development.
Joe Smith is a N.E. Philly native transplanted to South Jersey 36 years ago, keeping an eye now on government in South Jersey. He is a former editor and current senior staff writer for The Daily Journal in Vineland, Courier-Post in Cherry Hill, and the Burlington County Times.
