Allen
Kim could be on the ninth hole of Augusta National as
he focuses intently on lining up the small white ball
with the hole about six feet away. That is, if it weren’t
for the mind-numbing cold, which freezes the breath
escaping from the layers of fleece he’s wearing.
“I’m kind of sorry I came out,” Kim
says jokingly, shivering after playing 18 holes on a
Sunday in late January at the new Cannon Ridge Golf
Club in Stafford County.
Welcome to year-round golf at one of the newest and
most-talked about golf developments in Virginia. This
course and two more planned by former pro golfer and
PGA Tour Commissioner Deane Beman and renowned golf
course designer Bobby Weed are creating a buzz that’s
drawing golfers from as far away as Philadelphia.
Spanning a ridge over the Rappahannock River where Union
cannons blasted away at Confederate positions during
the four-day Battle of Fredericksburg in 1862, the 54-hole
golf complex is the anchor of Fredericksburg-based Silver
Companies’ Celebrate Virginia project, much like
a major department store at a mall. Project planners
believe the links will help draw visitors to the city
and give them another reason to stay.
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“The
concept of the Celebrate Virginia project was that it
would help Fredericksburg become more of a tourist destination,”
says Chris Hornung, the project developer for Silver
Companies. A $3 million gondola expected to be built
next year will whisk golfers and visitors across the
river to the rest of the planned development, which
includes hotels, shopping and offices. Plans also call
for historic interpretations, reenactments, small museums
and other entertainment to entice more than just golfers
across the river.
The golf project accomplishes two dreams for Beman,
a five-time winner on the PGA tour. As PGA commissioner
from 1974 to 1994, Beman is credited by many for popularizing
the sport. Now he hopes to further promote golf as affordable
and easy.
While a day of fees for greens and a cart can run into
the hundreds of dollars — too much for many golfers
— Cannon Ridge’s peak rates are only $69
including a cart. Peak winter rates of $34 attract 25
to 125 players a day and earned the course a nomination
for Golf Digest’s best new affordable public golf
course. “We’ve seen some high-priced courses
that are only half as good as this one,” says
Kim. Plexiglass windshields on the gas-powered golf
carts help cut the winter wind, too.
While Chris Hartig hasn’t played Cannon Ridge
yet, the golf pro at Kingsmill Resort says affordability
in general is good. “There’s a variety of
incomes,” he says. “Anything that brings
people in is good for the game.”
One reason Cannon Ridge can charge so much less than
upscale courses in Williamsburg and other resorts is
that the land was cheaper. The ravines, rolling hills
and natural elevation meant they didn’t have to
move as much dirt to build the course. Beman anticipates
spending $10 million to $12 million to develop the three
courses, about the same amount many developers spend
on 18 holes.
The rolling farmland, says Beman, was ideal for golfing.
There are enough bunkers and bluffs to challenge most
players, but the natural terrain makes for eye-pleasing
gradations.
The original plans called for building five courses
on 630 acres, but opposition from local residents and
environmental groups, and Beman and Weeds’ vision
persuaded Silver to scale back to three courses on mostly
the same property. They also pressed for a more open,
tree-lined, Scottish links-style course instead of lining
the fairways with homes. “We didn’t have
to make any sacrifices for development. We could do
just what we wanted for the golf,” boasts Beman.
He designed the first course, which opened last year.
Work on the second course, designed by Weed, will begin
in the spring, weather permitting. A planned third course
may be private, but no decision has been announced.
Cannon Ridge enters a golf market where there is a lot
of competition at the top and bottom ends, but not so
much in the middle tier that it targets. Nearby competitors
include Augustine Golf Club, also in Stafford, where
greens fees run $44 to $80, and Lee’s Hill Golfers’
Club a few miles south in Spotsylvania County, where
fees run from $29 to $59.
Things are still pretty Spartan at Cannon Ridge, though.
A handful of small cardboard yard signs scattered along
the narrow roads of rural Stafford are about the only
visible indicators that the course exists. A doublewide
trailer serves as the clubhouse for now; a full-serve
facility is supposed to open later this year. A deck
off the back has patio furniture and a barbecue for
warmer weather, and a large white tent shelters a few
dozen golf carts.
Though light on amenities, the operating “Beman
Course” attracts a cadre of hardcore golfers,
who come out no matter what the mercury says. “It’s
a beautiful course and has nice views,” says Chris
Song of Clifton. Adds Kim: “It’s not the
most difficult, but it’s not the easiest.”
It’s also a fast course to play. Smaller greens
and cart paths that run close to the tees shave 15 to
20 yards per hole and cut golfers’ walk times.
Cannon Ridge can be played in less than four hours during
good weather, compared to up to six hours at many public
courses. There’s also an economic motive as well
since more people can play the course in a day.
A fast, aesthetically pleasing and inexpensive course
is what the sport desperately needs. While Tiger Woods
has done as much for golf as Michael Jordan did for
basketball, golf is treading water as a sport because
it is so difficult to play well. About 3 million people
start playing golf each year, and an equal number give
up in frustration.
Beman hopes to reverse that trend. He plans to use the
Cannon Ridge project to promote what he calls the 6/90
Experimental Teaching System. The 6/90 refers to Beman’s
belief that with the right instruction, newcomers to
the game can be shooting in the 90s in six months. Many
new golfers are still shooting closer to 120 after six
months and finally drop out. The $100 course is scheduled
to begin this month.
Beman developed the idea after seeing how his grandchildren
struggled to learn the game, and the success they had
after he developed teaching aids, such as a contoured
grip that forced them to hold the club correctly. Beman
told the Charleston, S.C. Post and Courier newspaper
last November that his experiment isn’t a profit-making
venture. “The information and methods will be
available to anybody who would like to use them,”
he said.
Bob Baldassari, Cannon Ridge’s general manager
and head pro, shares Beman’s altruism. “We’re
really passionate about growing the game of golf,”
he says. But clearly it’s about more than golf.
Just in the short term Beman’s initiative will
help Cannon Ridge make a name for itself in the competitive
golf market. More importantly, whatever success the
new complex has will certainly boost the massive commercial
project that it anchors. Let’s just say, they’d
really like to hit the green.
