NEWS

Tommy Fazio: lose the
houses and I'll build a
course at Greyson

By Tim McDonald,
National Golf Editor

(June 6, 2005) - They have about 2,000 homes planned for the new 1,300-acre Preserve at Greyson project in Charlotte, N.C. But, only a handful will be on Tommy Fazio's golf course.

The Greyson developers announced recently that Fazio, the nephew of well-known golf course architect Tom Fazio and son of George, another well-known Fazio designer, is the designer of one of their two planned courses. Davis Love III is designing the other.

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But, Fazio almost didn't get the job. In fact, they already had another architect and a routing plan when Fazio was brought in to take a look.

"I basically told them my thing and they were interested," Fazio said. "The only problem was that I'm not going to do a golf course that has 500 homes on it. In fact, I'm not going to do one that has 200 homes on it. I'm looking at this plan and saying there's no way these guys are this far down the road and spending all this money - they're not going to blow up all they've done just to get me to come up here and design this. So I told them, ‘I might not be your guy.'"

Still, the developers, Mountaineer Land Group, wanted to see what Fazio had in mind. They told him to "take a stab at it," according to Fazio, and he did.

"I took absolutely all the best property," Fazio said, chuckling lightly.

The developers liked what they saw and forged ahead. The result, Fazio said, will be a golf course that has a pastoral feel to it.

"The entire back nine has zero homes on it, and the front nine has only a few," Fazio said. "No hole has homes on both sides of the fairway, and those are all set at least 100 feet back, with all these trees. So when you're out on the course, you're going to feel very isolated. In fact, they were complaining that they really don't have any ‘golf course lots.' That's exactly what I'm looking for."

The Falls at Greyson course will be Southern in ways - like Bermuda fairways and rough along with bent grass greens - but distinctly un-Southern in other ways.

"Even this far north, you still get a lot of ‘Southern-looking' golf courses," Fazio said. "One of the things we're doing is keeping so many trees that are indigenous to the northeast - the white and red oaks, the hickory trees - and we're taking out all the pines and more of the evergreen-type trees, so we can get more of a Northern look. It's going to be really different."

The course will have elevation changes of 70 feet as it winds through trees, creeks and rock formations.

"Because of the elevation changes we have and because of the trees, you're really going to feel like you're in a northeast-type terrain," he said. "But, your grass and climate is going to be more southern."

The course's final yardage will be somewhere between 7,300 and 7,500, but Fazio said the course will be both walkable and playable. It will have six sets of tee boxes, for example.

"I know a lot of architects claim something is very playable, but playability comes with width (and) with how much space you have to work with," he said. "You can say anything in an interview, but the best way to prove that is to say that this golf course is going to sit on 250 acres inside this development. So it will be very playable."

The course, which sits in both Harrisburg and Charlotte, N.C., is scheduled to be completed in the spring of 2006. The Love course, with help from Davis' brother, Mark, is expected to open for play in the fall of 2006.

The Preserve will include some gated communities, a "downtown" area with restaurants, offices and condos, one clubhouse for both courses, and a resort/spa with a World Golf Academy with Jim McLean as the director. Plans also include a sports village, including a tennis facility, along with parks, playgrounds and nature and bike paths.

Any opinions expressed above are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of the management. The information in this story was accurate at the time of publication. All contact information, directions and prices should be confirmed directly with the golf course or resort before making reservations and/or travel plans.