Golfweek

MIAMI – Despite having five golf courses, 700 rooms, a huge spa, more than 110,000 square feet of meeting space and one of the country’s most famous golf schools, Doral Golf Resort & Spa for years has been defined by one thing: the Blue Monster Course. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. After all, the Blue Monster has been the site of some of the PGA Tour’s most memorable duels and is anchored by one of the game’s most famous finishing holes.

But with a nearly six-year, $100 million-plus renovation winding down, Doral’s other assets will take on a much higher profile.

On Nov. 13, Doral officially opened its Jim McLean Signature Course following a $4.3 million renovation. The course had been largely an afterthought in Doral’s inventory; it was located off site and beleaguered by persistent maintenance problems. Famed teacher Jim McLean, whose golf school has been based at Doral since the early 1990s, was recruited to overhaul the course and give it a compelling identity.

McLean, who spruced up the Blue Monster in 1999, says he borrowed liberally from some of his favorite designers, hoping to replicate the fast, firm conditions that ...

With the Open Championship at St. Andrews next year, one of the best golfing venues is on the shelf. So where do you go? There are many options, but one I experienced after this year’s Open was Machrihanish Dunes.

Machrihanish Dunes is the type of golf course that Old Tom Morris, Young Tom, Robert Ferguson and Willie Park played in the mid to late 1800s.

It is rough, but the truest links, mainly because very little dirt was moved to get the project approved. I was told it is the first new golf course on the West side of Scotland in 100 years, mainly due to the hoops the developers had to go through to get the deal done.

All that said, it is a true delight to play. The term “rub of the green” could have originated at the Dunes as the fairways have more angles then a deft politician that kick the golf ball in any direction, both intended and unintended. Add wind and rain and you’re hitting driver, 3-wood and 4-iron to a 407-yard par 4, which I did.

What has prompted this excited utterance about the Dunes is that the first flock of Hebridean ...

As a venture capitalist, Paul Schock has made his living searching out businesses in which his investors’ money could be entrusted. When he decided to build a major golf resort in an unlikely location – 17 miles south of Valentine in north-central Nebraska – it was Schock who needed to secure the trust of his investors.

Schock is the man behind The Prairie Club, which is likely to be the biggest domestic resort opening of 2010, with three golf courses, including one short course, and a lodge. Course construction is completed and grow-in is on schedule for the May 2010 opening.

The notion of attracting golfers to the remote Nebraska Sandhills, near a town of just 3,000 residents, initially led Schock’s investors to question whether his passion for golf was clouding his business judgment.

“The first question out of their mouths was, ‘Paul, are you suspending the good judgment that we’ve come to depend on and just following your heart here, and is this a foolish thing to do with our money,’ ” recalls Schock, formerly a partner in Bluestern Capital in Sioux Falls, S.D.

But Schock makes a convincing argument for The Prairie Club. Interviews with “dozens” of ...

Got a little sideways on my way home to Florida from the Presidents Cup and ended up in Bandon, Ore., with some pals. Here are a couple of thoughts after playing all four courses at Bandon Dunes Resort.

1.) The new Old MacDonald, which officially opens in June, is my favorite of the four courses there. It’s clearly the one that makes you most feel as if you’re in Scotland.

That’s saying a lot because the Golfweek rankings for American modern courses (after 1960) lists Pacific Dunes No. 2, Bandon Dunes No. 5 and Bandon Trails No. 22.

2.) Who knew? I mean, who knew there was a void for the best golf resort in the world? Who saw that? Who saw the need for and creation of four gems on the same property? Apparently Mike Keiser did.

It’s evident even before you pull into the parking lot at Pennard Golf Club that you’re in for a unique experience. Cattle roam the area along Southgate Road and near the clubhouse on Wales’ scenic Gower Peninsula. The opening tee shot potentially can get a bit hairy as the cattle graze near the forward tees. Keep your head down.

