News Detail
WADSWORTH-BUILT ALOTION CLUB TAKES TOP HONORS IN "BEST NEW PRIVATE" CATEGORY
By Ron Whitten
Golf Digest
January 2006
Lights Out
Back in the mid-1980s, Warren Stephens--son of the late Masters chairman Jack Stephens, and an Augusta National member himself--began taking an annual dream golf vacation. He and seven buddies conducted four-day stroke-play tournaments among themselves, contested mostly on America's 100 Greatest Courses. One year they played the National Golf Links of America, Shinnecock Hills and Maidstone. Then it was on to Pine Valley and Merion. Another year it was Oakmont and Laurel Valley. They called their little tournament "America's Lights Out Tour," and they began referring to themselves as Alotians. Alas, in the late 1990s, the buddies turned off the lights, citing age and family commitments.
Stephens soon decided to establish his own club outside his home town of Little Rock, one he'd call The Alotian Club (pronounced ah-lotion) in memory of his favorite event and patterned after his favorite club, Augusta National.
Not surprisingly, Stephens hired the consulting architect of Augusta National, Tom Fazio, to design his course. Stephens turned Fazio loose on several hundred acres of forested hills overlooking Lake Maumelle, a reservoir that provides drinking water for the city of Little Rock, 12 miles to the east. Fazio and his chief assistant, Andy Banfield, did a routing, then suggested Stephens buy more land to take advantage of gentler terrain to the north (much of The Alotian now occupies that additional parcel) and to prevent development from ever intruding upon the tranquility of the setting.
The Alotian does not imitate Augusta National so much as it celebrates it. Yes, it has some extreme elevation changes, same as Augusta. From the back tee, the opening drive drops 70 feet to the fairway below, and the tee of the 205-yard sixth sits 85 feet above its green. The greens, with air-circulation systems beneath each, similar to the system first developed at Augusta, are big and rolling. Like Augusta, there are accents of azaleas and dogwoods behind some greens, and majestic pines line most holes, with beds of rust-colored pine needles beneath the tree lines. Stephens even brought in veteran Masters caddie Carl Jackson to organize his caddie program.
Such subtle touches undoubtedly help, but Alotian earned its designation as America's Best New Private Course of 2005 because of its incredible design. Nearly every green is visible from the tee, and for the few that aren't, bunkers clearly define and guard target areas that must be hit to see the green. In fact, this might be the most strategically-bunkered course by Tom Fazio in years. "Absolutely," Stephens says. "I told Tom I didn't want a lot of decorative bunkers out there. I want our bunkers to mean something."
The course also flows effortlessly across the landscape, with each hole, indeed almost every shot, changing direction, so that players must always consider differing wind conditions.
Add to that some inspiring vistas, with Lake Maumelle looking like Lake Tahoe without the homesites, and the conclusion is unavoidable: The Alotian is now America's Lights Out Course.
Runner-up Canyata (pronounced can-YAY-tah) is multimillionaire Gerry Forsythe's back-yard retreat, built on the farm where he grew up near tiny Marshall, Ill., an hour southeast of Champaign-Urbana. Intended primarily for the entertainment of his children and grandchildren, Forsythe retained golf architect Bob Lohmann to plan a modest three-hole layout. But Lohmann and his then-chief associate, Mike Benkusky (who has since established his own company), convinced Forsythe that the land was worthy of a full-blown 18. Benkusky handled much of the design, and Forsythe, who had made his fortune in industrial boilers, bought his own bulldozers and built the course himself, through wooded ravines, around scenic lakes and across farmland transformed into linksland. The finished product is flawless and gorgeous. Of course, your course would be, too, if it only handled 850 rounds a year.
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