For a man who will reach his seventy-first birthday on 10th September, Arnold Palmer shows no sign of easing up. So far this week his schedule has taken him to golf course openings and site visits in Michigan, Ohio and Virginia. Tomorrow he winds down with a construction visit and yet another golf course opening –this time in South Carolina.
On Tuesday Arnold Palmer made a construction inspection visit to Northville Hills, one of six Palmer designed courses either open or under construction in Michigan. Northville Hills Country Club is expected to be complete this Autumn and is a luxury golf course community set on 183 acres. Later on Tuesday Arnold Palmer, accompanied as always by Ed Seay, his company’s COO, attended the grand opening ceremony for the Ravines Golf Club, a daily fee course set in 432 acres in Saugatuck, Michigan and featuring spectacular woodlands and wetlands in a very natural environment.
After playing 10 holes of the course Arnold Palmer said, “The Ravines is a good example of how a golf course can and does benefit the environment in many ways. We are most certainly aware of our role.”
Yesterday Palmer and Seay made a construction inspection visit to the TPC at Rivers Bend in Cincinnati, Ohio. Rivers Bend is one of four TPC courses designed by Palmer – either open or under construction. Here construction is expected to be finished next month and the course is scheduled to open in summer 2001.
Today has been the turn of a development in Virginia Beach called “Signature @ West Neck” which is currently under construction and is due to be complete by Autumn 2001. This is an up market public course whose design includes a number of lakes which provide strategy as well as being pleasing to look at.
Tomorrow Arnold Palmer and Ed Seay move on to South Carolina. There will be a construction inspection visit at River Towne in Mount Pleasant which is expected to be complete by early summer 2001 and this is followed by the grand opening ceremony at Crescent Pointe Golf Club in Bluffton. Crescent Pointe is a daily fee course and one of five Palmer designed courses either open or under construction in South Carolina. Arnold Palmer will play nine holes of the course, whose finishing holes have magnificent views of expansive salt marsh while many of the other holes are carved through large oaks, magnolias and pines.
Harrison Minchew, Vice President and Director of Design for Palmer Course Design Company, said, “Crescent Pointe is a must play in the South Carolina Low Country.”