Wadkins Design Group

OCTOBER 30, 2003

Wadkins wants shot at Pinnacle Club Design Job
Ex-PGA star calls Grove City golf course site ‘an A-plus’. Lanny Wadkins, an eight-time member of the U.S. Ryder Cup team, 22-time Professional Golf Association Tour winner and 1985 PGA Player of the Year, is no stranger to airports. more...

JANUARY 2004

Wadkins to Design Pinnacle Club
CBS golf commentator and former PGA star Lanny Wadkins signed a deal yesterday with developer Joe Ciminello to oversee the design and construction of the Pinnacle Club of Grove City. more...

JUNE 2004

Pinnacle Club Unveiled
It didn’t take long for PGA Tour veteran and CBS golf analyst Lanny Wadkins to realize the new Pinnacle Club golf course will be a challenging one. more...

October 30, 2003
By Jeff Donahue
Record Staff Writer

Wadkins wants shot at Pinnacle Club design job
Ex-PGA star calls Grove City golf course site ‘an A-plus’

Lanny Wadkins, an eight-time member of the U.S. Ryder Cup team, 22-time Professional Golf Association Tour winner and 1985 PGA Player of the Year, is no stranger to airports.

Last Wednesday morning, the popular CBS golf analyst and competitor on the Champions Tour caught a flight from Dallas to visit Grove City for a tour of the proposed Pinnacle Club golf course site planned for the old Eber-Lea Farm off White Road.

“I caught a 6:30 (a.m.) flight out of Dallas on a day off to get up here and take a look at this,” Wadkins said, while touring the site with developer Joe Ciminello and Jerry Pierman, executive vice president of the North Palm Beach, Fla.-based Wadkins Design Group. “I have a lot of interest in this project. I hope they’re interested in me. I’d like to be a part of it. It would be very exciting for us.”

Wadkins said the trip was worth it.

“The property is spectacular,” Wadkins said of the 200-acre site. “ I would love to be involved in this. There’s a lot of variety here with the creeks, the open spaces and the significant trees. There are a lot of possibilities here. This could be a very, very exciting project. This looks like an A-plus to me.”

Wadkins co-designed the TPC course in Myrtle Beach, N.C., with Tom Fazio, the Giants Ridge course in Minnesota with Jeff Brauer and designed the Cherry Creek Golf Course in Shelby, Mich.

Wadkins said he was particularly impressed with the topography and natural beauty of the Pinnacle Club site.

:No. 7 and No. 5, the two par threes, look like they could be really neat just by utilizing the elevation changes and the natural creeks and ravines that are here,” he said. “I’m a big believer in using whatever is natural on the property. Let’s make it as natural and exciting as possible.”

Wadkins said he thinks The Pinnacle Club will rank among Ohio’s best golf courses.

“I’ve played a lot of them in Ohio and here in this city,” he said. “I’ve played everywhere in this city from Brookside to Scioto, Muirfield Village, The Golf Club, Double Eagle. I think this will fit right in the middle of them, no problem. The property here is too spectacular for it not to.”

Wadkins said his philosophy on golf course design is to make courses that are challenging but can still be played by the average golfer.

“I think you have to look at how the holes play,” he said, “Obviously, the longer holes would be the downhill holes. You try to use things like that to equalize the yardage. You have to know where the prevailing wind is. You don’t want to build an uphill, 470-yard, par 4 into the prevailing wind. Nobody’s going to get there. Maybe Tiger and a couple of his cohorts could, but us mortals wouldn’t.”

Pierman, a noted golf course builder formerly associated with Jack Nicklaus’ Golden Bear Inc. group, has built 25 golf courses including central Ohio’s Medallion Club in Westerville and New Albany Golf Club, as well as participating in the design and construction of 40 courses outside the U.S. in such locations as Japan, Puerto Rico, Canada, Italy and South America.

Pierman described the Pinnacle Club site as “unique.”

“I haven’t seen anything like this site in Ohio,” Pierman said. “I haven’t seen anything that has as many ravines and changes as this does. This has so much of that all the way through. The way Joe (Ciminello) has this preliminarily routed, offers a lot of unique golf holes. You won’t see those kinds of golf holes continuously throughout a golf course. You will see golf courses that have maybe one or two or three of those kinds of holes but to be able to take that feeling throughout a golf course is really unique. I can see this being really something special.”

Pierman said he envisions the deep ravines on the course as key elements in the design.

“As opposed to having the ravines as hazards, if you can bring the ravine into the golf hole, not so much with play but visually and you can accomplish having that visual effect throughout this golf course, it is really going to be unique,” he said.

Ciminello, the developer for the project, has brought a virtual who’s who of golf course architects to Grove City this summer, including representatives of Robert Trent Jones II, Davis Love III, Michael Hurdzan, Michael Strantz, Berry Serafin and Gary Player.

Ciminello said he anticipates choosing a designer for the Pinnacle Club within the next two weeks.

