Jacobson Golf Course Design, Inc.

News Releases
- 2008 -

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Barry Cronin
Cronin Communications, Inc.
847-698-1801

MEMBERS PRAISE JACOBSON’S RENOVATION OF NICKLAUS ORIGINAL

Richland CC in Nashville Gets Jack’s Stamp of Approval

LIBERTYVILLE, Illinois (Dec. 12, 2008) – Members of Richland Country Club in suburban Nashville are elated with Rick Jacobson’s $6.2 million renovation of their course, originally designed by Jacobson’s mentor Jack Nicklaus.

“The course is absolutely fabulous, as was our experience with Rick,” said Hal Johnson, past president of the club and the club’s point man on the renovation effort. “We were able to do some major infrastructure improvements and make some aesthetic changes while maintaining our status as a Jack Nicklaus Signature design course.

“Rick did a great job, and his strong working relationship with Jack helped us maintain our Signature status.”

Jacobson’s extensive “to-do” list included:

• Reconstruction of all greens to USGA standards; also increased number of pin placement zones while preserving the integrity of the original Nicklaus strategy
• Reconstruction of all teeing areas
• Extensive bunker renovation and addition of several strategic bunkers
• Planted new grasses in rough areas, utilizing zoysia and Bermuda strains
• Removed 250 trees near greens to allow for increased sunlight and improved growing conditions
• Expanded practice range by 50 percent; added a number of artificial-turf tees
• Added a new short game practice area
• Incorporated rock wall features in order to provide aesthetic accents
• Replaced original asphalt cart paths with new concrete cart paths and curbing

“The renovation of Richland Country Club enabled the club to make important improvements and updates in aesthetics, strategy, and infrastructure,” said Jacobson. “Having made a significant investment in their club, the members now will be able to enjoy the improvements for years to come.”

Jacobson consulted with Nicklaus during the planning process.

“I actually reviewed the plans with Jack and he signed off on them,” Jacobson said. “It remains a Jack Nicklaus Signature golf course.”

Early in his career, Jacobson worked for Nicklaus at his office in South Florida. In recent years, Jacobson has collaborated on the design of two courses with Nicklaus - Bayside Resort and Golf Club - named among the top new courses for 2006 by Golf Digest and Golfweek magazines, - and the 18-hole Harbor Station Golf Club, the focus of a large-scale master planned community in suburban Washington, D.C.

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JACOBSON TO DESIGN HIS THIRD COURSE IN CHINA

LIBERTYVILLE, Illinois (November 12, 2008) – Chicago area -based golf course architect Rick Jacobson has signed on to design his third golf course on the Chinese mainland north of Hong Kong.

The Si Hui Golf Club will be a 27-hole “destination” course located in the Guangdong province near the city of Guangzhou (pop. 11 million), better known to the western world as Canton.

Jacobson will design a new 18-hole course and completely renovate an existing nine-hole layout. The 27-hole facility will be the focal point of a new residential development that will include hotels, retail and commercial development.

“We are very excited to have an opportunity to create a truly enjoyable golf experience – one that is challenging but not punishing,” Jacobson said. “We’re always looking for a perfect balance so that golfers can walk away saying they had fun and would love to come back and play again.”

Jacobson currently is creating construction documents for the project; earthwork is scheduled to begin soon with construction to be complete in 2009.

Each of the three nine-hole tracks will measure about 3,500 yards from the back tees, meaning the course will be able to host professional or top amateur events. Multiple teeing areas will give players of all skill levels the ability to enjoy the course. The forward tees on each nine measure approximately 2,500 yards, Jacobson said.

Jacobson said he plans to incorporate large landforms to create dramatic definition for each golf hole. The course will have the Scottish feel of an inland links featuring Donald Ross-style sod-faced, flat-bottomed bunkers . A number of water features will be integrated into the design to accentuate the aesthetics of the course.

With elevation changes of more than 100 feet, Jacobson will utilize elevated tees to create dramatic vistas and give players the opportunity to get a full view of the golf hole before they play it. The undulating course is surrounded by mountains, which can be viewed from many perspectives.

The course also will include a world-class practice facility. A two-sided driving range will be augmented by short-game practice areas and putting greens on both ends of the range, Jacobson said.

The region is warm enough to allow for a 12-month golf season. To nurture long-term sustainability, Jacobson will utilize paspalum turf, a heat-resistant strain that requires limited water and fertilization.

