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Designs on big success
Suncadia had to find the perfect mix and balance among the three architects hired to design the 54 holes at the resort near Roslyn, Wash.
By Paul Ramsdell, PNGA Media
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| Arnold Palmer |
Consider yourself a renowned painter, staring at a blank canvas. You have hundreds of options regarding techniques and colors, and it's your job to make sure everything works together, but also contrasts each other at the same time.
That's similar to what faced the developers of Suncadia, who had 6,000 acres of blank canvas and faced the choice of deciding who would design the three golf courses at the resort near Roslyn, Wash.
"I think everybody is going to have their favorite course, and it's not all going to be the same one, which I think would be anybody's goal if you're a developer," said Sean Cracraft, the general manager at Suncadia.
The Prospector Course, done by the Arnold Palmer Course Design Company, already has 18 holes open and is being lauded for both being an enjoyable resort course for the average golfer, but a tough nut to crack in tournament conditions for the top golfers. Nine holes on Tumble Creek, the private course designed by Tom Doak, have opened with some awe-inspiring views and golf holes, and the second nine is set to open this fall. In 2007, the Rope Rider Course, designed by Peter Jacobsen and Jim Hardy, will complete the threesome.
"Having three golf courses with three different architects, they're going to be three distinctly different golf courses, with different challenges and different views," said Jacobsen, the Champions Tour star from Portland when he's not busy with his design work.
The element that ties the three together, however, is the most important ingredient of all, Jacobsen said.
"The key for us is not to mess up the land, because it is so good. It's almost like just go out there, cut some trees down, plant some grass, have your tees and greens and just play it," Jacobsen said.
"This is a property where we could find 100 holes, the key is to find the best 18," he said of the Rope Rider site.
"You're trying to just get out of the way of the land."
Of course, it's not quite that simple, and Jacobsen realizes that the designers will leave their own special traits.
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| Tom Doak |
"With Arnold Palmer and Tom Doak, you've got two fantastic designers because they both are distinctly different," Jacobsen said. "Palmer's got more movement and he's got more elevated greens. Tom Doak is very traditional with everything right in front of you.
"We probably are going to be somewhere right in the middle. We're going to have some very traditional aspects, but we're also going to have a little bit more movement I think than Tumble Creek. Don't forget Tumble Creek has got more elevation changes. He didn't have to add any movement."
Cracraft, the former director of golf at Sunriver in Central Oregon, says once all three courses are up and running, comparisons will follow.
"I think it's going to be very similar to Sunriver. I think it's going to be three great golf experiences," Cracraft said.
To get to that point, however, took some interesting decision-making. First off, the Prospector Course designed by Palmer already was fully underway when Jeld-Wen took over the development from a previous ownership group.
Palmer courses traditionally are good for resorts, in that their aim is to provide an enjoyable experience for all level of golfers.
From there, though, Cracraft and everyone involved with golf with Lowe Enterprises and Destination Resorts, hired by Jeld-Wen to manage the property, had to make some interesting decisions.
"All of our designer conversations initially started with, 'OK, what's in the area?' With Aldarra Farms, we weren't jumping on the Fazio bandwagon, for example. With TPC, we weren't jumping on the Nicklaus bandwagon. That was kind of our first layer of our architectural design review committee.
"First off, what's in the area? Secondly, is there anybody that has any ties to the area or any name recognition that would be a help in positioning what we're trying to do here."
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| Peter Jacobsen |
Jacobsen, with his ties to the Northwest and Jeld-Wen, plus his name recognition as the 2004 U.S. Senior Open winner, easily fit the mold, but what about Doak?
He's not a star player, and wasn't really well known among average Northwest golfers until his Pacific Dunes on the Oregon Coast opened in 2001.
"We felt like we were on the beginning of the explosion of his name recognition," Cracraft said. "Did we feel he was a household name at this point? No. But did we also feel the people who were going to be spending the kind of money to be involved in this community would know his name? We felt a lot of them would, and the ones who didn't we would be able to educate."
Doak's name recognition has taken off because of his naturalist designs where moving a lot of earth is the last thing he wants to do. That fit perfectly into Tumble Creek.
"The site itself lent itself very well for golf, and so there wasn't really a need to have anything contrived over there," said Cracraft.
The decision of Jacobsen-Hardy doing the third course was a natural because of the Northwest connections for Jacobsen, according to Cracraft.
"I've known him for a while, and from Day One I said, 'Boy, if there's any way to get Peter involved that seems like a good idea to me," Cracraft said, alluding to Jacobsen's background in numerous aspects of golf, as well as his engaging personality.
"That one was a natural for us."
The Rope Rider Course is getting early publicity because it will feature a family-oriented theme, with tees especially designed for children.
"We wanted it to be family friendly," Cracraft said.
But the course also will stretch out to 7,200 yards.
"They're going to have similar land feel, but the forest on Rope Rider is not as thick, the undergrowth on Rope Rider is not as thick as it is on Prospector or Tumble Creek," Cracraft said.
"It's going to feel a little more open off the tee I would think on most of the holes. There are going to be some holes that will truly feel like meadow holes, which we don't really have on Prospector, but then there's going to be some narrow tee shots also, and way more water on Rope Rider than the other two."
Jacobsen, though, says designing a golf course at a development like Suncadia shouldn't be centered around him, or the other designers.
"It isn't about building a better course than Tom Doak, or Arnold Palmer or Jack Nicklaus, because it's like saying which movie star is more beautiful than the next," he said. "Everybody is different, and everybody has different likes and different tastes.
"The goal is to build the best golf course for the golfer. This is not a testament to my ego, or to Arnold's ego, or Tom Doak's ego. It's a testament to the golfer."
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