DATE: Wednesday, November 5, 1997           TAG: 9711040524

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C8   EDITION: FINAL 

COLUMN: Fore! Your Weekly Local Golf Report 

SOURCE: BY RICH RADFORD, STAFF WRITER  

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   43 lines

NEW COURSE ON TRACK

The site for the Tournament Players Club-Virginia Beach is shaded from the roadways just enough for people to wonder what's going on behind those trees.

For the next couple of months, the project will center around moving a lot of dirt.

``We have 700,000 cubic yards that we want to move before Christmas,'' said John Watson, the PGA Tour's project manager in charge of on-site operations. ``We'll work on the storm drainage system, break ground for the clubhouse and maintenance facility and start a rough shaping of the course. That's about it.''

Is that all?

By the time spring rolls back around and serious golfers begin thinking they might be able to play the new course soon, they might wander over to see just what architect Pete Dye and consultant Curtis Strange have cooking.

``We've got some wooded parcels that make it hard to see the course, or where the course is going to be, from Princess Anne Road,'' Watson said. ``But what we'll be doing over the winter is what I like to do and the reason I'm in this industry.

``A lot of time when you get the dirt moved around, the irrigation set and the greens in place, you step back and say, `Wow!' ''

Moving the dirt is the most critical aspect right now, seeing how the land is ridiculously flat and in need of definition. By the time it's moved, however, it won't be quite so flat.

The course has had an excellent fall that has allowed workers to be ahead of schedule. Watson said ``the drier the better.''

And drier weather means an earlier completion date for this facility, expected to cost approximately $11 million. Of that, the city of Virginia Beach is footing $3.5 million, the PGA Tour the remaining $7.5 million.

Good weather could mean a fall unveiling in 1998 and there is an option to host a Nike Tour event as early as the spring of 1999.

Plus, the golf public will likely line up to play, with greens fees and cart costs estimated at $75 to $85.

Knowing all of this will give area golfers just one more reason to frown when it rains.

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