Tag: tom fazio

Tom Fazio to build nine new holes at Reynolds Lake Oconee as part of a newly formed private club

The new nine holes will combine with The Bluff nine of The National to form an 18-hole private course at Reynolds Lake Oconee.

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Architect Tom Fazio is returning to Reynolds Lake Oconee in Greensboro, Georgia, with plans to combine nine existing holes with nine new holes and introduce them as a new, 18-hole private golf course.

The existing nine holes that will be used for layout is The Bluff nine that currently is part of the 27-hole The National course. Fazio built all 27 of those holes, which also include the Ridge and Cove nines. The Ridge and Cove nines will continue as The National, which currently ranks No. 10 in Georgia on Golfweek’s Best list of public-access courses in each state. The National also ties for No. 187 on Golfweek’s Best ranking of resort courses in the U.S.

Reynolds Lake Oconee operates as both a resort and a members club. With the addition of the new and yet-to-be-named Fazio course, expected to open in late 2024, Reynolds Lake Oconee will have seven courses. Five of those – Great Waters, The Oconee, The Preserve, The Landing and The National – will be open to resort guests, including those who stay at The Ritz-Carlton Reynolds, Lake Oconee. Two of the property’s courses – Creek Club and the newly combined Fazio 18 – will be private. All the public-access courses at Reynolds Lake Oconee rank highly in Georgia on Golfweek’s Best state-by-state list, with Great Waters by Jack Nicklaus the highest among them.

Fazio built The Bluff nine in 1997 as part of the original National course, and The Cove nine was added in 2000 on the parcel that includes forests, streams, ponds and views of Lake Oconee. Fazio will use adjacent land distinguished by 100 feet of elevation changes, a creek, large boulders and an existing pond for the new nine holes that will be combined with Bluffs.

“My goal is always to create distinctive, one-of-a-kind golf courses,” Fazio said in a media release announcing the new nine. “There’s a lot of terrain variation – lots of ups and downs, ins and outs, twists and turns – which is great for golf. That’s what makes this such a fine natural setting.”

The media release said the new 18 will use the first five holes of the existing Bluff routing, followed by nine new holes including a new ninth green alongside Lake Oconee, then incorporate the final four holes of The Bluff.

“We are fortunate that Tom Fazio again applied his vision to Reynolds Lake Oconee to create nine new holes and integrate them with the world-class golf course he originally designed. It’s an honor for our community,” said Robert Merck, global head of real estate at MetLife Investment Management, investment manager of Reynolds Lake Oconee. “Our members and their guests are certain to be challenged and energized by his latest design.”

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Check the yardage book: PGA National’s Champion Course for the 2023 Honda Classic on the PGA Tour

StrackaLine offers hole-by-hole maps for PGA National’s Champion Course, site of the 2023 Honda Classic on the PGA Tour.

The Champion Course at PGA National – site of the PGA Tour’s Honda Classic this week – was designed by the team of Tom Fazio and George Fazio and opened in 1981, and has been renovated by Jack Nicklaus over the past two decades.

Located in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, and home to a stretch of holes dubbed the Bear Trap – Nos. 15, 16 and 17 – the Champion has major history. It was host to the 1983 Ryder Cup, in which the United States beat Europe 14.5-13.5, and it hosted the 1987 PGA Championship won by Larry Nelson in a playoff over Lanny Wadkins. Now PGA National is the first stop on the PGA Tour’s annual Florida Swing.

The PGA Tour reported that this year’s event will show off a recent bunker renovation, with bunkers having been removed on Nos. 13 and 16, plus a “bunker reduction” on the closing two holes.

The Champion ranks No. 8 in Florida on Golfweek’s Best list of public-access courses in each state, and it’s No. 73 on the list of top resort courses in the U.S.

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The course will play to 7,125 yards with a par of 70 for the Honda Classic.

PGA National Resort is home to six courses, including two nontraditional layouts, and has recently undergone a $100 million renovation. The lineup of courses includes the new Match Course by Andy Staples, which features holes that can be played from a multitude of lengths with no set par, and the new nine-hole, par-3 Staple Course.

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 at PGA National.

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Check the yardage book: Sea Island’s Seaside Course for the PGA Tour’s RSM Classic

See StrackaLine’s hole-by-hole maps of the Seaside Course in Georgia, which along with the Plantation Course hosts the RSM Classic.

