This story appears in the Jan. 12 issue of Golfweek.
Every month, Golfweek profiles a course that is on one of Golfweek’s Best lists or might be a candidate for inclusion.By BRADLEY S. KLEIN
Senior WriterKANNAPOLIS, N.C. – By the second green, you can tell that designer Davis Love III and his associates have created something interesting.
The Club at Irish Creek is a total remake of what was Kannapolis Country Club. The 55-year-old course is being developed into a 650-acre community by a major real estate firm, Castle & Cooke. It also is spending $1.5 billion to transform a 350-acre parcel in the old mill town of Kannapolis, 25 miles northeast of Charlotte, into a biomedical-research community replete with a New Urbanist residential land plan, diverse shopping, recreation and restaurants, all in the style of a retrofitted village. In short, a smart, traditional look to an old, run-down place.
That is exactly what they’ve done with the golf course, too. It took a full year, but with the private club reopening in mid-October, it’s as if a new layout emerged on top of the old one. While many of the original hole corridors remain, several run in completely different directions, and the new course is longer, wider and makes much better use of 400-acre Lake Kannapolis. At par 71, Irish Creek (named for the stream that feeds that lake) stretches to 7,099 yards (74.3 rating / 137 slope), though most players will find it plenty long from 6,489 yards (71.3 / 131).
The front nine is a core routing, devoid of any residential real estate, and wraps efficiently in a clockwise loop that features three short par 4s, including the downhill fifth hole, only 322 yards from the back and 294 yards from the standard tees.
The counterclockwise back nine, by contrast, is dramatically more expansive: roughly 600 yards longer and occupying far more acreage because the envelope includes homesites, though they are set well back in the woods and don’t impede play. Eight holes adjoin the lake, and the water is in view on 16 holes.
The land has ideal topography, with 80 feet of elevation change from high point (13th tee) to low point (ninth tee). Mature hardwoods abound, giving the site an elegant feel. Love’s design team, including his brother, Mark, and field supervisor Bob Spence, worked closely with construction firm Course Doctors to preserve native contours and move only 300,000 cubic yards of earth.
As with all great designs, they built by taking the land down and set their hazards and green surrounds on the low side. They’ve also scattered bunkers sparingly, with many of the fairway hazards set diagonally to the line of play or staggered to break up the ideal path. It’s a far cry from, and certainly preferable to, simply punishing shots sprayed left or right.
Best of all are the diverse green contours and roll-off areas. Love’s affection for classical design is evident in the diverse shapes sported by the A1/A4 bentgrass greens. The second hole, with its deep central spine dividing the green, looks like something from Donald Ross’ repertoire. The green at the short, uphill par-4 fourth is divided at a cross angle by a maddening swale that creates two tiers and is partially blind from the fairway. The long uphill par-4 11th features a long green with a steady rise that facilitates visibility from the fairway.
Irish Creek never repeats itself. Love, a native Carolinian and former UNC-Chapel Hill golfer, has made quite the homecoming.
• • •
Bradley S. Klein is a
Golfweek senior writer. To reach him email
bklein@golfweek.com.
The Club at Irish Creek• 1196 Fairway Dr., Kannapolis, N.C. 28081
• 704-932-2525;
www.liveatirishcreek.com• Private membership club: fees to be determined; walking/carrying your bag always an option and easy.
1. Routing: 8
Tight, economical core front nine and expansive back nine, with lake on various sides of play. Ninth hole doesn’t quite return to clubhouse and seems to linger by the lake for a special effect that works.
2. Quality of shaping: 8
Lines flow gracefully, with features tied in well and the occasional abruptness where appropriate for drama.
3. Overall land plan: 6
Flow of course around lake is spectacular, but the clubhouse, parking lot, access road and practice range compromise the expansiveness. It will help when the dated, 1960s-looking, brick-style clubhouse (architecturally, it’s between a roadside hotel and a funeral home) gets its planned renovation.
4. Greens and surrounds: 10
Excellent variety and range of contours; interesting recovery when ball rolls over.
5. Variety and memorability of par 3s: 8
What a pleasure to end on a par 3 – in this case, a long uphill one that’s unbunkered. From 6,489 yards, the shots ranged from a downhill 8-iron at the eighth hole to a 3-hybrid on that last hole.
6. Variety and memorability of par 4s: 6
Wonderful short par 4s at the outset (Nos. 1-2, 4-5). Back-nine par 4s are, on average, 50 yards longer than on front. Only let-up on the course is a sequence of three awkward par 4s where the ground is too steep on the right (Nos. 10-11) and at No. 12 gets incredibly dull.
7. Variety and memorability of par 5s: 7
Very different holes, including sweeping downhill, level and semi-blind uphill.
8. Tree and landscape management: 8
Wide corridors and dramatic sweep to the fairways. Trees generally are used smartly to define the occasional inside of a dogleg – with the exception of tight holes at the outset of the back nine.
9. Conditioning: 8
Superintendent Artie Helton and crew did an impressive grow-in during one of the region’s hottest, driest summers. Tifsport Bermudagrass tees and fairways are solid; native and fescue roughs are filling in nicely.
10. “Walk in the park” test: 9
Elegant walk and enjoyable throughout.
Overall: 7.0A strong candidate for Golfweek’s Best Top 100 Modern status and clearly the best work produced by Love Golf Design.
Posted: 1/13/2008
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