WEST POINT — Two West Point brand names are teaming together to build a new attraction in sleepy Clay County.
Toxey Haas, founder of Mossy Oak, and George Bryan, owner of Old Waverly Golf Club, are combining their skills and passions to build Mossy Oak Golf Course. The course — scheduled for completion in spring 2017 — will be right across the street from Old Waverly.
“It’s really about two families coming together, the Haas and the Bryant family,” said Mossy Oak executive vice president Lannie Wallace.
Wallace said this course has been decades in the making. But ground was finally broken at an early April ceremony attended by Gov. Phil Bryant.
The governor isn’t the only big name involved in the new course. Renowned course architect Gil Hanse has taken up the project to create a “minimalist course” at Mossy Oak. Hanse is also designing the 2016 Olympic Games course in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. That got resident Old Waverly pro Chris Jester excited.
“He’s the hottest architect there is now, he’s not just hype,” Jester said.
A minimalist course is one that leaves the land in as natural a state as possible. Wallace said this fits with the Mossy Oak outdoor brand and lifestyle.
“He wanted to create a course that looked like it had been there 100 years,” Wallace said.
The 7,400 yard, par-72 course will be lined with local grasses and minimal land excavation. Mossy Oak hopes to create an authentic outdoor experience for its players. They believe there is great overlap between outdoor enthusiasts and golfers. Haas has said that there is data saying 75 percent of the PGA Tour players listed hunting and fishing as their favorite pastime.
“They want the holes to sit in the land naturally,” Jester said. “There’s really nothing contrived about it.”
“It is going to have that overseas feel, that Scotland feel,” he said.
The course may be two years away, but it already has local golfers anticipating the day when there will be two distinct, world-class courses adjacent to one another in West Point.
“It’s going to be like having Augusta National on one side of the street and St. Andrew’s on the other,” Jester said.
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