Sea Trail, NC: Courses by Rees Jones, Dan Maples and Byrd.
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Architects Series, Part IX
By the Editors of GolfCourseHome®
In the rarified atmosphere of golf course architecture there is world-famous and then there is almost-famous. The famous are true globe-trotters while the almost-famous are regional specialists—those who know an area’s natural landscape and the local crews who can work it. In this, the ninth installment in our Golf Architect Series, we look at at the Southeast and architects Willard Byrd, Tom Jackson, Joe Lee and Clyde Johnston.
FLORIDA: Harbour Ridge Yacht & Country Club
Of these four, Joe Lee has the best claim to national recognition, though not because his work can be found far and wide. Born in Florida in 1922, Lee (with his partner, Dick Wilson), drew acclaim for Sunshine State courses like Pine Tree Golf Club, the Blue Course at Doral and the original 18 at Bay Hill, all of which have, through time, lost some of their Lee-Wilson imprint.
Lee was a stylish, dignified Southerner with a trim build who spoke softly and played a solid game of golf himself. The course he designed at Harbour Ridge Yacht & Country Club in the charming town of Stuart shows Lee’s mix of a tournament-worthy difficulty amid landscape flourishes that go easy on the eyes of even a frustrated player.
FLORIDA: Quail Ridge Country Club
In a recent book by course-design expert Ron Whitten, the Joe Lee legacy is finally presented in a worthy manner. The hardcover book, with extensive photos by Theresa Airey, is titled “Gentleman Joe Lee: 50 Years of Golf Design.” Well deserving of space in the book are Lee’s two complementary 18s at Quail Ridge Country Club in Boynton Beach.
Each layout is a stout par-72, with the South layout deemed the brawnier and more imposing of the two. Its sister course, Quail Ridge South, is more a course you can cruise over, although bunkers and pretty water hazards come into play.
SOUTH CAROLINA: The Cliffs at Glassy
The steep slopes and deep hollows over which Tom Jackson laid out The Cliffs at Glassy golf course could not have been tamed by most course designers. The architect’s thoughtful routing, learned by feel as well as via the mentoring of both George Cobb and Robert Trent Jones, combines topographic drama with well-timed pauses for serenity.
From the very first few holes, a player sees his shots fly over distant brows and soar down ridgelines in take-your-breath trajectories. In 1995, Golf Digest rewarded Jackson’s work here by ranking the course No. 4 on a national list of Most Aesthetic layouts.
SOUTH CAROLINA: Carolina Country Club
Just down the road from Glassy Mountain, in the cool highlands of Spartanburg, Jackson authored a course for true golf lovers at Carolina Country Club in 1984. With 20 years of course-building behind him, Jackson chose to contain the front nine in a compact, intimate space to the south of the clubhouse then unfurl the back nine on a grand loop through woodlands to the north.
Ideal for competition, Carolina C.C. hosts the annual Wofford Invitational Championship, a prestigious collegiate event, and each May hosts the BMW Pro-Am.
FLORIDA: Amelia Island Plantation
Lest you imagine that a Tom Jackson design can only work in a setting of high, rugged terrain, take a look at the low-lying Amelia River course at Amelia Island Plantation on the Atlantic coast near Jacksonville. On this level, oak- and palm-studded property, Jackson did his designing with ocean breezes well in mind.
The Amelia River course plays to a yardage of 6,823 from the back tees. Its fairways have adequate width and appealing ground contours. As in his mountain designs, Jackson throws in a blind shot or two on this links to test the nerves of a newcomer and to keep the regulars on their toes.
NORTH CAROLINA: Lockwood Folly
No doubt Willard Byrd was the right architect for the job when Lockwood Folly Country Club was being site-planned on a dynamic waterway location where the Intracoastal Waterway and the open Atlantic converge. A university-trained landscape architect, Byrd was fully capable of producing entire master land-use plans for a gated golf community, and did so on several occasions.
At Lockwood Folly, he built the romance of a coastal hideaway into his routing, which features on-parallel fairways that wind through the hardwoods to ensure a sense of seclusion.
GEORGIA: The Landings on Skidaway Island
Working in good company at The Landings (where courses by Arthur Hills, Tom Fazio and Arnold Palmer also compete for accolades), Byrd went for a British links type of playability for his Plantation Course. Its front nine goes out to the southwesterly tip of the island, and the back nine returns to the Plantation Clubhouse. Holes No. 8, 9 and 10 are especially scenic, overlooking Adams Creek and Ossabaw Sound.
Byrd lived to the age of 85 and designed or renovated 100-plus courses, but he surely had few finer sites to ply his craft upon than this one at The Landings. His company records are now archived at North Carolina State University, as a valuable documentation of important progress in the fields of land planning and landscape architecture.
NORTH CAROLINA: Sea Trail
Working once again at a club complex with multiple courses (including works by Rees Jones and Dan Maples) the esteemed designer created his eponymous Willard Byrd Course for Sea Trail.
The community itself is a 2,000-acre lacework of creeks and woodland, rife with interesting wildlife. In places the Byrd course has interesting filtered views made up of pine-tree trunks. Elsewhere there are white-sand bunkers so precisely sculpted and knowingly placed that you can forget these aesthetic wonders are put there to impede your progress and stain your scorecard.
NORTH CAROLINA: Ocean Ridge Plantation
Golfers at this landmark community find themselves surrounded by resort comforts, but they recognize the Lion’s Paw course as one of the few un-pampering amenities at Ocean Ridge Plantation.
Byrd got everything right at this open, hilly layout, filling it up with bold contours and features. Its hazards—ribbony creeks, recurring wetlands and towering hardwoods—are also the elements that make the Lion’s Paw layout so handsome to behold.
NORTH CAROLINA: River Landing
The last member of our architect foursome, Clyde Johnston, actually apprenticed under Willard Byrd before setting out on his own. Among Johnston’s many award-winning designs, his 36-hole installation at River Landing in Wallace, NC, along the northeast Cape Fear River, is surely a personal favorite.Its highlights include a cascading waterfall and arched bridge on one of the two home holes.
Before his employment with Byrd, Clyde Johnston took his cues about course design from his father, a golf professional who coached Arnold Palmer at Wake Forest University and was known to dabble in course architecture. The elder Johnston, with Clyde helping out as best a youngster could, designed several public courses for no fee, just to promote the game of golf.
The GolfCourseHome® Golf Architect Series
I. The No. 1 Real-Estate Enhancer: Jack Nicklaus - Find out why this golf course architect adds the most value to the real estate surrounding the golf courses he designs.
II. Tom Fazio: Elevating Course Design--and Home Values
III. Arnold Palmer: His Brilliant Second Career
IV. Arthur Hills: Value-Adding Visionary
V. Robert Trent Jones II: Continuing the Legacy
VI. Bob Cupp & Tom Jackson: Veterans with Prime Portfolios
VII. Pete Dye: Lifelong Innovator (Part-Time Intimidator)
VIII. Greg Norman: Still a Champ & Competing, But On a Larger Golf Landscape
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