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White Columns

By contrast, White Columns, a Fazio creation in Alpharetta about 40 minutes north of the city, is superlative. It sits on a majestic land site thick with pines, a few lakes and dramatic elevation changes. Fazio has taken advantage of these features to build a fine upscale daily fee course that has enormous visual and strategic appeal. Moreover, development around the course will be kept to a minimum.

At White Columns, every hole is unique but a few stand out. Number 4 is a dramatic 450-yard test routed from an elevated tee box down to a valley that leaves a long approach to an equally elevated green. Number 9 is a 590-yard job that goes over a lake and then upward to a green with a narrow front opening. Number 17 is a spectacular par 3 of 215 yards that features a 60-foot drop from the tee to a green fronted by a stream.

Both the service and course conditions are top-notch (depending on seasonal maintenance schedules), factors that warrant the relatively high fees.

For tee times at White Columns, call 770-343-9025.

TPC at Sugarloaf

Speaking of drops, the TPC at Sugarloaf, Greg Norman’s creation which has hosted the BellSouth Classic since 1997, has one of the best finishing holes anywhere on what is a magnificent track. The course has prompted raves from Tour players and helped establish Norman as a golf course architect of truly exceptional artistic skill.

The 18th, a 776-yard exercise in terror starts from a tee box back on a level wooded plain. At about 300 yards out the fairway slopes some 70 feet down to the right and around a lake to the green. A large bunker and some trees stand sentinel on the right while the lake yawns left, so that bold hitters have a nervy second shot of 240-180 yards. From the green on one of the most exciting holes you’ll find anywhere, the fairway with its undulations and curves resembles a furled green ribbon.

The hole is the crown jewel of a diadem of precious gems. They include the 541-yard 5th which features a tall oak smack in the middle of the fairway and a creek that crosses the fairway twice to make both the tee shot and second a nervy task. The 412-yard 6th is perhaps The Shark’s best hole. From a recessed tee box you drive to a crest of a hill flanked by bunkers right. From there, you are left with a wedge-8 iron to a green that is sloped steeply back to front and is fronted by a stream with a steep bank. A bunker in back captures long approaches on a hole whose wooded green complex reminds you a little of the 12th at Augusta.

The 9th is a 470-yard dogleg right through a tunnel of trees with a green that slopes sharply from left to right, making it arguably the most difficult on the course. Norman was criticized for the hole but he kept the hole as is, in spite of the fact he doubled the hole twice and bogied before parring it on his fourth try, according to Club Marketing Director Chris Nowak.

As for Norman’s choice as architect, Chris Nowak explained that the owners of the project wanted a renowned golf architect but not from the list of usual suspects like Nicklaus, Fazio, and Palmer who already had courses in the Atlanta area. Norman designed many beauties throughout Asia and Australia. Aside from his collaboration on his private Florida club, The Medalist, with Pete Dye, Sugarloaf was his first North American effort. As of late 1999, the Aussie was putting the finishing touches on a third nine that promises to be the equal of the first 18.

As for the club itself, it is in a country club community of lavish homes that first sold for around $300 K when it opened in the mid-1990s. In rural Gwinnett County, this was a princely sum, but buyers gobbled the homes up so quickly that builders raised the ante. Now, the average home is close to seven figures.

The country club includes a family sports center featuring exercise facilities, arcade and movie theater, three swimming pools and tennis facilities. A kind of Tara on the turf, the classic Southern styled golf clubhouse is as ornate as many of the homes. It sits Parthenon-like atop a hill overlooking the 18th green, offering a magnificent vista for the visually minded.

If Sugarloaf has a flaw, it is that too many homes have been built too closely to the golf course. Though they sit atop bluffs well away from play, they are very much in evidence throughout the round. Windstorms have taken down a lot of trees that would otherwise have provided a thicker partition.

The 1500-acre community lies on the former horse farm of businessman Wayne Rollins. The site was briefly owned by the Eastern Airlines employee retirement fund until Crescent Resources, a subsidiary of Duke Energy, bought it in 1994. It is one of the showcase TPC’s that has been a worthy host of the BellSouth Classic since that PGA event moved from the Atlanta Country Club in 1997.

For TPC Sugarloaf membership and real estate information, call 770-495-7660.

NOTE: Propelled by the success of Sugarloaf and lured by the potential for development in Gwinnett County, Jack Nicklaus is about to launch one of his most ambitious projects yet. In November 1999, he announced that he would build in the county a course composed of the best holes in his portfolio. According to the announcement, no detail will be spared to make each hole a carbon copy of his favorites from Muirfield Village and other of his signature designs.