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firm from Boulder, Colorado,” says
Forrest. “The land planners wanted
to put 50 lots up on the mesa, but, in
discussions with the clients, I said ‘It
would be nice to have 50 homeowners
see this view, but if you put the golf
course up here, you get to sell the view
again every day’. They agreed, and
after about 15 different routings we
had something everyone was happy
with. The best thing of all is that the
plateau is big enough for eighteen
holes but not for anything else—even
the driving range will be off the top of
the plateau.”
Hills & Forrest signed a contract
with the Weinreis family back in
2007, and completed the design in
2008. The documents went out to
contractors, and construction was
set to start in 2009 when, due to
the sinking economy, the clients
pulled the plug. “We called every
six months, and just recently, the
clients concluded it was time to push
the button,” says Forrest. “We have
started to clear, and the site is really
being revealed. The family’s lead
guy, who is not really a golf person,
though he does play occasionally,
likes to go up there, and he says that
every time he does he is blown away
by the views. Truly, I have never
seen a site like this. All the time
the project was on hold, I worried
that we would never get to build it,
because it is the sort of property that
defines a career. It is like an island
in the sky that happens to be the
perfect size for a golf course. If you
compare it to oceanfront courses,
there you have the sea on one side
and the other side is usually less
spectacular. Here, the magnificent
views continue, and change, as you
work your way around the site.”
Wyoming Club will be a second
home facility, with between 100-150
homes in the first phase. “The houses
are 100 feet or more below the golf
course,” says Smith. “The site is so
natural that the course itself really
has to match, so we are going to
make it rugged and rough. We will
use lots of the existing features—the
craggy dead trees hanging off the
cliff, the sagebrush. Clearing will
finish this year, and we will get as
much of the construction as we
can done in 2015. It is going to be
something very special.”
Minot County Club
Over in North Dakota, architect Jim
Engh, ASGCA, is hard at work on
another new course, this time with
a very different backstory. Minot
Country Club, in the town of the same
name, was originally designed in the
1920s by Tom Vardon, the brother of
the great Harry. “I grew up in a town
called Dickinson, about 200 miles
away,” says Engh. “We played a lot
of tournaments at Minot, so I have a
bunch of history with the place.”
Unfortunately for Minot golfers, the
club’s original site always proved prone
to flooding. The Souris River flows
south from Canada to Minot before
turning back to the north and returning
to Canada. When the river broke its
banks, the course would flood, and,
over time, the club and city built a
series of levees to mitigate potential
flood risks. These levees though proved
inadequate to protect against a huge
flood that came in 2011. “It was a
500-year storm, and the defenses just
Minot Country Club
Location: Minot, North Dakota
Architect: Jim Engh, ASGCA
