Collaboration with mentor Pete Dye features 10 lakefront holes
(SCOTTSDALE, AZ) — Schmidt-Curley Design — one of the world’s most active and innovative golf course design firms — announces the Pete Dye Course at Tianjin Binhai Lake Golf Club is open for its first full season.
A collaboration with the legendary golf course architect, mentor to firm co-founders Lee Schmidt and Brian Curley, Tianjin Binhai Lake features 10 windswept, lakefront holes. To make construction possible, the site — which was within the confines of a man-made lake — was drained and its bottom excavated. The resulting fill was used to create the peninsula on which the course sits.
The layout has already garnered an abundance of accolades, including being named host of the PGA European Tour’s Volvo China Open in 2012.
“Tianjin Binhai Lake showcases our ability to transform less-than-ideal sites into exceptional golf courses,” says Brian Curley. “Our design creativity, construction management skills and shaping acumen were on full display.”
Located 50 miles southeast of Beijing, Tianjin Binhai Lake is a par-72, 7,577-yard core golf course. All holes feature strong angles of play both off the tee and into greens. Risk-reward opportunities abound, including two short par 4s and several tee shots where bold drives over sandy waste areas will yield short-iron approaches.
Given the often windy conditions, the design team created wide fairways. Proper positioning is essential, however, to attack the relatively small and sometimes wicked putting surfaces.
“We’re always excited when opportunities arise to work with Pete,” says Curley. “Lee and I were extremely fortunate to learn from him on some of his most influential projects — places like Casa de Campo, PGA West and Kiawah Island. We owe a great deal of our success to his guidance and friendship.”
The Pete Dye Course is the first of two at the facility. An 18-hole solo project from Schmidt-Curley will debut next spring.
Architect of record for all 10 golf courses at the new Mission Hills Hainan — host of this fall’s Omega Mission Hills World Cup — the firm has two fully-staffed Asian offices (Haikou and Kunming, China) in addition to its Scottsdale, AZ, USA headquarters. This promotes quicker mobilization, lower travel costs and other valuable advantages over competitors.
Acclaim for Schmidt-Curley includes consistently high finishes in Asian Golf Monthly’s “Best Golf Course Architect” rankings, and recent recognition from Golf Inc. magazine as one of the world’s four “most influential” design firms.
For more information: 480.483.1994, www.schmidt-curley.com, http://twitter.com/SchmidtCurley, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Schmidt-Curley-Design/169862899732472.
To view select project images: http://www.flickr.com/photos/60163396@N04/.
About Schmidt-Curley Design
Founded by partners Lee Schmidt and Brian Curley with offices in Scottsdale, Arizona, USA; Haikou, Hainan Island, China and Kunming, China, Schmidt-Curley is a full-service, international golf course architecture and master-planning firm with more than 100 layouts in 24 countries. The tandem is responsible for crafting 10 of the 12 courses at storied Mission Hills Shenzhen — the “World’s Largest Golf Club” — and designed and built all 10 golf courses at Mission Hills’ new Hainan Island resort. Schmidt-Curley’s recently unveiled 54-hole Stone Forest International C.C. near Kunming is also garnering global acclaim.
Other high profile, award-winning projects from Schmidt-Curley include Bali Hai and Siena Golf Clubs (Las Vegas), Amata Spring Golf Club (Chonburi, Thailand, four-time host of the PGA European Tour’s Royal Trophy), Terra Lago Golf Club (Indio, California, site of the Skins Game from 1999 – 2002), Twin Creeks Golf Club (Cedar Park, Texas) and Crosby National Golf Club (Rancho Santa Fe, California).
Schmidt-Curley has also worked extensively with golf’s biggest names — including Pete Dye, Nick Faldo, Jack Nicklaus and Fred Couples on numerous high-profile projects — and boasts five ASGCA members (Lee Schmidt, Brian Curley, Grant Haserot, Andy Raugust and Shane Witcombe).
Producing demanding yet beautiful and enjoyable courses, Schmidt-Curley strives to create golf experiences that stir the senses and elevate golfers’ appreciations for the land and the game. By balancing classic golf course architecture with ever-changing contemporary technology, Schmidt-Curley places an emphasis on site-adaptive courses, memorable and satisfying for all levels of play and always designed for cost-efficient maintenance and operations.
Contact:
Stephen Reynolds
Buffalo Communications
703.891.3509
sreynolds@buffalocommunications.com
www.buffalocommunications.com
