Articles
Bull Session
Published in the Bozeman Chronicle, June 1st, 2007.
VIPs get a first look at budding Weiskopf course
By TIM DUMAS Chronicle Sports Writer
The layout consists of the usual sights and sounds of any construction site.
Piles of dirt and rocks peek out from the surface like the many ground squirrels that creep around the grounds. Paths have been cut, stakes have been "planted."
The noises that constantly fill the air include the hum of backhoes, the pounding of hammers, the song of birds.
Yet there are no road closures. No need for detours.
The commotion at the south end of Love Lane — at the junction of Durston Road, one mile north of Huffine Lane — comes with a vision: "the best golf course in Montana."
When completed, Black Bull will become just what it is billed: A Montana Golf Community.
Aside from the 19 holes of golf and a driving range — a project overseen by former PGA Tour member and British Open champion Tom Weiskopf — the private club will include 378 homes, a swim and tennis center, walking trails, a fitness center, a restaurant and a fishing dock.
The community is being built on the 483 acres that was once Jay Leachman’s angus ranch.
Leachman, who returned from a golf outing in Scotland on Wednesday, is known around the world for his "Business Bulls" auctions each March. Thus the name for the project — and the reason a large, steel black bull sits atop a rock pile at the entrance.
Leachman’s house was once behind where the first tee will be. The barn where the bull auctions were conducted still stands. (Leachman’s current home is behind the golf course’s property).
"I designed a lot of the holes in my head while I was bailing hay and feeding cows," Leachman said. "It’s fun to see it all unfold."
Weiskopf, who built a house in Gallatin Gateway three years ago, says the par 72, 7,200-yard course is "very walkable," meaning the distance from green to tee is short.
Each set of nine holes include two par 5s, two par 3s and five par 4s. A "bye" hole just beyond the 18th will also be included.
"It’s a short pitch shot to settle all ties or bets," said Weiskopf, a remark that drew a laugh from the two dozen Bozeman and Black Bull community members who attended Thursday’s walk-through.
According to Craig Bryant, a developer with the Winchester Group, which has offices in Palm Desert, Calif., and Bozeman, the driving range is planned for a late-fall opening.
Home models will be finished by August and the course itself is set for a mid-August 2008 opening. (Seed and sod work for the driving range and holes 10 and 18 is beginning this week).
The Winchester Group has been constructing golf communities since the 1970s and eight years ago completed Stock Farm in Hamilton, which Golf Digest ranked in 2003 as the top course in Montana.
"All we do is high-end golf courses and the housing components that go around it," said Bryant, a Bozeman native who worked at the ranch before Leachman bought it 35 years ago.
Black Bull will become the Gallatin Valley’s sixth golf course. Like Black Bull, Bozeman’s Riverside and Valley View are private, while Bridger Creek and Cottonwood Hills, also in Bozeman, are public. Headwaters in Three Forks is public as well.
But because of its amenities, a 16-acre practice facility and the amount of housing, Black Bull will offer unprecedented services.
"This community’s never seen a project like this," Bryant said.
Each hole will have five or six tee placements — including one for children — instead of the usual three. Forty-nine bunkers are being built and there is one par 4 (hole No. 8) that Weiskopf said is "reachable with a long, accurate drive."
"You pick your own poison here," Weiskopf said. "It doesn’t favor any style of play. The par 5s are not very difficult, but the par 3s are challenging. That’s an Augusta (in Georgia, home of the Masters) philosophy."
The construction phase of the project will employ 350 people; the finished product between 100-150 depending on the time of year. Housing units — of which Bryant said "a lengthy list of people have put down deposits for lots" — are priced between $250,000 and $600,000.
Because of Weiskopf’s success with these projects (he’s built or is building 55 other courses), the units will be worth more soon, Bryant said.
"Of all the active golf architects, it’s his properties that appreciate the fastest," Bryant said. "Why do they do that? Because the golf components are great."
Black Bull may look a little like a dusty gravel pit at this point, but signs of life are beginning to spring up. Trees and houses are being erected and an entry-gate building is near completion.
All with one goal in mind.
"I hope at the end of the day, people say this is the best course in Montana," Weiskopf said. "Not just in golf, but the resort community. We’re here to set a benchmark."