Sea Island’s Seaside Course is one of the two courses in play for this week’s RSM Classic on the PGA Tour. The first two rounds also include the popular resort’s Plantation course – each player competes one round on each course – before all weekend play moves solely to the Seaside Course in St. Simons Island, Georgia.

The Seaside Course originally was laid out by famed designers Harry S. Colt and Charles Alison in 1929 and was redesigned by Tom Fazio in 1999. It will play to 7,005 yards with a par of 70 for the RSM Classic. The Plantation Course – renovated by tournament host Davis Love III and his brother, Mark, in 2019 – will play to 7,060 yards with a par of 72.

The Seaside Course ranks as the No. 1 public-access layout in Georgia and also is No. 83 on Golfweek’s Best list of modern courses since 1960 in the U.S. The Plantation Course is the No. 7 public-access track in Georgia.

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 players face this week on the Seaside Course. Check out the maps of each hole below.

Golfweek’s Best 2022: Top public and private courses in Oklahoma

The top two public-access golf courses in Oklahoma ignite a college rivalry, while the state’s best private layout is a major veteran.

The top two public-access golf courses in Oklahoma bring out a college rivalry, Cowboys versus Sooners.

No. 1 on Golfweek’s Best list of public-access layouts in Oklahoma is Karsten Creek in Stillwater, a Tom Fazio-designed layout that serves as the home course for the Oklahoma State golf teams. Opened in 1994, Karsten Creek was named for Ping Golf founder Karsten Solheim, and the course plays around Lake Louise, named for Solheim’s wife.

No. 2 on that list is Jimmie Austin Golf Club at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. The club originally was laid out by Perry Maxwell and opened in 1951, and it was reworked by Bob Cupp in 1996 and again by Tripp Davis in 2017.

On the private side, Southern Hills in Tulsa takes the top spot. Designed by Perry Maxwell in 1936 and restored by Gil Hanse in 2019, Southern Hills has been host to a slate of top tournaments including three U.S. Opens (1958, ’77 and ’01) as well as five PGA Championships (1970, ’82, ’94, ’07 and ’22).

Golfweek’s Best offers many lists of course rankings, with that of top public-access courses in each state among the most popular. All the courses on this list allow public access in some fashion, be it standard daily green fees, through a resort or by staying at an affiliated hotel. If there’s a will, there’s a tee time.

Also popular are the Golfweek’s Best rankings of top private courses in each state, and that list for Oklahoma’s private offerings is likewise included below.

MORE: Best Modern | Best Classic | Top 200 Resort | Top 200 Residential | Top 100 Best You Can Play

(m): Modern course, built in or after 1960
(c): Classic course, built before 1960

Note: If there is a number in the parenthesis with the m or c, that indicates where that course ranks among Golfweek’s Best top 200 modern or classic courses. 

* New to or returning to list

Golfweek’s Best 2022: Top public and private courses in Nevada

Shadow Creek, the top public-access golf course in Nevada, requires a hefty green fee, but there are other options.

Shadow Creek, the top-rated public-access golf course in Nevada, is famed for being unlike just about any other daily-fee or casino-operated layout anywhere. It’s a Tom Fazio-created oasis hidden out of reach for most golfers.

In general, players must stay at an MGM Resorts International property to obtain access, and a round at Shadow Creek includes a limousine ride to the course. The layout, recently made even more famous with several made-for-tv and PGA Tour competitions, isn’t really looking to boost rounds played and boasts a green fee that can reach as high as a reported $1,000. Golfweek’s Best raters have ranked it as the No. 10 course built in the U.S. since 1960.

But there are plenty of other public-access options around Las Vegas and across Nevada. Keep scrolling to see the best of them.

Golfweek’s Best offers many lists of course rankings, with that of top public-access courses in each state among the most popular. All the courses on this list allow public access in some fashion, be it standard daily green fees, through a resort or by staying at an affiliated hotel. If there’s a will, there’s a tee time.

Also popular are the Golfweek’s Best rankings of top private courses in each state, and that list for Nevada’s private offerings is likewise included below.

MORE: Best Modern | Best Classic | Top 200 Resort | Top 200 Residential | Top 100 Best You Can Play

(m): Modern course, built in or after 1960
(c): Classic course, built before 1960

Note: If there is a number in the parenthesis with the m or c, that indicates where that course ranks among Golfweek’s Best top 200 modern or classic courses. 

