Tag: Rees Jones

McLemore in Georgia announces name, logo of new clifftop course: The Keep

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.

The original course at McLemore, called The Highlands, offers a major redesign by the team of Rees Jones and Bill Bergin that opened in 2019. The 18th hole features a dramatic cliffside setting with miles-long views of a valley 1,200 feet below. The Highlands ranks No. 4 on Golfweek’s Best 2023 list of top public-access courses in Georgia.

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.

Rees Jones-renovated Monster Golf Club reopens in Catskill Mountains of New York

The new Monster Golf Club routing takes land from two previous courses at Resorts World Catskills in New York.

The Rees Jones-renovated Monster Golf Club in Monticello, New York, has reopened with a new routing that incorporates parts of the old Concord Monster Course and the property’s Old International Course. The new layout took nearly five years to reach completion and is part of a $40-million investment by Resorts World Catskills.

The previous Monster layout, originally designed by Joe Finger and opened in 1963, had been closed since 2015. Jones used holes and corridors from the two former courses to create a 7,650-yard, par-72 new Monster Golf Club in the Catskill Mountains about a two-hour drive from Manhattan. The public-access course will be managed by Arizona-based Troon Golf.

“The opening of any golf course is a special time, but to do it in the picturesque Catskills and to be able to combine the elements of two celebrated golf courses makes this a truly remarkable occasion,” Monster Golf Club director of golf Uri Jimenez said in a media release announcing the news. “The magic of Rees Jones is omnipresent throughout the course’s 18 holes and the hospitality excellence of Troon Golf and Resorts World Catskills will offer golfers an unrivaled experience at the Monster Golf Club.”

The course features six sets of tees to accommodate any player. The club has a new fleet of carts and a golf shop located in The Alder, Resorts World Catskills’ newest boutique lifestyle hotel adjacent to the property’s casino and resort.

“The grand reopening of the Monster Golf Club is a milestone moment for Resorts World Catskills as it completes the vision we had for this amazing property,” Robert DeSalvio, president of Genting Americas East, said in the media release. “We are proud to deliver on the commitment we made to the Catskills community to reimagine and reinvigorate this storied golf course in partnership with the legendary Rees Jones. We can’t wait to welcome golfers from around the world to face the Monster.”

Robert Trent Jones Jr. to renovate and complete North Course at municipal Corica Park in California

The architect’s firm will adjust the front nine and build a back nine for the municipal layout in California.

Robert Trent Jones Jr. has signed on to renovate and complete the North Course at Corica Park in Alameda, California. The layout – just south of Oakland and across the bay from San Francisco – is scheduled to open in December of 2024.

The front nine of the North Course, most recently renovated by Marc Logan with input from Golf Digest architecture editor emeritus Rob Whitten in 2021, will remain open for play during the Jones Jr. renovation. Logan’s plans to build a back nine were halted during a legal battle between himself, the course operators and the city of Alameda, and the course was never completed. Those legal issues were resolved in January 2023.

Jones’ firm, Robert Trent Jones II Golf Course Architects, will make adjustments to the existing front nine while constructing the new back nine. Work is scheduled to begin in June. The original 18-hole North Course was designed by William Park Bell and opened in 1927.

Corica Park is home to AmateurGolf.com, a partner of Golfweek. AmateurGolf.com also covered the announcement.

The municipal Corica Park also is home to the South Course, originally designed by William Francis Bell Jr. (son of William Park Bell) and opened in 1957. That 18-hole layout was renovated by Rees Jones, brother of Robert Trent Jones Jr., in 2018.

The project was initiated by Greenway Golf, the long-term lessee, developer and manager of the 333-acre golf complex. Greenway Golf is owned by Avani and Umesh Patel.

“The Patels and Greenway have a remarkable vision for municipal golf courses, one that evolves the role municipal golf can play in mitigating climate change and creating green spaces for everyone to enjoy,” Jones Jr. said in a media release announcing the news. “Our goal is to deliver on their vision of a memorable, challenging golf experience for all players, while taking a holistic approach to design and sustainability of the natural environment.”