It goes without saying that Americans travel overseas looking for something they can’t find at home. Pennard, a links that dates to 1896, fits the bill. While in Wales in late September, I had the opportunity to pair nine holes at Pennard with 18 at Southerndown Golf Club, where the critters that roam the course are sheep.

With few exceptions, most notably Celtic Manor, which will host the 2010 Ryder Cup, golf in Wales is simple and unpretentious. You show up, pay your greens fee – typically very reasonable compared to elsewhere in the United Kingdom – pick up your yardage book and head directly to the first tee. A few warm-up swings and you’re off. Walking, not riding. American tour operators with whom I’ve spoken compare the experience to Ireland before that country got hot 20 years ...

It’s 6:30 a.m. on a late September morning, and Ron Bingeman is doing what he always does this time of year: starting another 36-hole marathon in Myrtle Beach.

Every September since 1969, Bingeman, 65 years old – along with buddies Larry Spangler, 66, and Everett Cassel, 73 – have been making the pilgrimage from the Philadelphia suburbs to the Grand Strand. Another friend, Craig Aiken, joined them 20 years ago.

Every day is the same: They rise early, play 36, make a few bets, share a lot of laughs, then do it all over again the next day. They wouldn’t have it any other way.

This year their loyalty was rewarded. With Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday and Gene Weldon, director of golf at Thistle Golf Club, leading the way, the local golf community covered the cost of the flights, accommodations and golf for the foursome. This year they stayed at Barefoot Resort and Golf.

“We feel like we died and went to Myrtle Beach,” Bingeman says via cell phone as the group pulls up at Tidewater Golf Club & Plantation for their first round of the day.

Bingeman recalls that in the 1960s, he and his buddies “fantasized that ...

N.C. State officials had been talking for nearly 20 years about building a golf course on the school’s Centennial Campus near downtown Raleigh. The project finally got the kickstart it needed in 2007, when Lonnie Poole (class of ’59) committed $3 million to the project.

I had a chance to see the Lonnie Poole Golf Course recently. As domestic course construction has ground virtually to a halt, the rare new openings draw an inordinate amount of attention. Lonnie Poole GC opened in July, too late to be considered for inclusion on Golfweek’s Best New Courses list, which will be published in October. But I’ll be interested to see how Golfweek’s course raters assess the layout. I suspect they’re going to find that it’s a course worthy of the Wolfpack’s NCAA champion, junior Matt Hill, who already has made his mark with a double eagle on the 589-yard 7th hole.

The layout was produced by Arnold Palmer Design, and spearheaded more specifically by two N.C. state alums: senior architect Erik Larsen, who has been with Palmer since 1983; and Brandon Johnson, who joined Palmer’s design staff in 2006.

The course, which ...

As a general rule, I enjoy watching travel shows, particularly if they’re hosted by an attractive blonde. But the pilot episode of “Destination Golf,” Golf Channel’s foray into the travel market, didn’t leave me reaching for the remote to record future episodes on my DVR.

The show, which aired initially on Sept. 21, was dragged down by a superficial approach and a lack of authenticity, which relates in part to the miscasting of Lauren Thompson as host. Golf Channel viewers know Thompson as the host of its “Top 10” series, in which her role is simply to introduce segments. On “Destination Golf,” she’s asked to do much more.

“Going from the familiar to the unknown, that’s the thrill of golf travel,” Thompson says at the outset of “Destination Golf: Ireland’s Wonderful West.” “That’s why I look up at a departure sign and see a wish list of adventures.”

Those adventures apparently don’t include golf, which, one assumes, Thompson doesn’t play. Her job is to serve as the spokesmodel on a whirlwind trip through seven Irish counties, but she’s out of her element, arriving at golf courses not in FootJoys but ...

