TheVirginia Explorer
Forest Creek
Golf Club
PINEHURST, N.C.
36- h o l e
p r i vat e g o l f
c o m m u n i t y e x i s t s q u i e t ly
P i n e h u r s t N.C., which
achieved international notoriety
in June for hosting back-to-back men’s and
women’s U.S. Open championships on the
No. 2 Course.
Like venues throughout the area, the two
Tom Fazio-designed gems at Forest Creek,
the North and South courses, fully partake
of the region’s gently rolling sandhills and
tall longleaf pines. What’s amazing is the
different effects Fazio achieved at each
track, which bear little resemblance to each
other, except for the fact that both appear on
Golfweek’s Best Residential Courses 2014 list.
Handed a virgin parcel of 1,265 acres,
Fazio draped the holes across the land
while constructing the South Course, a
low-profile design with sweeping, curved
bunker edges and a gentle flow that opened
to acclaim in 1996.
“In an era driven by drama, there is still a
place for classic lines on courses like Forest
Creek,” says Fazio of the club’s traditional
and understated South Course.
The hillier North Course, which debuted
in 2005, is its polar opposite. A Sandhills
version of vaunted Pine Valley, this brawny
in
Forest Creek features a natural
North Carolina feel.
layout is marked by jagged edges, gnarly
bunkers and more than 30 acres of exposed
native sandy wastelands used to frame the
fairways and defend the greens.
While the window dressing is different
on the club’s two courses, each has five sets
of tees, and both courses are playable for
golfers of all ability levels.
Fazio’s environmental sensitivity is in
evidence at Forest Creek. With the redcockaded woodpecker being on a national
list of protected species (it’s also the club’s
logo), Fazio was required to protect the bird’s
favorite trees and leave buffers around trees
where the woodpeckers make their nests.
Fazio points out that unlike Pinehurst
Wade Hampton’s championship golf
complements houses that overlook but don’t
encroach on the course.
No. 6, a resort layout he built with his
uncle, George, in 1976, the two courses at
Forest Creek “were designed and built using
entirely different methods of construction,
drainage, and earthworks, much of them due
to environmental issues.”
Two years ago, Forest Creek passed from
the original developer to the members.
It has a build-out of 750 residences and
memberships. A member must own
property. In addition to its two superlative
courses, equestrian-themed clubhouse and
log cabin golf shop, the club is convenient
to the charming Village of Pinehurst and
the lively sidewalk cafes in Southern Pines.
(forestcreekgolfclub.com)
Wade Hampton Golf Club
CASHIERS, N.C.
T
ucked away in the
C arolina
A sheville
N orth
mountains near
and perennially
ranked among the nation ’ s
finest golf communities,
Wade
Hampton’s claim to fame is its superlative
Tom Fazio-designed course.
“From our early planning days in 1982,
Wade Hampton has been and always will
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V I R G I N I A G O L F E R | J U LY / A U G U S T 2 0 1 4
be a special place for me and my family,”
says Fazio, one of the club’s eight founders.
Two years removed from his first solo
design at Wild Dunes in Isle of Palms,
S.C., the then 37-year-old architect spent
countless hours refining holes and
devising strategy at Wade Hampton,
which was named the Best New Private
Course of 1987 by Golf Digest.
w w w. v s g a . o r g
FOREST CREEK GOLF CLUB: JOHN AND JEA