The Essence of the Fairway

n 2008, Chilean businessman Jaime Said contacted Jack Nicklaus, a world golf legend. He was determined to build the best golf course in South America and the first PGA golf course in Chile. For this, he designated a privileged urban plot of land in the city of Frutillar, with a view of all the volcanoes and native forests inserted in the bay of Frutillar, Lake Llanquihue. A few months later, Jack Nicklaus visited the plot with his team of engineers and designers, and was impressed with the environment and the chosen location. They placed its potential among the best of the 300 courses he designed in the world. Jack Nicklaus personally drew up the routing plan and asked his best designer , Chris Cochran, to lead the project. When the time came to begin construction, Nicklaus Design brought in its best talents to accompany Chris, such as Ray Ball and Bobby Root, along with several world-class shapers such as Jerame Miller and Dennis Reidlinger, who, together with the Chilean team of Francisco Zegers in execution of works and Ricardo Schmitz from Inmobiliaria Patagonia Virgin Frutillar, put together a formidable team.

 

The construction teams coordinated between the Jack Nicklaus headquarters in Palm Beach and Frutillar Patagonia Chilena, worked tirelessly for five years to achieve this great task. They designed both the architectural plans for the course, as well as the engineering plans for all the underground infrastructure that is not visible today, along with sophisticated irrigation systems and enormous drainage systems that allow the course to be playable every day of the year. Although the philosophy of the project was to take advantage of the unique topography of the terrain, in its natural form, to generate the fairways, bunkers and greens that are unique on the continent, more than 150,000 cubic meters of earth had to be moved. Then came the personalized advice from Jon Scott, chief agronomist for the PGA Tour and Nicklaus Design, for the sowing stage of the different varieties of grass seeds specially selected in the United States. These were years of great contrasts and formidable work, both due to the large machinery deployed, as well as the professionalism of the specialists in each subject, without neglecting any detail. Lagoons and water feeders were built, and the best sands from Patagonia and other areas were sought out, which were rigorously sent to specialized laboratories in Texas and California for testing. In the end, the best sand in the world was found for our bunkers.

 

Our Board of Directors decided to focus primarily on the golf course, driving range and tennis courts, building the necessary basic services, without a sophisticated clubhouse at the moment, until reaching a significant number of members that makes it possible to maintain a great infrastructure. We already have 170 members, with their families active in our club from the lake region and the city of Santiago. We maintain national and international exchange agreements, including with the best clubs in Chile and with more than 180 courses affiliated with the Jack Nicklaus International Golf Club around the world. Our objective remains the same: to grow the club in an organic and responsible way, until we achieve completing the sports infrastructure and the clubhouse at the level of the best Nicklaus golf clubs in the world. Everything has its time and today we are on the way to that objective in a prudent and sustainable way.