Greenway Golf said in its media release that it has worked for 10 years to upgrade the facility, which also includes the Mif Albright Par-3 Course, the Lucius Bateman Driving Range and an extensive practice facility.

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Sahalee Country Club in Washington completes bunker renovation

Landscapes Unlimited reshaped and moved bunkers at the highly ranked course ahead of the 2024 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.

Sahalee Country Club in Washington recently updated its three nine-hole layouts, primarily reshaping and strategically moving bunkers on the host course for the 2024 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship.

Sahalee’s South and North nines combine to tie for No. 2 on Golfweek’s Best list of private courses in Washington. Located 30 minutes east of Seattle, the course also ties for No. 168 on Golfweek’s Best list of top modern courses in the U.S.

The work was completed by Landscapes Unlimited, a golf course development, construction and renovation company. The renovations were the first phase of a master plan developed by Rees Jones, Inc. The tree-lined courses originally were designed by Ted Robinson and opened in 1969, and they were renovated by Rees Jones from 1996 to 1998.

Landscapes Unlimited changed the sizes, shapes, locations and depths of bunkers. New drainage and modern liners were added along with new sand to improve maintenance and provide a longer life span.

A view of the 18th fairway during the 2016 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship at Sahalee Country Club in Sammamish, Washington (Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images)

“Sahalee is a Pacific Northwest treasure,” Jake Riekstins, chief development officer of Landscapes Unlimited, said in a media release announcing the completion of the job.  “Any time there’s an opportunity to smartly add modern infrastructure to a storied golf course while achieving a golden age style, the results are ‘wow’ experiences for different generations.”

The course also was home to the 1998 PGA Championship won by Vijay Singh, as well as the 2002 WGC-NEC Invitational (Craig Parry), the 2010 U.S. Senior Open (Bernhard Langer), the 2016 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship (Brooke Henderson) and the Sahalee Players Championship.

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Check the yardage book: Torrey Pines South Course for the 2023 Farmers Insurance Open on the PGA Tour

StrackaLine offers hole-by-hole maps for Torrey Pines’ South Course, site of the 2023 Farmers Insurance Open on the PGA Tour.

Torrey Pines’ South Course in San Diego – the main site of the 2023 Farmers Insurance Open on the PGA Tour – was designed by the father-son duo of William P. Bell and William F. Bell and opened in 1957. The layout was extensively renovated by Rees Jones in 2001, and he made later refinements in 2019.

The first two rounds of the Farmers (Wednesday and Thursday) will be split between Torrey Pines’ North and South courses, with the final two rounds (Friday and Saturday) on the South after the field is cut. In addition, the South course will host the final round of the APGA Tour Farmers Insurance Invitational on Sunday.

The South ranks No. 4 in California on Golfweek’s Best list of public-access courses in each state, and it ranks No. 103 on Golfweek’s Best list of all classic courses built in the U.S. before 1960. The North Course ranks No. 10 among California’s public-access tracks.

The South will play to 7,765 yards with a par of 72, while the North goes to 7,258 yards, also with a par of 72.

Thanks to yardage books provided by StrackaLine – the maker of detailed yardage books for thousands of courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges the pros face this week on the South Course.

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Check out the maps of each hole below.

While Rees Jones renovates Broken Sound, this Florida course sentimental to Jack Nicklaus will step in for Champions event

Bernhard Langer, Darren Clarke, Padraig Harrington, Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, and more are expected.

BOCA RATON, Florida — This year’s TimberTech Championship will remain in Boca Raton, but the PGA Tour Champions event will shift to Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club while its longtime host, the Broken Sound Club’s Old Course, undergoes a renovation by Hall of Fame architect Rees Jones.

Other than the site change, it will be business as usual for the longest-running professional golf tournament in Palm Beach County. It will maintain the same dates, Nov. 4-6, as well as its spot as the second tournament in the Charles Schwab Cup Playoffs, attracting the top 54 players on the 50-and-older circuit.

