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.
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