Fazio Golf Inc

Website Links

Description

The Fazio clan of golf course designers is busy all over the Metropolitan Area, but the most prolific may be the one about whom you know least.Standing on a muddy hill in Briarcliff Manor, high above what will soon be a dizzying waterfall cut from rare black granite, Tommy Fazio starts to get a little excited. Words tumble from his mouth, and his gray-green eyes flash. Forgive him: When you are 33 years old and are fortunate enough to be present not only at the birth of a course as stunning as Trump National, but also at the sky-rocket launch of your own reputation – no, this isn’t the famed course designer Tom Fazio, it’s his nephew – well, you’d be a little excited, too. Fazio points to his feet, where a fat bundle of black pipes coils across the rutted brown earth towards the top of the cliff. “We’re going to pump 5,000 gallons a minute, a real Niagara Falls,” he says. “None of this was in the original plan, but Mr. Trump loves this kind of stuff, especially the eye candy.” And as New Yorkers well know, what Mr. Trump loves, Mr. Trump usually gets, either by building it or buying it. The waterfall, for example, will be nearly 100 feet tall and the pond from which it will fall will wrap around the back of the 233-yard, par-three fourth hole like a moat. “You wouldn’t want to fall off that sucker,” Trump warns. “We moved 3 million cubic yards of earth. It’s the largest excavation in the history of Westchester County.” It also is the Met Area’s introduction to yet another designing Fazio. Thus far, we’re up to four. First there was George, not only a successful player in the 1950s but later a prolific architect. He worked on his own for a few years after retiring from competition, but the body of his portfolio – such as Jupiter Hills, in Florida, or a reworking of Apawamis, here in the Met Area – was done over the years with his nephew Tom. Ah, yes, Tom Fazio, who is Tommy’s uncle. He has three designs in the greater Met Area: the Oyster Bay town course, on Long Island; Hudson National, overlooking the Hudson in Westchester County; and his most recent contribution, Galloway National, near Atlantic City. Tom has been busy of late in New Jersey. Having recently completed Pine Hill Golf Club, a splashy new Eric Bergstol-developed daily fee in south Jersey, just down the road from Pine Valley, he’s now overseeing construction on The Ridge at Back Brook, a private club some 10 miles northwest of Princeton. Pine Hill opened to raves in March; the Ridge is scheduled to open next July. We next heard of Jim Fazio,Tommy’s father and Tom’s big brother, and who also worked with uncle George (you don’t need a scorecard to keep track of all their labors; you need a family tree). Jim is the designer of record for Trump National, in Briarcliff Manor, and is hoping this second Trump course will make as big a splash as his first, Trump International. Since it opened in West Palm Beach, Florida, last year, it has won numerous awards and was the site of this year’s LPGA’s season-ending Tour Championship. So Tommy – Jim’s son, Tom’s nephew – is the fourth designing Fazio.

Products & services

Similar companies nearby