“We are thrilled to be able to keep the TimberTech Championship in Boca Raton while this renovation is being completed,” said Tournament Director Eddie Carbone. “We have been in this community for 15 years and it’s important we continue to showcase the best of the PGA Tour Champions.”

More: Steven Alker has been living week-to-week on the Tour Champions, win at TimberTech changes all that

Steve Alker
Steven Alker reacts after tapping in for birdie on No. 18 and securing his victory at the TimberTech Championship on the Old Course at Broken Sound in Boca Raton. (Photo by Scott Halleran)

The primary beneficiary will remain the Boca Raton Regional Hospital; since its inception, the TimberTech Championship has generated more than $2.4 million for local charities through the Boca Raton Champions Golf Charities.

“We are very fortunate to have this world-class golf tournament in our backyard, benefiting our community and more specifically our hospital,” said Lincoln Mendez, President & CEO of Boca Raton Regional Hospital.

The TimberTech Championship will continue to be a Zero Waste event, meaning none of the trash will be sent to area landfills. As part of TimberTech’s FULL-CIRCLE plastic bag collection drive, some of the waste will even be repurposed and re-used to manufacture TimberTech’s low maintenance and environmentally sustainable outdoor living products.

The TimberTech Championship is expected to draw another stellar field, headlined by defending champion Steven Alker. The New Zealand native has won three times since his initial victory at Broken Sound last November and leads this year’s Charles Schwab Cup with almost $2.5 million in earnings. Prior to Alker, the previous three TimberTech Championship winners were former major champions: Darren Clarke (2020), Hall of Famer Bernhard Langer (2019) and Mark Calcavecchia (2018). Langer, who lives 10 minutes from the course, is the event’s only two-time champion.

Langer and Clarke, who recently became the fourth player to sweep The Open Championship and the Senior Open Championship, are expected to play in the TimberTech Championship, along with Padraig Harrington, Ernie Els, Retief Goosen, Miguel Angel Jimenez and Colin Montgomerie.

Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club was originally a Robert Trent Jones Sr. design, but in 2003, Hall-of-Famer Jack Nicklaus of Lost Tree created an entirely new course. Nicklaus had a storied past with Royal Palm. Just before he decided to turn pro, Nicklaus played the original course with golf legend Sam Snead, the club’s first golf professional.

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Photos: Westchester Hills Golf Club in New York completes renovation by Rees Jones

Rees Jones completes facelift of the 109-year-old layout just north of New York City.

Architect Rees Jones has wrapped up a $3.5 million renovation at Westchester Hills Golf Club in White Plains, New York, that was undertaken to improve the functionality and aesthetics of the 109-year-old course just north of New York City.

Westchester Hills’ greens, chipping areas and fairways were expanded, new tees were added and the bunkers were renovated on the layout designed by Peter Clark, the club’s first head professional, and opened in 1913. Jones also installed a new 6,700 square-foot practice green.

“Our design was to liven a classic-style golf course while upgrading the course’s playability and maintenance standards,” Jones said in a media release announcing the completion of the renovation. “The members at Westchester Hills strive for excellence, and we are proud to be included in their success. We fully expect the golf course’s new features to take the Hills golf experience to a new level in the private club community.”

The details of the renovation:

  • Added 20,000 square feet of green expansions.
  • Added 50,000 square feet of chipping expansions.
  • Added 30,000 square feet of fairway expansions.
  • Installed XGD drainage in all greens.
  • Upgraded and renovated all bunkers with new sand and capillary concrete drainage.
  • Installed 10 acres of new sod throughout the course.
  • Installed a new irrigation system consisting of 12 miles of pipe, 1,250 sprinkler heads and 54 quick connects.
  • The club also renovated its pool area and landscaping around the clubhouse.

“The membership at Westchester Hills is thrilled to see the completed result at our club,” said Mark Stagg, president of the club that is part of the Privé Privileges program of course-management company Troon. “With so much going on at the club including a pool renovation, elevated dining experiences and significant membership growth, the course redesign is the finishing touch to achieving member satisfaction for years to come.”

Check out the photos of the renovated course below.

