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Goodbye to a venerable lady
Old course is due for a makeover
Golfers can indulge their passion for the great game at the historic Cable Beach Golf Course for most of 2011, although the venerable old lady is beginning to disappear.
“The old order changeth yielding place to new,” as Alfred Lord Tennyson put it more than a century ago. The “old order” in this case is the classic course originally built by the great Devereux Emmett on the eve of the Great Depression.
Back then, 82 years ago, golfers still used gutta percha balls and hickory-shafted clubs. Little of the old course will remain when a Jack Nicklaus-designed track is constructed on the bones of Emmett’s work.
Jack’s masterpiece will be a key feature in the massive redevelopment of the Cable Beach strip by Baha Mar.
Actually, there is little left of Emmett’s original course, which once ran along the sea at Goodman’s Bay. The last remake was by Fred Settle Jr of
International Golf Design in 2001. He reversed the nines, enlarged the greens and added hazards–water now awaits errant shots on most of the remaining nine holes.
The Nicklaus team will no doubt keep many of the ponds and create others as the new course is rebuilt and extended west to engulf a long-abandoned racetrack from Nassau’s salad days, called Hobby Horse Hall (circa 1937-1977).
Baha Mar officials say Nicklaus may be brought in to build a second course at another location on the island. He is also the mastermind behind a championship course on exclusive Royal Island, off the northern tip of Eleuthera.
At press time, the Bahamas Golf Federation was building what promises to be a shot-maker’s delight–a superb par three course built around a picturesque driving range. It’s located near Nassau’s new stadium in the Queen Elizabeth Sports Centre. Like Cable Beach, this nine-holer will be open to the public.
Membership courses
If you’re a guest at any of the Atlantis resort operations or Comfort Suites on Paradise Island, you have green-fee access to the majestic Ocean Club Golf Club, which offers gorgeous sea views as well as a challenging golf experience.
Ocean Club, which opened in the year 2000, is also a remake–a design created by former PGA tour star Tom Weiskopf, based on an original design by Dick Wilson.
Wilson also teamed up with Joe Lee to build the private Lyford Cay Club course at the western end of New Providence in the 1950s. It was renovated by Rees Jones, son of famed designer Robert Trent Jones, in 2006.
Opened in December 2010, the newest course on the island is Albany, a par 72 championship course–featuring five par fives and five par threes–designed by current PGA star, Ernie Els.
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Sports_Golf_WBN11
Goodbye to a venerable lady
Old course is due for a makeover
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