Harold 'Hal' Heers

Mr. Heers had extensive experience with soil conditions and landscaping early in his career. He acquired several dirt moving machines in the 1950’s in Nevada primarily to develop lots for housing subdivisions.

In the early 1960’s Mr. Bert Stamps, a golf course architect from central California, was commissioned to design and oversee the development of two golf courses in the Las Vegas area. One became the Tropicana Country Club, the other was known as the Stardust Country Club. The Tropicana Country Club does not exist any longer as it has been replaced with the MGM Grand Hotel. The Stardust Country Club was sold to the Sahara Hotel and is now known as the Sahara Country Club. Mr. Stamps arranged for the dirt to be moved with Mr. Heers’ equipment. Mr. Heers was an avid golfer at the time, and seized the opportunity to learn the basics of routing and overall designing of the golf courses including the irrigation systems. The two courses were radically different as the Tropicana course had very few houses around it. The Stardust course had a maximum number of lots facing the fairway by having single-wide fairways.

The Tropicana course was brought to completion considerably under budget as the owner, Mr. Jaffee, allowed the architect some freedom of routing. For example, if moving a tee or a green five or ten yards one way or the other would save several thousand yards of dirt moving and still retain the basic integrity of the hole, he was allowed to do it. The natural soil was used with amendments and a good basic fairway sod was developed. Quick couplers were used for irrigation as automatic sprinkler systems were new on the market and as yet somewhat untested. Consequently, thousands of dollars were saved.

On the other hand the building of the Stardust Country Club was quite another experience. Control of the routing and much of the construction was done by a civil engineer, who in turn had little or no knowledge of golf. He and the owner were primarily interested in getting a maximum number of lots bordering on fairways. Mr. Stamps’ expertise was primarily limited to contouring greens and the strategic placement of hazards and penalty phases of a course such as lakes, sand traps, trees and other hazards. One of the first automatic sprinkler systems was installed and worked quite well. The civil engineer insisted that greens and tees be built on the exact spot that was designated on the plan. For instance if, on the plan, a green was down in a 20 foot deep depression and drainage was impossible without bringing in six or seven thousand yards of dirt, the engineer would insist that the location was sacred and could not be adjusted. He also insisted that four inches of blow sand be distributed over the entire course prior to seeding. Needless to say, it is well named the Stardust, as the wind blew it away at least three times before it could be stabilized.

As you might guess, the Stardust course cost considerably more to complete than the Tropicana. . The Tropicana had a better cash flow to begin with even though the Stardust had a higher cost, there were more fairway lots available for sale to recover this initial capital expenditure.

In 1964, Mr. Heers purchased 1,300 acres west of Riverside, California and built the Thousand And One Ranch and Country Club a planned unit development. This country club is now known as the Indian Hills Country Club and is operated as a semi-private and public country club. The original design called for several lakes and some other unique hazards. For example, one of the four par holes was 365 yards with a tee that was elevated 150 feet above the fairway. The carry of the tee shot was in excess of 220 yards with rough and a man-made irrigation canal as hazards in between. However the prevailing wind was at your back and most of the time you could drive the green with a 3 wood. Both #9 and #18 were 5 par holes and were easy birdie holes if you didn’t let the lakes intimidate you on your tee shot. The psychology of that is you will keep coming back to a course that you wind up your day with a birdie.

Mr. Heers subdivided 6,000 acres in northern California known as the Ridgewood Ranch. There is a 40 acre lake and some first growth redwood trees on this ranch. A golf course was designed and routed but the money was never available for construction.

In the 1970’s several pieces of property were developed without golf courses as primarily the properties were too small and the price range of the housing was to accommodate the first-time home buyer.

In the early 1980’s, Mr. Heers was commissioned by Woodhaven Corporation to design and build two country clubs in Palm Desert and Rancho Mirage California. The challenge and uniqueness of these two clubs are as follows. First they are only 160 acres total acreage in each club. Woodhaven Country Club is located on Washington Avenue in Palm Desert has 525 condominiums that sold in the price range of $100,000 to $170,000 beside a 6,000 yard golf course with five lakes. All residences border the golf course with magnificent views. This was a very successful development.

Rancho Mirage Country Club was very upscale. Located on the corner of Bob Hope Drive and Frank Sinatra Avenue, adjoining Eisenhower Hospital and near Desert Isle, The Springs Country Club and Annenberg. 270 Condominiums sold for $250,000 to $650,000. Even though mature trees were imported from as far as 500 miles away, the course itself was built for $1,600,000 and the club house was built for $3,500,000 making a total of $5,100,000 and it was later sold to a Japanese buyer for $14,000,000.

Robert Trent Jones Sr. visited and critiqued these courses and was more than kind with his praise. In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s Mr. Heers was commissioned to design and route three courses on the Gold Coast of Australia. While one of the courses was under construction, the owners were caught up in the financial turmoil of the Japanese market banking problems and unfortunately lost their properties.

In summarizing:

1. In most cases Mother Nature is the ultimate architect, the designer is the enhancer. 2. The golf course designer is an artist and the land is his canvas and the bulldozers are his brushes. 3. Any fool can design the world’s hardest golf course. You just put too many penalties, so that nobody will play or enjoy it. 4. The secret to a well designed golf course is to have as many strategic holes as possible thus allowing for more than one way to play the hole. 5. Each piece of ground has its own uniqueness or if it doesn’t, but is still in a location that would make the course an economic success then it is up to the designer to create as many memorable holes as the budget will allow. 6. Drainage and availability of water are the two most crucial requisites of a good golf course. 7. Unless it is built for a rich man’s toy, economic feasibility in the number one requirement. 8. Basic philosophy: attempt to build a course that looks difficult but plays relatively easy. Remember it is supposed to be a fun game.