Ravenwood Golf Club Selected for New York Amateur Championship
From Staff Reports
VICTOR, NEW YORK - (August 7, 2001) - Unopened Ravenwood Golf Club, a daily fee facility near Rochester designed by award-winning architect Robin Nelson and scheduled to open Spring 2002, today announces that its championship layout has been chosen to host the 2003 New York State Golf Association Amateur Championship by that organization's Amateur Championship Selection Committee.
"Ravenwood Golf Club will soon become the best public facility in all of Western New York. It will be a terrific site for the 2003 State Amateur Championship", says John Blain, of the NYSGA Selection Committee, who has played in the U.S. Amateur, the Mid Amateur, invited to the British Amateur Championship, and has played in numerous NYSGA Amateur Championships.
Roger Luttrell, PGA, Ravenwood's General Manager and Head Golf Professional, says members of the selection committee said Nelson's Ravenwood design resembled the w ork found on courses designed by some legends of the Golden Era of Golf Course Architecture: Donald Ross, Alister MacKenzie, and A.W. Tillinghast.
"It's an honor to have Ravenwood selected for this prestigious championship in a state with such a long and rich legacy in the game, and a real tribute to Robin Nelson's inspired talent," Luttrell says. "The committee particularly liked Robin's bunkering and green designs, and that he was able to make each par 3 and each par 5 go a different direction."
Measuring 7,018-yards from the "Tournament Tees," Ravenwood is a par 72 championship layout located near Oak Hill Country Club, host of the 1995 Ryder Cup matches and three U.S. Open Championships. Nelson compares Ravenwood's site to that of Shinnecock Hills Golf Club (Southampton, N.Y.), host of the 1995 U.S. Open, and scheduled to host the 2004 U.S. Open.
"Ravenwood's combination of gently rolling topography with little environmental disturbance made for a natural golf course in the Donald Ross school of traditional design," Nelson says. Nelson, whose course designs include several on which professional tour events have been played in the U.S. and internationally, says the upstate New York site was one of the best on which he's ever worked.
"Ravenwood has been a particularly fulfilling project, because of its location, the topography, and working in collaboration with the course's owners and managers, a group of dedicated golf professionals who supported the vision for Ravenwood," Nelson says. "Not often does a golf course design remain so pure from conception to opening."
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About Ravenwood Golf Club
Ravenwood is an upscale daily fee facility that is scheduled to open in Spring 2002. The tees, fairways and greens feature state-of-the-art Bentgrass turf.
The clubhouse is currently under construction will offer a food-and-beverage grill, fully stocked pro shop with brand-name equipment, apparel and accessories, banquet and golf-outing services. The first-rate practice facility opens Aug. 20 in the evenings, and will feature 60-golfer capacity, grass tees, seven target greens, special short game practice area including bunker, a 12,000-square-foot practice green next to first tee, and the Ravenwood Golf Academy.
For more information, call Ravenwood General Manager Roger Luttrell, PGA, at 716.924.5100 or visit www.ravenwoodgolf.com.
About Robin Nelson
Headquartered in Mill Valley, Calif., near San Francisco, Nelson, 50, has designed more than 100 courses worldwide. He had eight course designs or redesigns open last year, including two being considered for "best-of" distinction by leading golf publications - Dragon at Gold Mountain in Graeagle, Calif., and Creek Course at Moose Run near Anchorage, Alaska.
His firm's design of Shan-Shui Golf & Country Club in Malaysia was recognized as "Best Course in Asia" in February at the Asian PGA Show.
