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Clive Clark brings a world of knowledge to his golf course designs. During his 18 years in the business, the Great Britain native and La Quinta resident has created 25 golf courses and been involved in five remodels in the United States and Europe. His distinctive layout at The Hideaway in La Quinta has garnered rave reviews and has been recognized by a national golf publication as one of the "Top 100 courses where you can live and play" in America. A former Ryder Cup player, Clark won five European Tour titles and finished twice in the Top 10 in the British Open. He followed his playing career with an 18-year stint as a broadcaster for the BBC before dedicating himself to golf course design. One of his latest projects is the Celebrity Course at the Indian Wells Golf Resort, which opened for public play last month. Clark started with the property occupied by the original West Course and the city added another 30 acres that allowed him to create a golf course with more length and generous corridors. He also added scenic water elements and more strategic playing options for players of all abilities. "In my eyes, part of the joy of playing golf is to have fun," Clark said. "So the reason the golf course was designed in this way was to make it fun by being playable, but equally, like a game of chess, it will ask certain questions of players as they progress around the course." We recently had a chance to talk with Clark about his latest creation. How would you best describe the golf course? The original course was opened some 20 years ago, but we had the opportunity and budget to completely rebuild the course and produce a new layout. The Celebrity Course has a lot of color in the form of wildflowers, shrubs and 4,000 mature trees that have been established over the past 20 years. There are many eye-catching water features in the form of brooks, waterfalls, split-level lakes and streams that add to the ambience rather than being penal. The new routing also has dramatic views of the Santa Rosa Mountains and Eisenhower Mountain that weren't available on the previous layout. What is your favorite hole on the golf course? Probably my favorite is the par-5 14th hole. You drive through a very attractive, slightly elevated shoot of trees with a short carry over a sunken lake to a generous fairway. But it's here the fun and games really start. You then play downhill and, according to your ability and length, have three different strategies to playing the hole. A waterfall is on the right side of the green, and a lake flanks the right side of the hole before crossing the fairway 120 yards short of the green in the form of a stream that eventually exits left and flows under a bridge to the 15th hole. The 14th hole is great because there's a lot going on and you have to think and assess the risks. Framed by the backdrop of sugar-white bunkers and the amazing Eisenhower Mountain, trust me, this is quite a hole. What type of golfer did you have in mind while designing the course? Pretty much every type of golfer. This is a daily-fee golf course with input from four major hotels and a course that anyone can play. Therefore, my mission was to make it attractive, interesting and fun for all levels of golfers. What sets this course apart from some of your other designs? One thing is that it's in the middle of the Coachella Valley with desert conditions, but we had a wonderful array of established trees that you normally don't get with a new desert course. To put in this sort of landscape would be impossible because some of the trees are up to 60 feet high and the cost of providing 4,000 trees of this maturity would run into the tens of millions of dollars. Also, there is no housing on the Celebrity Course, and the natural and embellished undulations, wildflowers, water features and spectacular mountain views set it apart from many of the courses in the desert and give it a distinct high-end feel. What new projects are you working on? I'm in progress on the design of a new private course called Spirit Lake north of Coeur d'Alene in Idaho. The 500-acre piece of land is rich in pine and adjacent to Spirit Lake, which will come into play on several of the closing holes. I'm also in the early stages of a redesign and rebuild at Mesquite Country Club in Palm Springs, and I'm doing some work on the new Tribute project in Bend, Ore. We're also finishing construction on a course at Fantasy Springs Casino on the eastern outskirts of the Coachella Valley. It's called Kah We aH and is scheduled to open in February. Who are some of your role models when it comes to golf course architects and who has most influenced your work? I studied at architectural college and art school and have always been naturally creative and artistic. However, a number of people say my style is not dissimilar to that of Tom Fazio. Naturally, I take that as a compliment and think there are similarities because we're both what I would describe as artistic designers. We make our golf courses playable, strategically interesting and appealing to the eye. When did you become involved with designing golf courses? I started in the late '80s. Peter Allis and I both worked on the BBC commentary team, and Peter had been involved in design for some time. We decided to get together and form a company. With my background in architecture, golf course design was something I had always wanted to be involved in. Peter and I were very successful together and produced 20 courses throughout Europe during our partnership. What's been the key to your success as a designer? I think the passion to design courses and the fact that I played golf in 34 countries during my playing career has given me the opportunity to see the best and the worst. I'm also naturally competitive and take tremendous pride in my performance and have a huge desire to come out a winner. I probably spend twice as long on the drawing board as some would imagine, but it's that extra commitment that pays off. How often do you get to play golf? Living in La Quinta, golf is great in the winter, but with temperatures around 110 degrees in the summer, one tends not to play much golf in the summer months. I like to hit balls in the winter maybe three to four times a week and probably play on average about once a week. What's your handicap? I still manage to play to scratch. My long game is still quite good and I can drive the ball 280 to 290 yards. My short game, however, needs a bit of work. How did you become interested in the game? I used to play most sports, including soccer, cricket, table tennis, snooker, roller skating and fishing. Cricket and soccer were the predominant sports at school in England, but when the holidays came around it was tough to find another 21 players, so I thought I'd try golf. It was love at first sight and I was down to scratch by the age of 17 and won the English Stroke Play Championship and played in The Walker Cup by the age of 20. I then turned pro and had five wins and six seconds on the European Tour. I finished third in The British Open at Hoylake in 1967 and also played on the Ryder Cup team. What's your most treasured golf possession? A gold replica of the Ryder Cup in my office. "Ryder Cup player" is one of those lovely titles that stays with you for life. n |
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