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"IF YOU LIKE GOLF"
weekly online golf column
by
Chris Dortch
June 5, 2001
Visitors to Hampton Creek a couple of weeks ago might have been
startled to look up and see a familiar face tramping around the
nine-hole layout. It was PGA Tour veteran Peter Jacobsen, whose
career, like that of so many of his peers, has drifted toward golf
course design.
Jacobsen has gone into business with Jim Hardy, whose company
built Bear Trace at Harrison Bay. Jacobsen and Hardy were in
Ooltewah to check out Hampton Creek, which is about to be
expanded. The club’s owners want to build a championship-length
18-hole layout. The course currently plays to a par of 32 with its
five par-3 holes.
All that is going to change. The owners have acquired land
across Snow Hill Road. Holes from the front nine and the back nine
will be built on that land as golfers will cross the road a couple
of times during the course of the round.
But long before that becomes reality, Hampton Creek owners have
to pick a designer to complete the job. Jacobsen and Hardy are
candidates, and another is Jay Morrish, who has built several
standout courses on his own and in partnership with Tom Wieskopf.
Three courses with Morrish’s name on them are used for PGA Tour
tournaments.
"We were tremendously impressed with what Jim and Peter
had to say," said Rick Balthrop of Hampton Creek. "We
were impressed with their character and how they treated
everybody. It would be a thrill to work with them on the project.
But you can talk for days about Jay Morrish and what he’s done.
It’ll be a hard decision to make, but one we want to do
quickly."
Morrish and his son Carter toured the Hampton Creek site three
months ago, and like Hardy and Jacobsen, came away impressed.
"Hardy and Jacobsen were impressed with the overall feel
of the golf course," Balthrop said. "And they loved our
greens."
Hampton Creek has some of the best greens in town, thanks to a
decision to use Crenshaw bent grass and hire former Honors Course
assistant Mike Anderson to take care of them. Anderson learned
from one of the best at The Honors, greens superintendent David
Stone.
Balthrop is confident Hampton Creek can become a quality
championship course when the holes are built on the new property.
"We joked about it," Balthrop said. "I told
Peter on the phone that he’s probably heard it a million times,
but we’ve got the prettiest piece of property I’ve ever
seen."
The land has gently rolling hills and a healthy stand of trees.
The same creek that meanders around the original nine does the
same on the new property. The golf course will eventually have a
nice view of Wolftever Lake, but holes probably won’t be built
adjacent to the lake. That land will be reserved for lake front
homes.
"We think we can have a good golf course with our greens
and the scenery," Balthrop said. "We know the existing
holes need some work. But we think if you pull these holes out and
imagine they were part of an 18-hole golf course, they’d stand
up on their own."
Whoever is chosen to design the new nine will actually have to
weave the existing holes into the plan. That will be challenging,
as Jacobsen pointed out in his walk through of the course.
"They recognized some deficiencies," Balthrop said.
"Peter noticed that there weren’t a lot of opportunities to
pull out a driver."
The task for the new designer will be to carve out some longer
par-4 holes and find another couple of par-5s. But the land is
there.
"You can just look at the land and imagine golf holes on
it," Balthrop said. "We could have something truly
unique out here, a course where you’ll go out [on the front
nine] and then come back in, like the traditional old courses used
to do. We can build another clubhouse and locate it more
strategically between the nines. There’s a lot we can do here.
We’re excited about the possibilities."
www.hamptoncreek.com
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