Cherokee Scores Golf Course - Tuesday, October 24, 2006
| CHEROKEE, N.C. -- An American Indian on the PGA Tour and one of the most respected golf course architects in the world are collaborating on a new 18-hole layout in Cherokee. Notah Begay III will work with Robert Trent Jones II to create Sequoyah National Golf Club, a high-end, daily-fee course to be built on land owned by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. When completed, Sequoyah National will compete for business with about 40 other public courses in Western North Carolina. The $15.5 million project will include real estate development for about 100 homes and will be built near the Shoal Creek area and the old Smoky Mountain Raceway, about three miles south of Harrah’s Cherokee Casino & Hotel. Groundbreaking on the 275-acre site is scheduled for April, and the course is set to open in the spring of 2009. A two-story, 14,000-square-foot clubhouse with a 360-degree view of the mountains is also planned. "This has been a long time coming," Michell Hicks, principal chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, said Monday at a news conference to announce the development. "This is a project that will create about 50 full- and part-time jobs and will help us diversify our financial base." Begay, who had three of his four PGA Tour victories in 2000 but has struggled in recent years with back problems, will serve as a consultant on his first 18-hole venture. "This is very exciting for me," said Begay, a college teammate of Tiger Woods at Stanford who several years ago formed NB3 Consulting to help bring together golf development projects on Indian gaming properties. "This is an ideal project to help a successful tribe diversify its business portfolio. "We have a nice piece of property to work with and a great designer in Robert Trent Jones II. My main interest is to execute ways of bringing tribal communities and community outreach programs together." Among the designs of Jones II, the son of famed designer Robert Trent Jones, is Rock Barn, near Hickory, site of a Champions Tour event. |
