Not all great golfers have evolved into great golf course designers. Nick Price is one who did, as underscored by his just-unveiled Soleta course, located a few miles east of Sarasota, FL.
As a golfer Price, now 67, was one of the great ones. No doubt about that.
He was the No. 1 player in the Official World Golf Rankings for 43 weeks in the 1990s, a decade in which he topped the PGA Tour money list twice, won the PGA Championship twice and the British Open once and took back-to-back Western Open titles in 1993 and 1994.
Oh, yes. The South African-born Price was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2003. Enough said about his playing ability, though his heyday was three decades ago.
Price found his way into course design, but it took a while.
“I started with architecture toward the end of my career but didn’t want to do anything,’’ he said. “You don’t want to when you’re playing well.’’
Four years into his career on PGA Tour Champions that changed.
“I developed a serious elbow injury and had surgery,’’ he said. “When I came back after a year I couldn’t play, so I retired.’’
And a career in course design kicked in. He did 11 co-designs with established architects like Tom Fazio and Steve Smyers before creating his own course. He started his own design firm in 2001 and has has his name on 27 courses (as either designer or consultant) in the Dominican Republic, Ireland, South Africa, Mexico and China in addition to Florida. He lives in Hobe Sound, which is also the site of McArthur Golf Club – a layout he co-designed with Fazio.
Soleta is something different. The name is from the Native American word for sandhill crane. It’ll eventually be a full-fledged family-oriented private club with about 275 local members and another 100 national members. At least that’s the plan. On the December day when Soleta officially opened, Soleta already had 170 members. Initiation fee is $115,000. More