Check the yardage book: Quail Hollow Club for the 2022 Presidents Cup

StrackaLine offers hole-by-hole maps of Quail Hollow Club, for which the routing has been shuffled ahead of the 2022 Presidents Cup.

Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina – site of the 2022 Presidents Cup – was originally designed by George Cobb and opened in 1961. There have been several renovations to the layout including work by Arnold Palmer and, most recently, Tom Fazio.

Quail Hollow ranks No. 4 in North Carolina on Golfweek’s Best list of private courses in each state.

The PGA Tour has shaken up the normal routing of Quail Hollow for the Presidents Cup in an effort to make sure players encounter the club’s Green Mile, which normally is the tough three-hole finishing stretch. Because the Presidents Cup is match play, there’s a chance many matches could end before reaching those holes. Instead, the normal finishing stretch has been moved up in the routing. What is normally No. 16 at Quail Hollow will play as No. 13 in the Presidents Cup, the normal No. 17 will be No. 14 in the Presidents Cup, and the normal No. 18 will be No. 15 in the Presidents Cup.

The shuffling includes 10 of the holes in total. Nos. 1-8 will play as they normally do, but every other hole on the course has been shuffled in the routing. Each of those changes is indicated on the graphic maps of the holes below. The holes are shown in the routing in which they will be played for the Presidents Cup, and their normal place in Quail Hollow’s routing is indicated in the headers below. Each of the holes that has been moved also has a black box upon the graphic indicating its position in the Presidents Cup and in the normal Quail Hollow routing.

In all, Quail Hollow will play to 7,571 yards with a par of 71 for the Presidents Cup.

Golfweek’s Best 2022: Top public and private courses in Colorado

Red Sky offers private experiences to resort guests, and the rest of Colorado offers more great courses.

Looking for a chance to play two highly ranked private golf courses without paying an initiation fee and annual dues? Colorado might be your shot, as Red Sky Golf Club in Wolcott is for the most part a private club that allows resort guests to play its two courses on alternating days.

Red Sky’s Tom Fazio and Greg Norman courses are both in the top five layouts in Colorado on Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play list for public-access courses in each state. Want to see how the rest of the state’s public courses shake out? Keep scrolling.

Golfweek’s Best offers many lists of course rankings, with the list of top public-access courses in each state among the most popular. All the courses on this list allow public access in some fashion, be it standard daily green fees, through a resort or by staying at an affiliated hotel. If there’s a will, there’s a tee time.

Also popular are the Golfweek’s Best rankings of top private courses in each state, and that list is likewise included below.

MORE COURSES: Best Modern | Best Classic | Top 200 Resort|
Top 200 Residential | Top 100 Best You Can Play

(m): Modern course, built in or after 1960
(c): Classic course, built before 1960
Note: If there is a number in the parenthesis with the m or c, that indicates where that course ranks among Golfweek’s Best top 200 modern or classic courses.

Golfweek’s Best 2022: Top public and private golf courses in Arizona

The top public-access offerings in this stacked golf state go on for miles, especially in the Phoenix-Scottsdale region.

Arizona is a gifted golf state, with desert courses of all kinds to suit any budget or taste. Especially in the region of Phoenix and Scottsdale, there are miles and miles of fairways to welcome residents, visitors and seasonal snowbirds alike.

Tops among the public-access offerings is We-Ko-Pa’s Saguaro Course, designed by famed architects Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw and which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. One of two courses at the facility operated by a casino next door, the Saguaro Course ranks No. 1 in Arizona on Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play list for each state.

MORE COURSES: Best Modern | Best Classic | Top 200 Resort |
Top 200 Residential | Top 100 Best You Can Play

Golfweek’s Best offers many lists of course rankings, with the list of top public-access courses among the most popular. All the courses on this list allow public access in some fashion, be it standard daily green fees, through a resort or by staying at an affiliated hotel. If there’s a will, there’s a tee time.

Also popular are the Golfweek’s Best rankings of top private courses in each state, and that list is likewise included below.

Pinehurst No. 8 reopens with new greens, faster and firmer playing conditions

Work includes new TifEagle putting surfaces, refreshed bunkers and tree removal.

Pinehurst No. 8, designed by Tom Fazio and opened in 1996, has undergone extensive agronomic and infrastructure enhancements this summer and will reopen Friday, Sept. 2.