Jacobson currently has two other courses under construction in China:

• The 36-hole Lion’s Lake Resort course in a golf course resort community setting near Guangzhou;
• Chaozhou is an 18-hole resort course located about an hour from Guangzhou by air. Guangdong province is the home of Mission Hills, the world’s largest golf resort, just a half-hour by air from Hong Kong.

Jacobson is known nationally for such heralded original 18-hole designs as Augustine GC in Stafford, Va., Bull Run CC in Haymarket, Va., Bear Trap Dunes in Ocean View, Del., and The Club at Strawberry Creek in Kenosha, Wis.

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JACOBSON TO DESIGN HIS FIRST EUROPEAN COURSE IN ITALY

Original 18-Hole Layout to Be Built on the “Southern Italian Riviera” as
Part of a Luxury Seaside Resort

LIBERTYVILLE, Illinois (Sept. 2, 2008) – Rick Jacobson’s increasingly international golf course design practice is expanding into the European market with a new resort project in Southern Italy.

It will be the first original 18-hole course in Europe for Jacobson, who has extensive international experience in the Asian market.

RDV Development and VFI have formed a joint venture partnership to develop a seaside golf resort.
A joint venture development group has retained Jacobson to design an 18-hole golf course in the southernmost Italian province of Calabria located on the “toe of the boot” across the Strait of Messina from the island of Sicily.

Jacobson’s layout will be part of The Jewel of the Sea resort located amid beautiful white sand beaches of the Ionian Sea, unspoiled Mediterranean coastlines, and an area rich with culture and history known as the “Southern Italian Riviera.” The resort is aimed primarily at Northern Europeans, with flights from Dublin, London, Germany, and Holland taking a maximum of two-and-a-half hours.

“The site is spectacular,” said Jacobson. “No matter where you are on the golf course you will have dramatic vistas in the distance – whether it’s the mountains, the sea, the rolling hills, local vineyards, or ancient castles. It’s a very unique setting that we think golfers are going to love.”

Jacobson has designed a course that ranges in length from 4,900 to 6,800 yards with five sets of tees and generous fairways aimed at accommodating golfers of all levels. The resort property starts at sea level and there is 250 feet of elevation change on the 200-acre golf course, providing dramatic sightlines on a number of holes, Jacobson said.

Consistent with Jacobson’s design philosophy, his goal will be to make the course enjoyable, unique, visually stunning, and challenging to draw golfers of all levels back to play time and time again. Flexibility in the design will allow the course to play long and tough for single-digit handicap golfers and provide an opportunity to host tournaments for professional and top amateur players.

“It’s not very difficult to design a golf course that’s hard for people to play,” Jacobson said. “The challenge is to design a course that is aesthetically attractive and interesting enough that the average player can enjoy it, but also include elements that challenge top players.”

Bunkering is one of the more important design elements of any golf course design and Jacobson said he plans to use large bunkers inspired by those of Alister MacKenzie at Cypress Point. Fairways will be contoured to collect rather than repel the shots of the average resort golfer and bunkers will be strategically located to challenge better players while not punishing the average golfer. Greens will be relatively generous in size with moderate contouring but with areas where pin placements can be tucked during tournament play.

Jacobson is taking a “green” approach to course maintenance. Native drought-resistant grasses will be used in non-play areas to assist in erosion control and to reduce the amount of irrigation required. The course is scheduled to be completed in 2010.

Jacobson Golf Course Design is an international golf course design firm founded by Rick Jacobson in 1991. The firm’s international portfolio includes projects in Japan and China.

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WINNETKA GOLF CLUB THRIVES FOLLOWING JACOBSON RENOVATION

LIBERTYVILLE, Illinois (June 3, 2008) – The golfers are raving.

Rick Jacobson’s $2 million renovation of the 18-hole Winnetka Golf Club has golfers enjoying improved playing surfaces, increased strategic options, and an overall more aesthetically pleasing golf experience.

“The feedback we have been receiving from our golfers has been just phenomenal,” said Cortney Miller, Winnetka’s longtime head PGA golf professional. “People have been raving about it. Some have been saying it’s better than some of the private clubs in the area. I have not heard one negative reaction.”

The Chicago District Golf Association – which rates courses as to their relative difficulty - recently judged Winnetka to be a more challenging layout than it was pre-renovation. This spring, the CDGA increased Winnetka’s course rating to72.6 from 71.3 and boosted its slope to130 from 123. The renovation added about 100 playable yards to the course, which measures about 6500 yards but plays like 6700 because of turf conditions, according to Miller.