January 2004
By Jeff Donahue
Grove City Record

Lanny Wadkins to design Pinnacle Club’s golf course

CBS golf commentator and former PGA star Lanny Wadkins signed a deal yesterday with developer Joe Ciminello to oversee the design and construction of the Pinnacle Club of Grove City.

The 18-hole course is scheduled to open in late 2005 or early 2006, Ciminello said.

Ciminello chose the Florida-based Wadkins Design Group from a Who’s Who of golf-course-design firms including those led by Michael Hurdzan, Robert Trent Jones II, Davis Love III, Greg Norman, Gary Player and Tom Weiskopf.

“We interviewed quite a few firms,” Ciminello said. “We hit it off with Lanny better than most. We will have more input from Lanny than any other professional of his stature. He’s personally interested in every aspect of the design.”

Ciminello would not disclose Wadkins’ fee.

The Pinnacle Club of Grove City is designed to be the hub of Ciminello’s upscale golf-course community planned for a 620-acre site south of Grove City near White Road and Buckeye Parkway. Preliminary plans call for the construction of more than 1,800 residential unit that will range from $200,000 to $1 million.

Ciminello was also the lead developer for the New Albany Links golf-course community.

Wadkins, who toured the site this week, said he thinks the Pinnacle Club will earn a place among central Ohio’s best.

“This is a spectacular piece of property and has the potential to be an outstanding golf course,” Wadkins said.

“This is a city that loves golf, and we have some great golf courses here, so we’ve got a lot to live up to with what’s already here.”

The final development plan for the Pinnacle Club will be reviewed by the Grove City Council in February.

Ciminello said once that plan is approved, groundbreaking could take place as early as March.

June 2004
By Mark A. Claffey
Record Staff Writer

Pinnacle Club golf course unveiled

It didn’t take long for PGA Tour veteran and CBS golf analyst Lanny Wadkins to realize the new Pinnacle Club golf course will be a challenging one.

Wadkins hit six drives before landing a shot on the elevated green on hole number five during a “First Divot” ceremony Thursday.

PGA Tour veteran Wadkins takes ceremonial first tee shot

The celebration at the Eber-Lea Farm on White Road was attended by more than 150 residents and representatives from Grove City, Jackson Township and Franklin County.

“This project is spectacular,” Wadkins said, looking out over the Par 3, 200-yard hole. There’s a lot of variety here with the creeks, the open spaces and the significant trees. I am a big believer in using whatever is natural on the property.”

Wadkins said the course will be one of the finest around once his Florida-based Wadkins Design Group finishes it.

"I think this is something everybody will be proud of,” Wadkins said.

The 187-hole course will be 7,312 yards in length from the championship tees, with the longest hole being 606 yards and the shortest hole being 170 yards. The golf course is scheduled to open sometime in the spring of 2006.

Developer Joe Ciminello said crews are anxious to get started on the Pinnacle Club golf course community located on 624 acres south of White Road and east of Interstate 71. Hi company, Ciminello, Inc., previously developed the New Albany Links golf course community.

Ciminello thanked the former landowners of the 625 acres who agreed to sell the property to his company.

“Without all you folks this wouldn’t be a possibility,” Ciminello said.

Ciminello said construction on homes could start later this summer or early this fall.

“It will be a mess at first, but it will all be worth it,” Ciminello said.

The development plan for the Pinnacle Club of Grove City golf course community calls for the construction of more than 1,700 units of quality housing by M/I Schottenstein Homes and other custom builders.

Robert Schottenstein, president and CEO of M/IU, said his company is proud to be in the community and part of the project.

“This is an exciting time for us and an exciting time for Grove City,” Schottenstein said. “We have a strong desire to make this jewel we are standing on today even brighter.”

Golf course estate lots, showcase homes, luxury condominiums and town homes, ranging in price from $200,000 to more than $1-million will also be a part of the residential mix. A $2-million community recreation complex is among the many amenities residents of the community will enjoy.

Grove City Mayor Cheryl Grossman said the Pinnacle Club project took a lot of hard work and effort by a lot of people and will fit in well with the new Parkway Centre development currently under construction.

“We eagerly await the opening of the Parkway Centre development and anxiously await the opening of the Pinnacle Club,” Grossman said. “To everyone who has been involved in the project, thank you for you partnership because this is a very important day in the community.”

Wadkins said the Pinnacle Club golf course could vie for a Champions Tour tournament event or possibly an LPGA tournament in the near future, but not a PGA event.

“A PGA event is very unlikely especially because there’s already one here in town and I can’t imagine there being a second here in Columbus, not with Jack (Nicklaus) involved, he wouldn’t want that happening,” Wadkins said. “I think the course could very easily accommodate the Champions Tour or an LPGA event. I think the course could accommodate that.”

Wadkins said he is confident The Pinnacle Club will rank among Central Ohio’s great golf courses.

“I’ve played everywhere in this city from Brookside to Scioto, Muirfield Village, The Golf Club, Double Eagle,” Wadkins said. “I think the Pinnacle Club will fit right in the middle of them. The property here is too spectacular for it not to.”