{"id":1377,"date":"2014-06-12T17:41:27","date_gmt":"2014-06-12T17:41:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theaposition.com\/jaystuller\/?p=1377"},"modified":"2014-06-12T17:41:27","modified_gmt":"2014-06-12T17:41:27","slug":"the-resurrections-of-clear-creek-amp-schaffers-mill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theaposition.com\/jaystuller\/golf\/1377\/the-resurrections-of-clear-creek-amp-schaffers-mill","title":{"rendered":"The Resurrections Of Clear Creek & Schaffer\u2019s Mill"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Tee<\/a>

Tee shots on the third hole at Clear Creek Tahoe seem to hang in the air for a full minute, dropping some 200 feet. \u00a0Photo by Rod Hanna<\/p><\/div>\n

I have a friend who is an aficionado of golf course architecture, rates them for a major magazine and grows downright emotional during voluble arguments about relatively attributes and qualities.\u00a0 So it wasn\u2019t entirely surprising when he was moved to choked silence and near tears when Clear Creek Tahoe<\/a>, a sublime Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw design<\/a> in the mountains between the east side of Lake Tahoe and Nevada\u2019s Carson City, shut down during a foreclosure in 2011 – – just two years after it opened.\u00a0 Photos of grass growing up in the middle of bunkers only worsened the pain.<\/p>\n

In the depths of the Great Recession nearly everyone in the 99 percent had a rough time, including another golf course and real estate development on the north side of Lake Tahoe, near Truckee.\u00a0 Originally known as the Timilick Club – – with the course designed by the late John Harbottle and Johnny Miller – – new ownership had just rebranded it as Schaffer\u2019s Mill<\/a>.\u00a0 As I wrote three years ago in The A Position<\/i>, the ambitious plans for a fascinating golf course and property were off to halting start<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, come June of 2014, spring is coinciding with a wondrous resurrection at Clear Creek and Schaffer\u2019s Mill, two examples suggesting that golf and economics in the High Sierra are once again healthy and verging on the robust.\u00a0 A private club, Clear Creek re-opened in 2013 and is now showing off a meticulously maintained course and freshly paved roads to prospective members, infrastructure that will also serve roughly 300 home sites on the 1,600-acre property.<\/p>\n

Finding the Clear Creek Routing<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

For more than a decade developers tried to make something of this parcel of land around Nevada\u2019s Clear Creek, just up the road from Carson City.\u00a0 At least three architects prepared routings before Bill Coore was asked to take a look.\u00a0 He and Crenshaw had never done a course in Northern California, much less one exactly like Clear Creek.\u00a0 And even before agreeing to scout the site, Coore expressed reservations about the mountainous setting, which can have terrain too severe for strategic course design and soils too poor for good maintenance.\u00a0 But Coore then began to look around, look around and look around.<\/p>\n

Indeed, he walked the property during two more five-day visits, ten days total, before he finally envisioned a course and agreed to sketch a routing, a result that actually surprised the veteran architect. \u201cThere is no substitute for a spectacular natural setting,\u201d says Coore. \u00a0\u201cAs designers, we look for sites where the terrain presents interesting situations and where there is an interesting\u00a0backdrop for the movement of the land.\u00a0This is a very surprising piece of property \u2013 an area of great contours, elevation changes, vistas. \u00a0And it\u2019s walkable! It\u2019s a mountain golf course, but it doesn\u2019t feel that way.\u00a0We think golfers will find a unique golf experience at Clear Creek Tahoe, and we hope every round includes some of that spirit we felt when we first came here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The view from the tenth tee at Schaffer’s Mill. Photo by Rod Hanna<\/p><\/div>\n

Indeed, very little earth was moved during construction.\u00a0 What\u2019s more, Coore summarily handled the elevation changes at the third hole, with a drive that drops 200 feet from the one of the highest points on the course to the lowest; all other slopes are gentle. With natural contours, prominent rock outcroppings and bunker shapes that mimic the surrounding mountains, the course offers several blind tee shots.\u00a0 The greens here are large and wildly contoured in places, and turf everywhere is in perfect condition – – thanks to Superintendent Mike Cunniff.<\/p>\n

The Massachusetts native cut his teeth as an assistant at the Charles River Country Club, a Donald Ross design that opened in 1921.\u00a0 He also worked at another Coore-Crenshaw design, the Old Sandwich Club in New England.\u00a0 \u201cBack there my main challenge was drainage, drainage and drainage,\u201d says Cunniff.\u00a0 \u201cOut here it\u2019s irrigation, irrigation, irrigation.\u201d Fortunately for Clear Creek, the 192 acres dedicated to the course – – which can stretch out to more than 7,000 yards at the tips – – is supplied with treated water from Incline Village.<\/p>\n

Head Professional Colin Campbell<\/a>, who moved here from Scotland in 2009 and decided to stay with the project even during the dark years, is being rewarded in several ways.\u00a0 Because Clear Creek will have a limited number of members, he\u2019ll run a golf shop without tee times.\u00a0 Second, \u201cMy barometer for a great course is, is it memorable?\u201d poses Campbell.\u00a0\u00a0 Clear Creek \u201creminds me of the old, classic courses in Scotland, the character.\u00a0 It fits the land beautifully and looks so natural.\u201d\u00a0 And finally, he gets to live near Lake Tahoe.<\/p>\n

Schaffer\u2019s Mill Growing, Offering Specials<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Unlike Clear Creek, Schaffer\u2019s Mill never closed.\u00a0 But while also planned as a private course, it has been open for some public play to help it weather the economic storm, although that window may eventually close. Most encouraging of all is construction work on several home-sites on the 475-acre master planned community. The utter quiet on the course two years ago is now broken by economic activity, and in north Lake Tahoe and Truckee that is a welcome sound indeed.<\/p>\n

Moreover, Schaffer\u2019s Mill is today offering a remarkable stay and play package from July 4th<\/sup> though the 7th<\/sup> for only $399<\/i><\/b>, including a round of golf, a summer concert, poolside festivities and accommodations for two for three nights at either Schaffer\u2019s Mill Mountain Lodge<\/a>, The Cedar House Sport Hotel<\/a>, the Hampton Inn Suites<\/a> or The Ritz Carlton<\/a> – – all of which would normally be a $1,169 value. \u00a0The property is also unveiling its new Schaffer\u2019s Mill Tennis & Racquet Club.<\/p>\n

\"Schaffer's<\/a>That\u2019s only a few of the amenities Schaffer\u2019s Mill will offer residents and members.\u00a0 In addition there is a private club on Lake Tahoe, access to a 48-foot Sunseeker Yacht and the Base Camp at the Northstar Ski area, a fitness center and restaurant on the property and more.\u00a0 Open to reciprocal for members of other private clubs, it is offering members of the Northern California Golf Association<\/a> a chance to play the course for $135 on Mondays.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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