Tennis great Ivan Lendl and International
Golf Group Chairman David A. Rosow plan to build an 18-hole private golf
club in this northwestern Connecticut town that will rival the best courses
in New England.
Rosow, who lives an hour away in Southport, and Lendl, who lives in Goshen
and now plays on the Celebrity Players Tour and Buy.com Tour, decided nearly
three years ago that the region needed a high-quality, private 18-hole
course.
"Torrington Country Club has a waiting list and all the others are nine-hole
courses," said Rosow. "We are both avid golfers and want a premium core golf
facility. And with the derth of courses in northwestern Connecticut we
concluded this was a great opportunity."
A two-year search for the best land for a links-style course singled out
650-acre Ivy Mountain Farm owned by the children of Mike Budney, who turned
89 last Tuesdayand who is such an avid golfer that he has a practice
facility at his home. Lendl and Rosow have a multiyear option on the
property from the Budneys while they go through permitting with various
governmental agencies.
"We would love to be under construction sometime next summer, with a planned
opening in 2002," Rosow said.
The developers hope to include a state-of-the-art practice facility and a
nine-hole par-3 course on the property, if one can be fit adequately on the
land.
Rosow, whose company operates four golf properties, envisions a modest
clubhouse, tennis courts, a swimming pool and, perhaps, limited homes.
"Our
plan," he said, "is to design the best golf course to fit on the property.
After that is routed and permitted and underway, we will think about
housing. But there will be no more than 20 homes, they will be very, very
high-end, and they will overlook the course but not be adjacent to it."
Cottages on-site would allow four foursomes to spend the night.
"It will be low-key and countryish," said Rosow, adding that he expects to
cap the memberships at 260 families.
The golf courses will be designed by Steve Smyers of Lakeland, Fla., who has
three courses listed among the Top 100 Modern Courses in America and who is
well-known for sensitivity to the environment -- an important factor for the
developers.
"Steve's environmental credentials were very important to us. We want a
great golf course and one that is environmentally sensitive," Rosow said.
"We also envision a course in which the game is played on the ground and
where there will be strategic options available for players of all handicaps
on each hole. That is the major reason we chose Steve.
"Ivan and I have played a number of Steve's courses and are incredibly
impressed with the way he fits a golf course into the land and the strategy
he designs."
The property, Smyers said, "is the best we have ever worked on. It has a
wonderful contained setting, what you look for to give you a real
comfortable feeling when you¼re on the property."
The site has tremendous vistas of the hills to the west and south that
surround a 200-acre pasture, and more than half the golf course will be in
view from the clubhouse.
"It also has a wonderful lake, gently rolling terrain, and what we look for
in hard, powerful edges -- edges being tree lines and the foothills," said
Smyers. "The site is open but contained by forest areas to the south and
east. And off to the north and west is a mountain range and state park that
will never be developed."
What of the involvement of Lendl, the winner of eight Grand Slam
championships who has abandoned tennis for golf?
"Ivan will be very much involved," said Smyers. "That is his nature and golf
is his passion. Both he and David have a real fire for this project. Ivan is a student of golf architecture. He has played all the great golf courses in the world and loves to talk about strategy, design and the game of golf. He is as intense with golf as he was with tennis."
