Virginia Golfer Sep / Oct 2019 | Page 37

stories. I was more interested in looking at all those beautiful holes and wondering what went into designing them.” With all that knowledge rattling around his head, the family business—Stuart M. Perry Inc.—decided to buy 320 acres adja- cent to the quarry in 1999. It had been an apple and peach orchard with a number of wooded acres all around, but Perry had no interest in the fruit trees. Instead, his passion for golf design took root and eventually blossomed into the two Rock Harbor courses. Four years after the land had been purchased, The Rock course opened on Father’s Day in 2003. “After we had bought that property, we started a second shift at the quarry,” Perry said. “I’d work it out so I could take Thursday afternoons off and we’d go play someplace within an hour’s drive. “I know some of the decisions they made in building those courses were based on economics. But when I built these courses, I had an unlimited supply of fill dirt and clay. At the quarry, we had to remove the clay to get to the stone.” And so, before long, the fully loaded 35-ton quarry trucks were making their Denny Perry frequently drove the heavy equipment in order to sculpt the holes himself. gully, I filled it. If a landing area wasn’t flat, I’d make it flat. … And I wanted every hole to be unique. Too many courses use the same club on the par 3s. I’ve got them at all different distances.” Perry had other bright ideas. He had seen his father and his mother, Kitty, also an enthusiastic golfer, move up to easier tees as they got older. As a result, there are six different tees on the two courses— “… And I wanted every hole to be unique. Too many courses use the same club on the par 3s. I’ve got them at all different distances.” —Denny Perry way up to the old orchard, their contents dumped precisely where Perry wanted them. In the end, it amounted to four mil- lion yards of material. At the going rate of $5 per yard, that would cost about $20 million. For Perry, it was virtually free. “It allowed me to do whatever I want- ed,” Perry said. “If I needed to fill in a none of them red, the color that usually denotes a woman’s tee box. “Men won’t play from the women’s tees,” Perry said. “So we don’t have them.” What he does have is a Rock course that measures 7,300 from the tips all the way down to 3,900 from the far closer green tees. The newer Boulder course, opened in 2015, ranges from 7,500 down to 3,700 yards. He has a 731- yard par 5 on the Boulder, a 631 yarder on the Rock. Twenty of the 36 holes feature water. There was no water on the original acreage, but now 20 of the 36 holes feature water. vsga.org There are three different island greens, 16 multi-tiered greens and and hundreds of hole locations on each course. There are 13 waste bunkers on the two layouts, 100 traditional bunkers and 19 ponds. There was no water on the original orchard acre- age, so Perry planted hundreds of yards of pipe all around to build the ponds to assure the sound of a splash throughout the two courses. Perry managed to build them even as he worked full-time at the quarry. He frequently drove the heavy equipment in order to sculpt the holes himself. There are large rocks all around as well, some in play and all taken from the quarry, including three arches built with massive boulders on cart paths between greens and tees. The courses are open to the public, with 170 full memberships and 2,000 more who have partial plans. Perry estimates about 35,000 rounds are played a year, a number that keeps growing all the time. Because there are no water and sewer utilities from the local municipality quite yet, Perry has had to hold off on plans to add a convention center, condos and rental homes designed to attract more out-of- town players. At some point, he’d like to think Rock Harbor will become a destina- tion venue. He also emphasized that he has no plans to build another course. “I’m 68,” he said. “I can’t do seven days a week, 12- and 14-hour days anymore. Tell you the truth, I never thought I could do something like this. When I’m out there playing, I’m still thinking how we could do something else to make a hole even better. I do miss the building part of it. But I can tell you I had a lot of fun doing it.” It definitely shows, rocks and hard places included. S E P T E M B E R / O C T O B E R 2 0 19 | V I R G I N I A G O L F E R 35