THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 5, 1997 TAG: 9701050061
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 96 lines
The city's first venture into the arena of big-time golf development - the kind that attracts pro tournaments, television exposure and big-spending visitors - will begin with the redesign of a 30-year-old municipal course.
An Ohio firm that has planned championship-caliber courses from California to Puerto Rico has been tapped to put a newer and fancier face on the Red Wing Golf Course, an already popular 18-hole layout that meanders around a strip of marshy wetlands between General Booth Boulevard and the Atlantic Ocean.
Transforming Red Wing into a tournament-level course with country club amenities - including a new or revamped clubhouse - is the first step in a four-course strategy to make the city a year-round golf mecca.
Two years ago, the City Council adopted a long-range resort improvement plan that included development of several tournament-quality golf courses.
Part of the Red Wing strategy includes adding nine holes to the course. That improvement was made possible when the city recently agreed to buy 550 acres of nearby Camp Pendleton, a state military reservation, for a variety of municipal uses. About 130 acres have been set aside for the Red Wing course addition.
Awaiting the nod from city officials are plans to develop two signature golf courses on the 1,200-acre, city-owned Lake Ridge tract along Princess Anne Road and a fourth course on a city-owned tract along West Neck Road in southern Virginia Beach.
The U.S. Army is seeking proposals to develop more than 200 acres on the Fort Story base into a championship seaside course that would be open to the public.
Within four years, the city could begin realizing its long-held dream of offering top-flight facilities to golfers around the country.
Steven P. Forrest of Arthur Hills and Associates will be the lead designer for the Red Wing project. A Virginia Tech graduate with a degree in architecture, Forrest says the Toledo, Ohio, firm will get to work as soon as the city signs a $389,000 contract authorizing the redesign.
Once the contract is signed, Forrest and Arthur Hills staff members will try to complete a preliminary plan by June, then launch into detailed construction drawings. August 1998 is the target date for starting construction, which could take up to two years to complete.
The Arthur Hills firm is known for designing golf courses that conform to and blend in with native environments, Forrest said. Every effort will be made to do the same at Red Wing, he added.
Part of the planning for Red Wing includes coming up with a cost estimate for its construction, said Susan Walston, director of the city's Parks and Recreation Department and one of the city negotiators for the design contract.
While the city has offered no cost estimate for the project, local golf development experts place the figure at about $8 million - including the expense of a new clubhouse.
The design costs will be underwritten by the city's Golf Enterprise Fund, a revenue pool fed by fees and sales taxes funneled from the city's two other municipal golf courses at Kempsville Greens and Bow Creek. Construction money will come from another and as yet undetermined source, Walston said.
Forrest said his firm will place special emphasis on reconfiguring the fairways to improve drainage on the low-lying and flood-prone Red Wing property. Other priorities include designing a new irrigation system, reconfiguring the greens, designing the nine new holes, designing an on-site golf school with a practice course and greens for use in golf instruction, and designing a new clubhouse.
The total redesign would be done to U.S. Golfing Association specifications, Forrest said, adding, ``We want to strengthen the strategic aspects of the course - make it more challenging for expert golfers, yet make it more friendly to the golfer with handicaps.''
Once built and ready for play, Red Wing could require a radically different fee structure and possibly new management to help the course pay for itself. These issues would have to be determined by the city, Forrest said. ILLUSTRATION: Map
VP
The 18-hole course will be transformed into a tournament-level
course by the year 2000.
Graphic
OTHER PROJECTS
Some courses the company has designed:
The Palm Valley course in Phoenix, Ariz.
The Bighorn in Palm Desert, Calif.
The Stoneybrook Golf and Country Club in Sarasota, Fla.
Town Lakes Hills Country Club in Atlanta, Ga.
The Champions Golf Club in Lexington, Ky.
The Hawks Head in South Haven, Mich.
El Conquistador in Fajardo, Puerto Rico
The Arthur Hills Course at Palmetto Dunes Resort in Hilton Head
Island, S.C.
CHARLIE MEADS/File photo
Red Wing Golf Course in Virginia Beach will be the first course
renovated as part of the city's plan to create a year-round golf
attraction. The city has hired an Ohio firm to redesign the course.
Here, Mike Peacock holds the flag as Chris Engle putts on the tenth
green at Red Wing recently.