“We are very pleased to have been able to make significant infrastructure and design improvements to a traditional parkland style course that is so popular among golfers from the North Shore and beyond,” Jacobson said.

The challenges at the 1920s-era course were typical of municipally owned courses of the same vintage: both the infrastructure and the design itself were virtually obsolete. Drainage was an ongoing issue and improvements in ball and club technology had made fairway bunkers strategically irrelevant.

“Like many Chicago area courses built in the early part of the last century, the fundamentals of the course were there at Winnetka: a solid routing, a good variety of holes, and generally decent aesthetics,” Jacobson said. “Over the years, technological advancements in course maintenance equipment have improved the overall quality of course conditions. To stay competitive with newer courses and renovated courses, older facilities need to make the investments necessary to improve playing conditions for golfers.”

Jacobson replaced the course’s 60-year-old pump house - which was responsible for getting water off the course after a big rain – and dredged two ponds to increase their water storage capacity. Winnetka also increased the diameter of pipes that transport water between key areas on the course so that water can be moved off more quickly.

In a move expected to conserve water while improving playing conditions, Winnetka added a state-of-the-art, GPS-based, computer-aided double-and-triple row irrigation system that enables the course superintendent to apply water to rough areas as well as the fairways but only in the amount absolutely necessary. And, Miller said, he can do it over the internet if he doesn’t happen to be at the course during a drought or a deluge.

Improvements in ball and club technology cause the ball to travel much farther than it did in the 1920s. Therefore, the course’s original fairway bunkers were located too close to the tee; as a result, good players easily blasted their balls over these “hazards” while high handicappers frequently found themselves in these bunkers.

Jacobson added and subtracted fairway bunkers to make holes more challenging for better players and less penal for average players – essentially moving bunkers farther away from the tee. He also added bunker complexes around several greens to frame holes and give them a more appealing look.

All 18 holes now have four teeing areas to accommodate players of varying abilities, Jacobson said.

“We have had a great working relationship with the Jacobson design firm,” Miller said. “They have really done a great job here.”

Bayside Resort and Golf Club was named among the top new courses for 2006 by Golf Digest and Golfweek magazines. The course was collaboration between Jacobson and Jack Nicklaus, his former employer and mentor.

Jacobson also is widely known for his renovations of such highly regarded classic courses, including Pete Dye’s Des Moines CC, site of the 1999 U.S. Senior Open; Oak Park CC and Bob O’Link GC, both Chicago area Donald Ross courses; North Shore CC in Glenview, Ill., an H.S. Colt/C.H. Alison course, Glen Oak CC in Glen Ellyn, Ill., a Tom Bendelow course, and Sunset Ridge CC in Northfield, Ill.

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INTERNATIONAL EXPANSION ORIENTS JACOBSON TO CHINA

LIBERTYVILLE, Illinois (March 12, 2008) – In the early 1990s, some of America’s largest and most influential corporations paved the way to China, seeking access to the country’s highly efficient workforce and to the seemingly unlimited potential of its consumer market.

Today, Chicago-area golf course architect Rick Jacobson walks in the footsteps of those early pioneers; only Jacobson is more likely to be pacing off yardages at one of his new Chinese golf courses than running to a meeting with government officials in an office building in Beijing.

Jacobson is among a new wave of American golf course architects who, as domestic demand for new golf courses all but dried up in recent years, have expanded their businesses in an attempt to attract more international projects.

“It became apparent a couple of years ago that, for a variety of reasons, demand for new golf courses in the United States was in serious decline,” Jacobson said recently. “For awhile, just about all of the new courses in the U.S. were being built in conjunction with real estate developments, but now even that market has stalled.

“Our decision to return to the international market and offer our services on a worldwide basis has been a good one,” Jacobson said. “Golf isn’t really ‘dying,’ as some in the U.S. like to say; it has just ‘relocated.’ It’s going strong in places like China, India, parts of the Middle East and Europe.”

Currently, Jacobson has two courses under construction in Guangdong province in southeastern China and another on the drawing board :

• The 36-hole Lion’s Lake Resort course in a golf community setting located near the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) is expected to complete phase one later this year.
• Chaozhou is an 18-hole resort course located about an hour from Guangzhou by air. Guangdong province is the home of MissionHills, the world’s largest golf resort, just a half-hour by air from Hong Kong.

