Fazio agrees to design sixth course at The Cliffs in the Carolinas

Tim McDonald,
Contributor

The Cliffs, a group of four master-planned residential communities near the Blue Ridge Mountains in South and North Carolina, said this week it signed an agreement with Tom Fazio to design an 18-hole course, to add to the existing five courses.

The new course will be at Keowee Springs, the newest of the Cliffs communities, which were founded in 1991. Fazio said the course would have generously shaped fairways and greens with spacious landing areas.

"We plan to incorporate a lot of groomed turf, less rough and more aesthetically placed bunkers at Keowee Springs to promote a friendlier, more forgiving course for the player," Fazio said in a statement. "I have six kids and I feel as if I'm really designing a course that we can all enjoy."

Fazio is one of best-known American golf course designers, with plenty of credits on various best-of lists, but he isn't without his critics. Detractors say his designs have become repetitive, replicas of earlier successes.

Gib Papazian wrote in Golf Digest that Fazio had become a "corporate brand" and that there is "nothing seminal (or) original in his architecture."

Others point out that his courses aren't PGA Tour tournament worthy. Only one of his designs has hosted a major tournament - PGA National for the 1987 PGA Championship, for example.

Fazio's fairways are often too wide to narrow to tournament-caliber specifications and his overly large greens take away demanding approach shots. Still, his designs attract builders looking to please golfers who are looking for a relaxing, undemanding round of golf.

Once completed, the Fazio course at Keowee Springs will be a short drive by boat from its sister courses at Keowee Vineyards and Keowee Falls, where Jack Nicklaus' second course at the site is currently under construction.

The Cliffs' three other courses include the Nicklaus course that recently debuted at Walnut Cove, the parkland design by Ben Wright at The Valley and a Tom Jackson-designed, mountaintop course at Glassy, which was ranked fourth most scenic in the U.S. in 1995 by Golf Digest.

The Keowee Springs project also calls for a lodge and spa, 40-acre family campground and activity area, marina village, as well as walking paths and trail systems. Hart Howerton, a land-planning firm whose clients include Pebble Beach Resorts, Disney World and the Four Seasons Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona, is helping with the master plan.

The communities, located in Travelers Rest, are bordered by thousands of acres of protected wilderness areas and parks.

June 1, 2005

Veteran golf writer Tim McDonald keeps one eye on the PGA Tour and another watching golf vacation hotspots and letting travelers in on the best place to vacation.