Three years ago I received an aerial photo of a new mountain golf course in a remote part of southern Virginia, just a few miles from the North Carolina border. The photo of Donald Steel’s dramatic Primland layout had a definite wow factor. Visually, it reminded me of Cape Kidnappers, minus the ocean – it’s holes darting perilously along the edges of the Dan River Gorge. After my Golfweek colleagues and I scraped our jaws off the carpet, we made the decision to display the photo prominently across a two-page spread in an upcoming issue.

It wasn’t until recently that I managed to get to Primland, which is no small task. Lacking a private plane – and for reasons that remain unclear, the boss won’t let me borrow the Golfweek G5 – those living outside the region most likely will fly into either Roanoke, Va., or Greensboro, N.C., drive an hour or more to the tiny hamlet of Meadows of Dan, at milepost 177.7 off the Blue Ridge Parkway, then continue a few more miles to Primland’s front gate, before driving up the mountain to the lodge and golf course.

It’s not easy to get ...

New Frontiers Capital LLC has acquired Garland Resort, a 3,000-acre property with four golf courses in north-central Michigan.

The deal closed earlier this month. It’s unclear how much New Frontiers paid for the resort.

The new owners already have begun work on a laundry list of improvements at Garland Resort. Those include adding a full-service spa and fitness facility, redesigning the public spaces and upgrading the accommodations, renovating the golf course bunkers, putting in fresh landscaping, and paving the entryway, parking lots and cart area, according to Laurie Michael of Garland Resort.

New Frontiers’ holdings include part ownership of the Mountain Grand Lodge and Spa and Avalanche Bay Indoor Waterpark at Boyne Mountain in Boyne Falls, Mich. A Boyne Resorts spokeswoman said her company will have no involvement in Garland Resort.

In a press release, New Frontiers chairman Gerald Forsythe described Garland as a “hidden gem.”

Forsythe is chairman and CEO of both Indeck Power Equipment Co., based in Wheeling, Ill., and Indeck Energy Services Inc., based in Buffalo Grove, Ill. He also built and owns Canyata Golf Club, a private club in his hometown of Marshall, Ill., and owns Ironhorse Golf Club, a public facility in Tuscola ...

When the PGA Tour returns to Marana, Ariz., in February for the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship in February, the players and sponsors will have some new accommodations.

The 250-room Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain is scheduled to open in December, complementing the 27 holes of golf (pictured) designed by Jack Nicklaus.

Set in the foothills of the Tortolita Mountains northwest of Tucson, the Ritz-Carlton plans to celebrate its high-desert setting while also providing all of the amenities that are de rigueur at luxury resorts.

Amenities at the resort, located on a former cattle ranch, will include Old West cattle penning, horseback riding and desert jeep tours. But there also will be more conventional fare: three swimming pools, a 235-foot water slide and, most notably, a 17,000-square-foot spa with 14 treatment rooms.

“We could do this resort without golf and it would still be spectacular,” says Stephen Deucker, the resort’s sales and marketing director.

In the planning and construction process, Ritz-Carlton has tried to incorporate elements from the high-desert setting. Spa treatments pay homage to the Sonoran lifestyle, and the physical structure uses many indigenous materials, such as wood beams, mesquite and mosaic bathroom tiles made in Arizona.

“It’s going ...

Cleburne Golf Links opened last month, the culmination of a six-year process initiated in 2003 when the city of Cleburne, Texas, located south of Dallas, decided to upgrade its golf course. City officials realized that a few nips and tucks wouldn’t suffice, and they subsequently hired local architect John Cooligan to completely overhaul the 44-year-old Cleburne Municipal Golf Course.

The result, unveiled last month, is a 7,068-yard track that runs along, around and occasionally across Lake Pat Cleburne. Cooligan lengthened the course by nearly 700 yards. The routing, which does not have returning nines, runs along the lake, with many of the holes adjacent to the water.

Nonresidents can play Cleburne Links for $50 on weekends; the fee is $40 for residents.

Visit www.ci.cleburne.tx.us/golfweb/index.html