The Week That Was, september 1, 2019

     Maybe it’s just me, but it seems that whenever a new course in Nebraska is announced, a golf writer’s immediate reaction is to start drawing comparisons to Sand Hills, Dismal River, and Prairie Club, the destination-worthy courses in the state’s Sand Hills. It happened again last week, when word came that Tad King and Rob Collins, the golf industry’s latest design darlings, have agreed to build their first original 18-hole course in Homer, a small town (estimated population: 528) located just south of Sioux City, Iowa. The course, dubbed Landmand Golf Club, is expected to open in 2021.
     For the record, Homer isn’t part of the Sand Hills. According to Google, it’s 293 miles from Mullen and 236 from Valentine. While Collins has described Landmand’s setting as “absolutely amazing,” eastern Nebraska may not be as magical as the Sand Hills. Only those familiar with both can say.
     King and Collins, for those who aren’t familiar, became a sensation in 2015, when they unveiled Sweetens Cove, a much-admired re-do of an unremarkable layout in metropolitan Chattanooga, Tennessee. (Despite having just nine holes, Sweetens Cove checks in at #50 on Golfweek’s ranking of America’s top modern courses.) Later this year, they expect to debut their second re-do, this one of the 18-hole, George Cobb-designed track at the Sea Palms resort in Georgia, and, if the stars and lenders someday align, they’ll create new courses in Utah and New York.
     In Homer, King and Collins are working for Will Andersen, a member of a family of corn farmers who own a nine-hole course in nearly Dakota City, Nebraska. Collins recently told Tony Dear that the 580-acre site he and King have been given is “bold” and “wild at times,” with “100-foot dunes everywhere you look,” and that they’ve been directed to design “a great course that’s accessible to all.” What he didn’t say, notably, is that the finished product would rank with the state’s best courses.
     The anticipation for Landmand is testimony to the promise that King and Collins have shown. But the weight of great expectations is a heavy burden for even the most experienced designers to carry. 

     Pipeline Overflow – Brian Curley has been hired to redesign and revitalize Plantation Country Club, a more than century-old venue in Boise, Idaho. The club’s course, originally a Chandler Egan creation, is being impacted by road construction and the desire of its new owner to build housing and some stores. . . . The developers behind the long-overdue Park Junction resort, a venue that’s been master-planned to include, among other things, condos and other housing, a hotel, and an 18-hole golf course, are reportedly “close to finally breaking ground on the project.” The resort, which will occupy 420 acres in Ashford, Washington, just outside Mount Rainier National Park, was first proposed in 1994 and secured a now-expired approval in 2001. . . . The fate of Pontoosuc Lake Country Club, a financially troubled, nearly century-old venue in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, has been decided. Jeff Moxon plans to reopen nine of the club’s 18 holes and operate as Black Rose Golf Club.

     Pipeline Overflow Overflow – Just five years after it announced plans to relocate, Royal Norwich Golf Club is ready to move into its new digs in suburban Norwich, England. The new Royal Norwich, on property that was formerly the home of Weston Park Golf Club, aims to be “the region’s most prestigious and talked about golf facility.” It features a Ross McMurray-designed 18-hole layout as well as a now-obligatory “short” course. . . . Ron Garl’s second course in Nigeria, an 18-hole track at Castle Rock Golf Club in Yenagoa, is scheduled to debut next year. The 18-hole track, the centerpiece of what’s been called “an American-influenced golf residential community,” follows the Lakeland, Florida-based designer’s first course, at Elizade Smokin Hills Golf Resort in Ilara-Mokin. It opened in 2012. . . . It’s also the second time around for Rod Whitman, as his 10-hole “short” course at the Cabot resort in Nova Scotia is scheduled to be unveiled in the spring of 2020. The Cape Breton Post reports that the two existing 18-hole tracks at the Mike Keiser-owned property ring up about 40,000 rounds annually, which means that they’re playing to what’s said to be “near capacity.” No word yet on when Cabot’s next venue will take shape.

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