Residential Golf Course Architects, Part II

Tom Fazio: Elevating Golf Course Design and Home Values

Between 1998 and 2003, no fewer than 36 Tom Fazio-designed
courses opened within the gates of U.S. golf course communities.
Their average net asset value (course plus residential property)
amounted to $214.1 million, according to calculations made by
the Dallas-based Golf Research Group.

In that same time period, only Jack Nicklaus opened more courses
within golf real-estate communities, and only Nicklaus proved
more of a catalyst than Fazio for enhancing property values,
according to per-community averages compiled by GRG.

While Nicklaus courses are tournament-tested, Fazio’s layouts
draw more lavish praise from critics and seem to evoke a
stronger emotional response from average players. Fazio's
creative mind thus produces a powerful one-two punch of
value--appreciating real estate and a more satisfying round
of golf.

FLORIDA: Mariner Sands

Lake Nona Golf & Country Club in Orlando was called “an
attractively confounding amalgam of rolling fairways, lakes
and ponds” by Golf Digest soon after it opened. As early as
the late 1980s, Fazio’s work was drawing compliments like
“a visual feast,” as Southern Links Magazine described the
27-hole Callawassie Island Club, SC. 

Fazio, now 61, dominates the Golf Digest list of America's
100 Greatest Courses with 14 courses overall. He is also the
consulting architect for such jewels as Pine Valley, Augusta
National, Oakmont, Winged Foot, Merion and Riviera. 

NORTH CAROLINA: Uwharrie Point, Home of the Old North State Club, NC

Fazio’s credibility among golf’s top decision-makers stems in
part from his apprenticeship with his uncle, George Fazio,
in the 1960s.

George was a top-rank tournament golfer who finished third in
the 1950 U.S. Open and competed in eight straight Masters.
When he became a full-time course designer he brought nephew
Tom in as a field assistant. The partnership lasted for years and
produced many courses still admired today.

SOUTH CAROLINA: Barefoot Resort & Golf

Nephew Tom is better known around Augusta National than his
uncle. He is responsible for the sweeping changes that have been
made to the Masters venue in recent years, a sometimes thankless
task given the deep loyalties players and fans harbor for Masters
traditions.

NORTH CAROLINA: Champion Hills (Fazio's home course)

Tinkering with the classics is one thing, creating them from scratch
is another. At Hammock Dunes in Palm Coast, Florida, Fazio
showed what noted reviewer George Fuller called his rare ability
“to maximize the beauty of a site.” 

SOUTH CAROLINA: Coldstream Cove at Prince Creek with Lanny Wadkins

Most of the courses in his portfolio have an array of bold highlights
amid otherwise calming curves and contours. Playing his courses,
your eye is always drawn toward the prettiest features of the site—
or to distant peaks and mesas to which Fazio never fails to point
the line of play.

SOUTH CAROLINA: Dataw Island

At Mirabel, in North Scottsdale, Arizona, his routing and bunkering
melds the colors and textures of the course itself with subtle desert
visuals all around it.

VIRGINIA: Governors Land at Two Rivers

When golf real estate developers make plans for large-scale
communities with multiple courses, they almost always include
Fazio as one of their chosen designers. At Reynolds Plantation,
where Nicklaus, Rees Jones and Bob Cupp all designed 18-hole
courses, Fazio was the one asked to build a 27-hole complex, the
National.

The Landings on Skidaway Island, Ga., is pleased to offer its
Arnold Palmer, Arthur Hills and Willard Byrd 18s, but as a
tool for enhancing property values, they can do no better than the
Deer Creek layout Fazio crafted there in 1991.

NORTH CAROLINA: Hasentree

With its 1990 debut of the Beresford Creek course, Daniel Island
outside Charleston, S.C., set the amenity standard for its small-town
community with Fazio first, to be followed by a Rees Jones
course more than a decade later.

FLORIDA: Ranch Colony (with Arthur Hills)  

No architect does his best work every time out, but over Fazio’s
career there is no true misstep, nothing that broke his steady
momentum toward the top of his craft.

For most of his career, Tom Fazio has kept his efforts as
close to home as possible in order to see his children grow up
and take part in sports and other school activities. With the
parenting work mostly finished, he is free to work in far-flung
locales. That’s good news for global course developers
everywhere.

To see a complete list of Tom Fazio-designed courses on
GolfCourseHome.net, click here.

Other Articles in the Golf Architect Series

I. The No. 1 Real-Estate Enhancer: Jack Nicklaus - Find out why this golf
course architect adds the most value to the real estate surrounding the
golf courses he designs: Click here!

III. Arnold Palmer: His Brilliant Second Career

IV. Arthur Hills: Value-Adding Visionary

V. Robert Trent Jones II: Continuing the Legacy

VI. Bob Cupp & Tom Jackson: Veterans with Prime Portfolios

VII. Pete Dye: Lifelong Innovator (Part-Time Intimidator)