hanks to an avid golfing family that included a highly
successful PGA Tour pro (his uncle George), Tom Fazio found himself, at age
19, at the center of a fledgling turn-key design and build course operation.
After several early local successes, including
Waynesborough
CC (1964) and
Moselem
Springs GC (1965), George and Tom Fazio unveiled
Jupiter
Hills (1970), the golf course on rolling land north of Palm Beach, Florida,
that established their national reputation.
| Vital Stats
born: February 10, 1945, Norristown, Pennsylvania
residence: Hendersonville, North Carolina
member: American Society of Golf Course Architects
Dream 18: arranged GOLF MAGAZINE's top Par 2000 holes into a dream course
|
The Fazios built a number of shapes into their traps - butterfly, flashed
ovals, and clover-leafs. The sand faces were modestly tipped toward the line
of play, thereby maximizing visibility and definition. By cutting the bunkers
into the native slopes, the Fazios were also able to soften the feel of uphill
climbs while avoiding blind shots altogether. The design team also utilized
native dunes vegetation that offset the dense green tees, fairways and greens.
Here was dramatic evidence of what has come to be called "the Pine Valley
look, "a look that Tom adopted as a strong element of his work once he started
up his own independent practice in the early 1980's. His early solo work
at
Wild
Dunes-Links Course (1980) was a brilliant weaving of classical design
values through marshland and seaside dunes.
Thanks in part to one of the finest shaping crews in the business, Tom Fazio
has developed a style that relies heavily upon earth-moving. Thus he does
not cast himself among the traditionalists of his craft. To this day he defends
his controversial re-design work at Inverness (1978) and Oak Hill (1979)
prior to national championships, where a number of older holes were replaced
by entirely modern ones. As for making use of native features, Fazio celebrates
what can be called "total site manipulation." "Today," he says, "the land
doesn't matter. You can build a great golf course anywhere."
Fazio has proven that, what with stunning earth-moving on a monumental scale,
such as at
Wade
Hampton (1987) in the mountains of western North Carolina. At
Shadow
Creek (1990) above Las Vegas, he transformed a bone-dry site that originally
offered exactly six feet of elevation change; 28 million cubic yards of
earth-moving later, he had created 213 feet of vertical transitions. Add
21,000 trees, water and stir. Presto! A lush golf oasis.
He can also rely upon more subtle deployment of flora to create different
looks, such as at
World
Woods (1993), 70 miles northwest of Orlando, Florida. There Fazio designed
a public facility comprising two 18-hole courses, each a gem in its own right,
plus a 9-hole short course, a 3-hole practice venue, a 2-acre putting course
and a 22-acre practice ground. The Pine Barrens Course is a free-form evocation
of scrub-land golf a la Pine Valley. The fairways are broad - here the Fazio
formula - but the vegetation that frames it is uncharacteristically dry and
forbidding if you hit into it.
Fazio has perfected the art of building beautiful looking golf holes, and
his bunker patterns are designed to highlight the terrain visually rather
than to emphasize strategic play. There's also a decided reliance upon golf
cart paths to link holes where the routing does not naturally flow. His
impressive success as a favorite among those who evaluate new courses owes
to Fazio having perfected a certain formula for creating overwhelming lovely
holes that are meticulously manicured and pleasant to play.
| Locate Additional Tom Fazio Courses
|
Tom Fazio's best:
Black
Diamond Ranch, Lecanto, FL (1987
Butler
National, Oakbrook, IL (1976) - w/George Fazio
Estancia,
Scottsdale, AZ (1995)
Galloway
National, Galloway Township, NJ (1995)
GC
of Oklahoma, Tulsa, OK (1982)
Jupiter
Hills, Jupiter, FL (1970) - w/George Fazio
National, Woodbridge, ONT (1976) - w/George Fazio
Old
Overton, Birmingham, AL (1993)
Treetops-Fazio,
Gaylord, MI (1992)
Shadow
Creek, North Las Vegas, NV (1990)
Quarry-La
Quinta, La Quinta, CA (1994)
Ventana-Canyon,
Tucson, AZ (1984)
Ventana-Mountain,
Tucson, AZ (1987)
Vintage
Club-Desert, Indian Wells, CA (1983)
Wade
Hampton, Cashiers, NC (1987)
Wild
Dunes-Links, Isle of Palms, SC (1980)
World
Woods-Pine Barrens, Homossassa Springs, FL (1993)
World
Woods-Rolling Oaks, Homossassa Springs, FL (1993)
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