“China’s increasing affluence, its growing middle class, and the availability of land indicate that China has all the elements for sustainable future growth in the game of golf,” Jacobson said. “It’s exciting to be a part of this historic period in the evolution of the game.”

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RICK JACOBSON RENOVATING EAST COURSE AT INDIAN LAKES

Will Redesign Nine Holes, Add Practice Range, Short Game Area

LIBERTYVILLE, Illinois (January 28, 2008) – Golfers everywhere know about the fear-inducing island green on the 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass. Each year, during the prestigious Players Championship, TV viewers indulge in the not-so-guilty pleasure of watching frustrated PGA Tour pros dunk their tee shots into the drink surrounding the putting surface.

It won’t be long now until Chicago area golfers have an opportunity to challenge an island green, too.

Internationally acclaimed golf course architect Rick Jacobson is including an island green as part of his renovation of the East Course at the Hilton Indian Lakes Resort in west suburban Bloomingdale near Chicago.

The brand new No. 8 hole is Jacobson’s new 150-yard par 3 original whose 9,000-square foot green sits in the middle of a large pond.

“It’s the kind of hole that will really get people’s blood going,” Jacobson said. “And it will be a great hole during competition whether it’s a professional event, high school tournament, junior golf competition, or a friendly foursome, because on that hole one tee shot can change the match.”

Jacobson’s new eighth is just one aspect of his overall re-design of the East Course, which will go from the current 18 holes down to a 9-hole championship caliber course.

Jacobson knows his way around Indian Lakes. It was he who transformed the resort’s West Course into the dramatic and highly acclaimed Blackhawk Trace, which re-opened all 18 holes in 2003.

“We are very excited to have the opportunity to return to Indian Lakes Resort and complete the transformation of its golf facilities,” Jacobson said. “Our goal is to integrate the new nine holes and the practice area with the existing 18-hole Blackhawk Trace course and to provide golfers with a fun, challenging, and aesthetically pleasing experience.”

The net result of the current renovation will leave the resort with a championship-caliber 27-hole golf course and practice facility.

Jacobson said the island green hole, which will play into the prevailing southwest wind, would feature a wood retaining wall and a front greenside bunker.

In order to accommodate Indian Lakes’ substantial outing business, Jacobson said the aesthetic look of the new nine holes will be consistent with the character of Blackhawk Trace, which features bunker complexes with dramatic slopes and fingers of turf that “bleed” into the sand. These “Alister Mackenzie-style” bunkers will replace the original 1965-vintage saucer-shaped bunkers originally installed legendary golf course architect Robert Bruce Harris.

In addition, Jacobson’s plans include:

• Providing four separate teeing areas on every hole to accommodate various levels of play and provide elasticity in course length. The separate tee areas will replace the original tee box design, which consisted of one long tee box with room for three sets of tees, one behind the other. All tees will be squared-off in order to give them a “classic design” appearance.
• All old greens will be re-graded and re-grassed to recapture original pin placements or create new ones. The existing poa greens will be converted to G-2 bentgrass to provide high quality putting surfaces.
• Adding fairway bailout areas not included in the original design.
• Dramatically upgrading all playing surfaces. Original bluegrass tees and fairways will be converted to high quality bentgrass.
• Incorporating fescue grasses in order to provide contrast, texture and wildlife habitats throughout the golf course. Eyebrows of fescue lining and defining bunkers will provide continuity with the Blackhawk Trace course.
• Installing new irrigation and drainage systems to improve overall course conditions.

“During our renovations at Indian Lakes, our goal has been to raise the golf courses to the highest standards of conditioning, challenge, and aesthetics demanded by today’s golfers,” Jacobson said. “One of the ways to make golf more fun and more interesting is to create golf holes that are memorable both visually and strategically.”

For those familiar with the East Course, Jacobson plans to save holes 2, 6, 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, and 8 (which will become the new 7th. As mentioned, the new island green hole will be No. 8 – or No. 26 in the context of the entire 27-hole track.

The new practice area will feature:

• A 10,000-square foot putting green
• A double-sided driving range with an area for private instruction on the far side of the range
• Five target greens
• A short game practice area for chipping, pitching, and sand bunker practice
• Nearly an acre of turf teeing area on the driving range along with artificial turf tee areas.

Hilton Indian Lakes Resort is located at 250 W. Schick Road in Bloomingdale, about 25 miles west of downtown Chicago and 12 miles from O’Hare International Airport.