Note: This story appeared in the Sept. 4, 1999 issue of Golfweek.
By BRADLEY S. KLEIN
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla . – Arnold Palmer turns 70 on Sept. 10, but judging on the basis of his course design enterprise, there’s no evidence he’s slowing down.
Palmer Course Design Co., founded in 1978, is headquartered in a modest, two-story building across the street from the beach in this upscale coastal community. Here sits the command post for the business with which this golf legend has become most closely associated. Long after Palmer’s playing days are over, the fruits of his architecture will live on. The empire includes 140 original designs in 29 states and 14 countries on three continents. Twenty-one years after its founding, Palmer Course Design Co. is busier than ever. No surprise there. As he enters his eighth decade, Palmer maintains an equally intense pace while delivering an impressive level of quality and consistency in his design projects. A huge, color-coded board on the lower floor overlooking the design shop purports to keep track of ongoing projects. With 53 courses in the works at various stages – preliminary routing, construction documents, rough grading, final shaping, grow-in and about to open – it is no easy task keeping it current.
Palmer spends so much time on the road that he scarcely has time to stop in at the headquarters. When checking in from time to time, he takes over the office of longtime associate Ed Seay, who after 29 years as Palmer’s collaborator knows enough to give way when the boss beckons. Much of the office space is occupied by associates Erik Larsen, Harrison Minchew, Ray Wiltse, Vickie Martz, Greg Stang, Kevin Benedict, Kory Williams and Wes Moon. They’ve all been on board for at least a decade, giving the company a continuity that no other design shop can match. “We have so much experience and we’ve been together for so long,” said Minchew, “that we can give owners top value and we can do in the field what we know Arnold wants.”
Not that Palmer needs to dominate the show. Indeed, one of his talents is hiring talented people and then deferring to them when appropriate – even at news conferences and in private meetings with developers.
For all its design work, Palmer’s company manages to avoid a particular signature image. At Tralee in Ireland, Palmer had 100-foot sand dunes and steep ocean cliffs to incorporate. At Dakota Dunes in Sioux City, S.D., the task was to adapt windswept farmland and to bring the Missouri River into play on three holes. The Village Course at Kapalua on Maui in Hawaii follows the contours of ancient lava flows. At Indian Ridge in Palm Springs, Calif., by contrast, the existing grade (dead level) offered nothing to work with; everything had to be massaged into shape. Yet when it comes to vast earth-moving projects, few can compare with Minakami Kogen Golf Club in Japan, where millions of cubic yards of dirt had to be shifted to render the plan playable.
Palmer-Seay’s strategy of making a course playable and memorable is on full display at their Aviara Four Seasons Resort in Carlsbad, Calif. The routing is a familiar one: two returning nines, the front a simple clockwise rotation, the back nine a figure eight. Each hole plays in isolation, and it’s hard at times to concentrate on shotmaking because the views of the surrounding hills and Batiquitos Lagoon to the south are simply stunning.
The best of the entire collection just might be Old Tabby Links in Okatie, S.C., 30 miles north of Hilton Head Island. (The course is ranked No. 43 among Golfweek’s America’s Best modern courses.) The site is an 18th century ruin. Befitting the surrounding intracoastal marshland, the course is low-lying, with the native elevation no more than 4 feet. Seay, who trained with Donald Ross protégé Ellis Maples, relied upon modest green contours, with the entrances left open for run-up shots and approaches played under the wind. Stands of wild grasses adorn playing areas and provide a dense and colorful texture of playing surfaces.
When needed, Palmer can turn up the heat. His makeover of the Dick Wilson-designed Bay Hill Club in Orlando, Fla., produced a more sharply edged, bolder-looking tournament venue. And the Palmer Course at PGA West, done in 1986 when high-tech glitz was the rage, features hyperactive putting surfaces, tightly fortified green complexes and four dramatic holes on the back nine cut into the raw rock of a mountain. In recent years, Palmer has opted for a softer touch: less earth-moving where possible and quieter, more subtle features instead of mounds and swales everywhere. That sensible, down-toearth approach makes the Spencer T. Olin Community Golf Course in Alton, Ill., near St. Louis, one of the country’s most respected municipal layouts.
When asked what, beyond basic design competence, Arnold Palmer brings to a project, Seay’s face lights up. “Credibility,” he announces. “It’s a way of stating that you’re serious about a project. It sends a message to the community, to investors and to potential homeowners that you’re determined to deliver a quality golf course.”
Even with Palmer fast approaching 70, Palmer’s name carries more weight than it ever did in a world that values brand recognition. Lofts Seed Co., for example, is among those golf course-related firms that has benefited from a long-term affiliation with Palmer.
So, too, has Pennzoil, an association that Palmer has helped convert into the game’s lore. At a recent course groundbreaking ceremony, Palmer regaled an adoring audience with praise of the future layout. When it was the audience’s turn, the first question was, “How’s that tractor back home?”
Palmer broke out in a big smile. “We just fixed it up, and like me, it’s got a good 50 years in front of it.” More time to wander the globe. More time to build courses and leave his mark.
Posted: 2/29/2008
