Architect Says Course Will Be Among Elite

With each new golf course in Northwest Arkansas comes the hype of it being the next great links layout in the area. Many times golfers have been a little less shocked and awed by the eventual layouts. And in some cases, the course was never built.

But some of the hype surrounding the planned Clear Creek Golf Club in Johnson — set to open in spring of 2004 — is worth noting. It’s hardly the same old song and dance.

Renowned golf course architect Robert Trent Jones Jr., son of the late legendary course architect Robert Trent Jones Sr., believes Clear Creek will be special, very special. And he has designed more than 200 courses in 32 countries in his 36 years at his profession. Among his designs are Little Rock’s Chenal Country Club and Wentwood Hills in Wales, site of the 2010 Ryder Cup.

While a guest of Tyson at an Arkansas Razorback game, Jones hinted Clear Creek would become one of his signature designs. Gregg Ogden, president and CEO of Athletic World Advertising in Fayetteville and an avid golfer, said Jones was genuine in his excitement about the course.

“I looked [Jones] right in the eye and said, ‘OK, I’m hearing all this stuff about how nice the course is going to be,'” Ogden said. “I asked him, ‘Just how nice will it be?’ He said, ‘Gregg, with everything it’s got going for it, when Golf Digest comes out with its top new private courses next year, it will be No. 1.'”

Clear Creek will certainly be among the most exclusive in the region. Its membership initiation fee is $25,000 or $30,000 for a corporate membership. There is also a national membership of $15,000, but the member must reside outside of a 75-mile radius of the course.

By comparison, Rogers’ Pinnacle Country Club recently lowered its initiation fee from $30,000 to $15,000 — $10,000 if paid in one lump sum. That fee is expected to be raised again. Pinnacle’s monthly dues are $350. Clear Creek has yet to set a monthly fee.

The course and surrounding residential and future commercial areas are being developed by John Tyson, John Flake and Brandon Rogers.

Rogers is the managing partner of Orion Realty in Fayetteville, the development management and exclusive listing agent for Clear Creek sales. He said John Tyson, CEO and chairman of Tyson Foods Inc., said from the outset the development would revolve around the golf course and whatever land was leftover could be used for lots.

“We made some minor compromises residentially to have a world-class golf course,” Rogers said.

Jim Gabel, a Fayetteville Realtor who is also playing across the country in Senior PGA qualifying events, looked over the progress of the course recently with Tyson. Gabel told said the course was going to be “amazing.”

Others share Gabel’s view.

“To sum it up, with most businesses that have good people, good things happen. Well, [Clear Creek] literally has the best people in the world,” said Mike Dunaway of the TV show “Golfing Arkansas.” “They have the backing of Tyson and they have one of the premier locations that you could put a golf course on.

“This is John Tyson’s dream. When he does due diligence, he doesn’t make a phone call. He gets on a jet and goes and looks at something. What he wants for this golf course is beyond first class. Every kind of advanced technology there is in golf is going into this course.”

Workers are currently putting in the drainage and irrigation systems and the fairway grass will be laid in early May.

The new course has also made it possible for a native Arkansan to return home.

Chris McSpadden is the director of golf at Clear Creek. The 33-year-old Paragould native longed for the opportunity to return to Arkansas, but said there had not been many opportunities at first-class clubs in the state.

McSpadden earned a degree in professional golf management from Mississippi State University, and has since been at clubs in the southeast. He worked at TPC at Southwind in Memphis as an assistant, then moved to Chattanooga’s Signal Mountain Golf Club. He would become an assistant at TPC at Sugarloaf in Duluth, Ga., before becoming head golf professional for TPC at Piper Glen in Charlotte, N.C., where he helped host the PGA Senior Tour’s Home Depot Invitational. He returned as head pro at TPC at Sugarloaf in 1999. Sugarloaf annually hosts the PGA Tour’s BellSouth Classic the week prior to The Masters.

McSpadden’s experience with the national-type tournaments could come in handy.

“It’s no secret John wants to host everything from collegiate championships to tour events,” Dunaway said.

McSpadden said the club will hire two golf assistants later this year. A head golf professional could be hired later as McSpadden will be spending time helping with the future of the club’s financial infrastructure.

The membership will be kept at a manageable level so the club can retain a no tee-time policy.

The University of Arkansas men’s and women’s golf teams will call Clear Creek their home course, allowing them a much shorter drive from the UA to Johnson as opposed to driving to their current home at Pinnacle.

The Razorbacks will have their own separate practice range as well as an indoor practice facility.

Also, Clear Creek and the UA will collaborate on studies and research in turf grass physiology at the course. Internship programs for UA students for golf club operations and hospitality management are also planned.

The course will use Cavalier Zoysia grass on its fairways with bent grass greens. Cavalier Zoysia is a fine-textured high-density turf, with long slender leaves noted for its uniformity of appearance and distinct summer presentation.

The course will feature native grasses that McSpadden called “Arkansas hay” about two- or three-feet tall borders some of the fairways. Clear Creek, a free-running stream that is mostly spring fed, runs through the property. There are 16 bridges on the course, five which cross the creek and the others crossing ravines and marshland. There are also two lakes and other marsh areas.

“It’s really a world-class facility,” McSpadden said. “The opportunity to come back and be involved in the development so early is something I’ve always wanted to do.”

Asked to name a signature hole at Clear Creek, McSpadden said, “I can’t. They’re all so good. There are a lot of holes that will be remembered.”

“Just because you’ve designed a course and have it on a piece of paper, it doesn’t take shape until you move dirt,” McSpadden said. “We’re blessed with a piece of property that is very diverse. Some holes are on the ridge, some are down in the native prairie land. They’ve tried to leave the holes as natural as possible. It’s kind of like Mother Nature designed it. They didn’t want to move a lot of dirt. They wanted it to look like the golf course has been here a long time.

“The course is designed to really put shot-making back into the game of golf. It’s really not a resort course, not over-bunkered, not wide open. It’s going to fit into the terrain of Northwest Arkansas. There’s really not going to be another course like it.”

Something a bit out of the ordinary at Clear Creek is that the course does not have a returning front nine, meaning the front nine holes does not end back at the clubhouse.

The clubhouse at Clear Creek is still in the designing stage by Marlon Blackwell of Fayetteville. The club house will include a restaurant, small bar, golf shop, locker rooms and exercise room.

The course will open without the clubhouse. Rogers said Clear Creek wanted to establish its core membership first, then put in the contemporary clubhouse.

The club will also include a swimming pool, practice facilities, and activities area and dining areas. The pool and activities area facility will include a snack bar and video game room.

Landscape Unlimited, which recently helped in the renovation of several holes at Augusta (Ga.) National Golf Club, home of The Masters, is the general contractor on the project.

To read the cover story about Clear Creek, click here.