Bandon Dunes Architect David McLay Kidd to Design The Wellington Club's Championship Golf Course

The Wellington Club has hired David McLay Kidd to design its championship golf course and practice facilities. Kidd is one of the most recognized names in modern course architecture, with credits including Bandon Dunes in Oregon, Mammoth Dunes at Sand Valley, and work at Fancourt in South Africa.

“Golf should be fun, and we have an opportunity at The Wellington to create an outstanding course that will challenge the best golfers and welcome the newest players to the game.” David McLay Kidd

That sentence is a pretty good summary of his whole career.

Bandon Dunes, Mammoth Dunes, Fancourt: Kidd's Track Record

Bandon Dunes is probably the course that made Kidd's name. It opened along the Oregon coast in 1999 and helped kick off the wave of links-style American golf that gave us places like Streamsong, Sand Valley, and Cabot. Bandon has been a fixture on best-public-courses lists for two decades and turned the surrounding Bandon Dunes Resort into a destination for golfers willing to fly across the country to play it.

Mammoth Dunes, at Sand Valley in Wisconsin, is the course that solidified Kidd's reputation as a designer who actually thinks about the average player. The fairways are wide, the angles are interesting, and a 15-handicap can play it without losing a sleeve of balls. That kind of design is harder to pull off than it looks, and very few modern architects do it well.

At Fancourt in South Africa, Kidd contributed to one of the most respected resort destinations in the southern hemisphere, set against the dramatic landscape of the Garden Route.

What Kidd Means By “Fun”

Kidd has been saying versions of that “golf should be fun” line for years. The thinking behind it is straightforward enough: a lot of championship courses are built to weed out everyone but the best players, which works fine for the U.S. Open and pretty badly for the rest of us. Kidd's courses give the strong player plenty to chew on while still letting an average member walk off the 18th wanting to come back tomorrow.

That matters more in a private club community than in just about any other setting. The Wellington's membership will span families, generations, and skill levels, and a course they all want to play beats a course that intimidates half of them off the tee sheet.

The Rest of the Wellington

The course will sit within a larger collection of sporting and wellness amenities. The community is being built with:

• Racquet courts

• Resort-style pools

• A wellness and fitness center

• A children's club and programs

• An equestrian facility

• Dedicated concierge services

• Championship golf and practice facilities

  
  

The idea is for a family to find everything they actually use in a given week without leaving the property. The pool, the courts, the riding facility, and the gym all get the same level of attention as the course.

Why the Hire Makes Sense

Private clubs sometimes hire architects for the name recognition more than the actual work. Kidd's case is different. He's a recognizable name and a designer whose courses keep getting played long after the opening press cycle dies down. His courses tend to get a lot of rounds and hold up well over the years. That makes him the right kind of architect for a community where members are signing up for the long haul.

Whenever it opens, The Wellington's course will be one of the more anticipated private debuts in the country. Kidd's track record suggests it should live up to the wait.