Oneida Nation golf course plans unveiled
May 14, 2002

By BILL FARRELL
Observer-Dispatch

VERONA — The Oneida Indian Nation will build two new championship-caliber golf courses to complement its popular Shenandoah Golf Course that opened two years ago, Nation officials announced.

Two of the world’s leading golf course designers — Robert Trent Jones Jr. and Tom Fazio — have been hired to design and oversee development of the two 18-hole courses.

Each course will be built on about 240 acres of Nation land. Once completed, the courses — the Jones course is expected to be ready for play in June 2003, while the Fazio course will open in June 2004 — will make Turning Stone Casino Resort a premier golf destination, officials said.

“This will move Turning Stone from a casino resort that has golf courses to a high quality golf destination that also has a casino,” said Frank Riolo, the casino’s chief operating officer.

In addition, officials said the new 24,000-square-foot clubhouse at Shenandoah will open Monday to host the state PGA.

A grand opening is scheduled for June 15.

The clubhouse, located near the first and 18th holes of Shenandoah, was the site of Monday’s news conference announcing the two new courses, and construction workers were busy inside the building adding the finishing touches.

Calling Jones and Fazio “the best designers in the business,” Nation Representative Ray Halbritter said building the new courses continues Turning Stone’s ascent in golfing circles. Golf Digest magazine last year ranked Shenandoah one of the top 10 new upscale courses in the United States.

“Adding two more courses of this magnitude will further enhance the resort’s reputation as a golfer’s paradise,” Halbritter said. The success of Shenandoah “has succeeded even our expectations,” and the new courses will offer “tournament-level playing conditions,” he said.

Asked how much the new courses would cost, Halbritter said the Nation was working on budgets now, but he figured that to build “quality courses like these” would cost between $15 million and $20 million.

He expected several hundred new jobs to be created with their opening.

Both designers were present for the announcement. Plans call for the Jones course to begin and end near the existing practice facility at Shenandoah. Jones said this new project will be “like a homecoming.”

His parents both attended college in the Finger Lakes region, and the Robert Trent Jones course at Cornell University, designed by and named for his father, “established a legacy that I will endeavor to follow in this new project,” he said.

Jones has designed or remodeled more than 200 golf course on four continents, and his Wentwood Hills course in Wales will host the Ryder Cup in 2010.

His new course at Turning Stone “will follow the land and use the land gently. You’ll feel the course was inherent in the land,” he said.

Fazio has created award-winning courses throughout the United States. While the design of his course remains flexible, Fazio said “a lot of natural streams” may frame the holes. Promising not to create a difficult course, he nonetheless said it would offer “a challenge to the best players in the world.”

Both courses are expected to be 7,300-plus yards in length. Officials said the intent is to have slope ratings equal to or better than the existing Shenandoah course.

Both designers also promised their courses would be “spectator friendly.”