The course, built to commemorate the resort’s centennial anniversary, ranks as the No. 7 public-access layout in a stacked state, as judged by Golfweek’s Best raters. The resort’s famed Pinehurst No. 2 course is the top-ranked public-access layout in North Carolina, the No. 4 course ranks second in the state, and the No. 9 and No. 7 courses also make the top 15 in the state.

The work to No. 8 included new TifEagle greens, restored bunkers with fresh sand, improved drainage throughout the course and the removal of invasive trees that blocked sunlight and views. The fairways also were “fraise” mowed, a disruptive process that removes years of thatch and undesired organic matter to provide faster, firmer playing surfaces.

“No. 8 now appears crisper to the eye and plays firmer and faster, the way Tom Fazio originally intended it,” Pinehurst Resort director of agronomy Bob Farren, who oversaw the work, said in a media release announcing the news. “Fazio, (resort owner) Bob Dedman and (resort president) Tom Pashley all agreed that No. 8 should retain its original, commemorative design. As such, these changes are aesthetic and agronomic with no alterations to the course’s architecture.”

There’s plenty more work being done at the resort including the renovation of the Carolina Hotel, on which Phase 1 of work is being completed. Other work at the hotel includes upgrades to the Ryder Cup Terrace that wraps around much of the building, which now will include areas with fire pits and soft seating near the Ryder Cup Lounge.

Check out these photos of No. 8.

Photos: Adare Manor ready for JP McManus Pro-Am in Ireland, with Tiger Woods in the field

Check out the photos of Adare Manor, where Tiger Woods tees off Monday and Tuesday.

With all the talk of who might be playing where and on which tour lately, it will be like good old times to watch Tiger Woods – remember him? – tee off in the lap of Irish luxury Monday and Tuesday in the JP McManus Pro-Am.

The charitable pro-am, which has raised more than $145 million in its previous five stagings, will showcase Adare Manor, site of the 2027 Ryder Cup over a parkland-style course that doesn’t play like an Irish links but that does focus on extreme levels of lavishness.

Woods, who hasn’t put his game on display since the PGA Championship in May, joins an entry list that is a mix of players from around the world, including LIV Golf signees as well as PGA Tour entrants. Bryson DeChambeau, recent U.S. Open winner Matt Fitzpatrick, Dustin Johnson, Brooks Koepka, Rory McIlroy, Collin Morikawa, John Rahm, 2022 Masters winner Scottie Scheffler and 2022 PGA Championship winner Justin Thomas are listed in the field that includes 11 of the top 12 in the Official World Golf Ranking. The tournament also will host a slate of celebrities that includes Bill Murray and Mark Wahlberg.

The event will be streamed from 9 a.m.-2:30 ET on Peacock on Monday and Tuesday, with coverage reshown at 7 p.m.-12:30 a.m. both days on Golf Channel.

Founded in 1990 at Limerick Golf Club, the JP McManus Pro-Am was started to raise money for charities in the mid-west region of Ireland. Roger Chapman won that first playing of the event. The then-European Tour got involved for the second playing in 1995, and Paul Broadhurst and Richard Bozall shared the trophy. The event continued to grow, and Woods won the third playing in 2000.

Tiger Woods plays a shot on the 18th hole during the first round of The JP McManus Pro-Am at Adare Manor on July 5, 2010 in Limerick, Ireland. (Andrew Redington/Getty Images)

In 2005 the event was moved to Adare Manor, with Irishman Padraig Harrington earning the trophy. In 2010, Darren Clarke won at Adare Manor. The sixth playing of the event had been scheduled for 2020, but COVID restrictions pushed it back to this year.

Adare Manor was built in the early 1800s and changed hands numerous times over the past two centuries, with Irish businessman JP McManus purchasing the giant house, the 840-acre grounds and amenities in 2014. He has invested heavily in turning the property into one of the most lush and luxurious resorts in the country.

The Golf Course at Adare Manor was built by Robert Trent Jones Sr. in 1995, and as part of the resort’s overall redevelopment the course was renovated by Tom Fazio to reopen in 2018. It ranks No. 35 on Golfweek’s Best list of top modern courses in Great Britain and Ireland, and it was the site of the Irish Open in 2007 and ’08. It originally was slated to host the Ryder Cup in 2026, but COVID pushed each following Ryder Cup back a year.

Check out the photos below to get an idea of the scope of Adare Manor.