REDMOND, ORE. – Oct. 14, 2994 – Jacobsen Hardy Golf Course Design has broken ground on a new 18-hole layout in Redmond at Brasada Ranch. The "intelligent" resort community is now taking shape 20 minutes from Central Oregon's golfing Mecca of Bend.
Developed by Eagle Crest, Inc., a division of Jeld-Wen Corp., Brasada Ranch will feature 900 real estate units spread over its 1,800 acres, half of which will be preserved as open space. The Jacobsen Hardy-designed golf course will occupy approximately 200 acres, winding its way inventively through the property's high-desert landscape replete with miniature canyons and sagebrush.
The physical qualities of Brasada Ranch are its most striking features. The resort sits 3,500 feet above sea level, on the western slope of the Cascades, affording golfers and residents striking views of Mount Jefferson, the Three Sisters, Broken Top and Mt. Bachelor.
"We've never seen a property quite like this one. We can't wait to start fitting golf holes into the landscape," says Oregon native Peter Jacobsen, PGA Tour veteran and partner with Jim Hardy in Houston-based Jacobsen Hardy Golf Course Design. "The canyons here presented us a tremendous opportunity for invention. We've routed several holes down in the canyons, while other holes play across the tops and along the edges.
"The site has an old trestle bridge coming off the 18th hole. We'll be using this elevated structure to bring golf carts back to the clubhouse. It used to be an aqueduct and we're retrofitting it. The club's entry drive will pass right underneath the trestle, actually. It's a spectacular feature."
Weather permitting, course construction will continue through 2005, with a grand opening scheduled for early 2006. Brasada's "intelligent" label stems from several factors inherent to the development. According to Eagle Crest Project Manager Alan Van Vliet, Oregon Electric Group will run fiber optics to every home site and resort building, enabling four-digit dialing throughout Brasada Ranch. Each residential unit will also feature a "smart box", allowing all utilities to be monitored and programmed remotely; the smart box also provides residents a single, consolidated-but-itemized monthly billing option.
"We're promoting design of these homes to reflect the state of the art," explains Van Vliet, who noted that all of Brasada's buildings and residential units will meet Oregon's Earth Advantage designation, which requires a higher level of efficiency with regard to energy, resource and material use. "We're also tying all the irrigation systems into a central weather system on site to automatically adjust for weather patterns. The sewer treatment plant will produce the cleanest effluent possible, and this gray water will be re-used to irrigate the golf course."
Brasada's intelligence extends to the golf course design, where Jacobsen Hardy plans to move a mere 100,000 cubic yards of dirt - most of it in creating an irrigation pond. In addition to irrigating with effluent, Jacobsen Hardy's design plans call for limited turf acreage.
"On many holes we'll be building 'perimeter' tees where you walk through desert areas back to a series pods," explains Jim Hardy, whose estimated that less than 100 acres of the course will be maintained as turf. "Basically we've kept grassing to a minimum, which reduces overall irrigation allotments. The majority of the native vegetation here is a sage brush-type plant material. We'll focus on our areas of disturbance and bleed our landscaped golfing areas into these natural areas. There are a number of sandy washes running through the golf course. We've made a point to preserve and incorporate them. In fact, several holes at Brasada are bordered by them, so they've become natural, strategic elements."
Brasada Ranch will be the fifth Jacobsen Hardy project to debut in Oregon. The firm's original designs include Oregon Golf Club in West Linn, Creekside in Salem and Stone Creek in Oregon City; JH's celebrated renovation of Salishan Golf Links in Gleneden Beach debuted last June.
Eagle Crest, for its part, has developed some of the state's premier golf destinations, including the 54-hole Eagle Crest Resort just west of Redmond, and the acclaimed Running Y Ranch in Klamath Falls. Peter Jacobsen is a corporate spokesman for Eagle Crest's parent company, Jeld-Wen. Indeed, Jacobsen's tournament management firm, PJP Productions, stages the Jeld-Wen Tradition - a major on the Champions Tour - at The Reserve Vineyards & Golf Club outside of Portland.
"Obviously, the Oregon ties are extremely strong at Brasada Ranch. Whenever I get the chance to work in my home state, I get pretty juiced up," said Jacobsen. "But this golf course could be anywhere and we'd be excited about it. It's a phenomenal piece of terrain and our design is going to bring out the best in it."
Adds Hardy, "We'll be creating different groupings of golf environments out here: Canyon holes, ridge-top holes, holes set amid the sage meadow environment. By going back and forth, we'll achieve the variety that all golfers want in a resort experience. We do have elevation changes of 50 feet or more on certain holes, but most of the movement is more subtle and golf-friendly than that. And we've routed the course to be very walkable."
Houston-based Jacobsen Hardy Golf Course Design is one of the nation's most active course architecture firms, with projects underway on both coasts and several places in between. Nationally renowned for its design of original courses - including Redstone Golf Club (2002), home to the Shell Houston Open, and the new Moorpark Country Club north of Los Angeles (2003) - Jacobsen Hardy is increasingly sought after in the course renovation arena, thanks to projects like its recent work of Salishan and the firm's complete makeover at Hammock Bay, a WCI-developed project in Naples, Fla.
In addition to its new work at Moorpark and Hammock Bay, Jacobsen Hardy recently signed on with East West Partners to design 18 private holes at Gray's Crossing, an ambitious 36-hole club/resort hybrid in Truckee, Calif. Jacobsen Hardy is also working on new projects at Bickford Ranch (for Lennar Communities near Sacramento), at Suncadia east of Seattle, and 18 holes on 5,000 acres of sand dunes near Culiacan, Mexico, on the Sea of Cortez.
For more information on Jacobsen Hardy, call 281-807-4176 or visit www.jacobsenhardy.com
Contact: Hal Phillips
Phillips Golf Media
207-926-3700
onintwo@maine.rr.com