Watch: Cliffside 18th at McLemore in Georgia offers stunning views, thrilling shots

McLemore sits at No. 5 in Georgia on Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play list.

RISING FAWN, Ga. – The 18th hole at McLemore in northern Georgia isn’t for the faint of heart. Just as its altitude might trigger a response in anyone afraid of heights, the golf hole itself requires plenty of strategy and fearlessness off the tee and from the fairway.

Designed by Rees Jones and Bill Bergin, the 435-yard par 4 sits on a cliff’s edge 1,200 feet above the valley floor below. Telling golfers to stay right on the hole would be silly and obvious, because it’s perfectly clear that any kind of pull or hook off the tee will send a ball off the cliff’s rocky face into the forest below. It’s a stern test on one of the most scenic sites for a golf hole anywhere in the game.

The rest of the course climbs even higher from that cliff, providing views for miles across a valley full of farms and barns – on a clear day it’s possible to see more than 50 miles as the mountains continue to rise to the northeast. And the closing hole offers the best of those views – have your camera ready on the drive from the 17th green to the 18th tee.

McLemore sits at No. 5 in Georgia on Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play list, making it a can’t-miss in a stacked golf state. And as the property is located near Lookout Mountain within an easy drive of Atlanta and Chattanooga, Tennessee, McLemore provides a great escape into the beginnings of the Appalachian Mountains.

Check the yardage book: Torrey Pines South for the Farmers Insurance Open

StrackaLine provides hole-by-hole maps for the PGA Tour event in San Diego.

Torrey Pines’ South Course in San Diego is the site for three of the four rounds in this week’s PGA Tour’s Farmers Insurance Open alongside the Pacific Ocean, which will be played Wednesday through Saturday.

The first two rounds of the event will be on the South Course and the North Course at the municipal facility, and the final two rounds will be played on the South after a cut is made. The South was home to Jon Rahm’s U.S. Open victory in 2021 and Tiger Woods’ U.S. Open title in 2008.

The South was designed by the father-son duo of William P. Bell and William F. Bell and opened in 1957. The course has been changed significantly over the years. While the Bells’ routing remains, all greens, tees and bunkers were redesigned by Rees Jones in a 2001 major renovation with later refinements in 2019.

The South ranks No. 4 in California on Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play list for public-access layouts, with the North No. 8 on that list. The South also ties for No. 107 on Golfweek’s Best list of classic courses built before 1960 in the U.S.

Thanks to yardage books provided by StrackaLine – the maker of detailed yardage books for thousands of courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges the pros face this week on the South. Check out the maps of each hole below.

Check the yardage book: Atlanta Athletic Club’s Highlands for the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship

The site of the 2021 KPMG Women’s PGA Championship has a long record hosting major championships. Check out hole-by-hole maps of the course.

Atlanta Athletic Club’s Highlands Course in Johns Creek, Georgia, is the host site of this week’s KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, a major on the LPGA.

The layout originally was designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr. and Joe Finger, who each designed nine of the holes, with Jones’ nine opening in 1967 and Finger’s addition in 1971. Rees Jones, son of the original architect, has worked on the club’s courses since 1994 and renovated the Highlands in 2006 and again in 2016.

The course has been the site of numerous elite championships, including:

  • 1976 U.S. Open (won by Jerry Pate)
  • 1981 PGA Championship (Larry Nelson)
  • 2001 PGA Championship (David Toms)
  • 2002 U.S. Junior Amateur (Charlie Beljan)
  • 2011 PGA Championships (Keegan Bradley)
  • 2014 U.S. Amateur (Gunn Yang)
  • The club’s other 18-hole course, Riverside, was the site of the 1990 U.S. Women’s Open (Betsy King), as well as many other tournaments.

The Highlands ranks as No. 10 in Georgia on Golfweek’s Best Private Courses list and is tied for No. 130 on Golfweek’s Best Modern Courses list for layouts opened in or after 1960 in the United States.

Thanks to yardage books provided by Puttview – the maker of detailed yardage books for more than 30,000 courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges that players will face this week. Check out each hole below.