VSGA Member Clubs
Transition
COURSE
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and occupied. This year is pivotal, as the
completion of the golf amenity is sure to
spark further interest in the property.
“We’re pretty excited,” admits Bobby
Kidder, general manager of the club through
its management contract with Billy Casper
Golf. “We’ll start grassing in late May, seed
the greens in August and have a full 18 open
for play in the spring of 2015.”
Currently, there are 72 dues-paying
Westham members at the semiprivate club
who enjoy a surprisingly active calendar of
activities on the current par 36 layout. That
schedule includes a winter tournament series,
an annual member-guest, a member-member
team competition, and outside events that
serve neighboring real estate developments
that lack their own golf course.
If Westham members want to really strap it
on, they can play to a maximum slope rating
of 152 from the black tees that provide 3,629
yards of adversity—times two makes 7,258.
Westham’s 18-hole configuration will finish
on a pulse-quickening, downsloping par 4, the
current second hole. It’s a slight dogleg left
that is fairly inviting off the tee but daunting
on the approach. The player’s second shot
has to carry a slim creek and avoid tight
bunkers—all this with the match potentially
on the line. If you’ve made it out to Westham
and played the nine that opened in June 2010,
be prepared for those hole numbers to change
as they take their place in the final layout.
“We have a beautiful piece of land to
work with,” comments lead Nicklaus Design
associate Chris Cochran, who is overseeing
construction of the new nine. “It has the type
of terrain that kind of jumps up and says that
it’s meant to be a golf course.”
by DAVID GOULD
“heathland-type corridors,” in Cochran’s
words. By this he means the treelines are set
back far enough to allow design elements
other than rough and woods to frame the tee
shot landing areas.
“The actual playing surface isn’t linksland,”
Cochran explains, “but certain links
characteristics will be part of the design.
There will be plenty of ground game blended
into your playing strategy.”
Like many golf architects, he is intrigued
to be building new golf holes in the “fast
and firm” era, with the golf audience more
prepared than ever for a maintenance
and playability profile that’s more sporty
and sustainable. The Billy Casper group
has already demonstrated its trademark
progressive policies by enrolling Westham
Golf Club in the environmentally demanding
Audubon Sanctuary Program. The landscape
and infrastructure of this golf property is
maintained to strict standards, its waterways
lined with native shrubs and grasses to
provide forage and cover for wildlife, as
well as a buffer between treated turf and the
aquatic habitat.
About 20 of the current members are
homeowners, and the goal of attracting new
arrivals will require low-stress learning and
playing opportunities. There is already a set of
forward tees planned that will play to around
4,500 yards for 18, allowing shorter hitters
and new golfers to enjoy their experience and
aspire to higher skill development.
Author David Gould is a writer from Sandy
Hook, Conn., and a regular contributor to
Virginia Golfer.
A TURN FOR HOME
Densely wooded in its original
state, the acreage for this second
nine was given a broad-swath
clearing that allows for some
The par-4 second
will be part of an
engaging closing
stretch when all
of the holes at
Westham Golf Club
are completed.
WESTHAM GOLF CLUB
ou could call Westham Golf Club an
outlier. The young club southwest
of downtown Richmond is building
its long-awaited second nine amidst
a new-course famine in the U.S. that
follows two decades of feasting.
For course junkies, the 20 years from 1990
to 2010 were a sugar high that seemingly could
not be sustained. That span of time saw a net
gain of roughly 350 courses a year nationally.
Coming off the 2013 tally of a measly 14
openings—against 150-plus closures—a
project like the completion of Westham’s
championship layout proves newsworthy. In
Virginia, it unfolds against the context of
zero official course openings throughout the
commonwealth for all of 2013—although
Potomac Shores Golf Club (‘Reawakened and
Revived, Potomac Shores Nears Unveiling,’
January/February 2014 Virginia Golfer) nearly
did reach the finish line.
Of the 14 golf course ribbon cuttings that
happened in the U.S. last year, more than
a few were tracks that had celebrated their
groundbreaking many years prior. That’s true
of the newly completed Cliffs at Mountain
Park in Travelers Rest, S.C., and it’s apt as well
of Westham Golf Club, the principal amenity
of the Magnolia Green residential project
in suburban Moseley, Va. Westham had its
T Clark-drafted course routing permitted
om
a decade ago, which explains Clark’s co-design
credit on the full 18. Plans eventually shifted,
with Jack Nicklaus Design coming in as the
architectural firm of record.
iStar Financial, a $4 billion commercial
vending company based in New York City,
is the owner and developer. They have
positioned Magnolia Green as a community
that offers top-tier amenities while still
providing a comfortable entry price point
on housing for younger families. It’s a mixeduse, master-planned community approved
for some 3,500 residences when fully built
out. Currently there are 400 homes built
With a winding path
toward completion,
Westham Golf Club’s
final nine holes are set
to open next spring
w w w. v s g a . o r g
5/1/14 12:43 PM