Stanwood, MI – The national awards continue to pile up for the Resorts of Tullymore & St. Ives. The resort’s $6 million clubhouse is the 2009 winner in Golf Inc. magazines annual competition for the best facility among daily fee clubs in America.
The Stanwood club in northwest Michigan shared top honors with The Ritz Carlton Golf Club at Dove Mountain in Marana, Ariz., which won the competition for private clubs. Moon Valley Golf Club in Phoenix, Ariz., was judged best in the remodel/renovations category.
“We are pleased to honor these outstanding clubhouses,” said Katina Cavagnaro, publisher of Golf Inc. “The quality of the entries was exceptionally high.”
Tullymore’s 30,000-square-foot clubhouse was designed by Michigan architect James D. Nordlie, the principal of the Archiventure Group based in Denver, Colo. The soaring cut stone, wood, and glass clubhouse features a sweeping front verandah with a stone fire pit and is built on a slope above the 18th hole on the Tullymore course. It opened on July 4, 2008.
Nordlie is credited with other outstanding Michigan designs, including the clubhouses at Bay Harbor’ golf and yacht clubs, the clubhouses at the Oakhurst Golf & Country Club in Oakland Township, and Forest Dunes Golf Club in Roscommon.
Nordlie praised the Tullymore ownership for giving him and his design team the freedom to properly execute their design.
“The Tullymore clubhouse represents an engaged client that empowered the design team to create an appropriate traditional clubhouse design based on a blended strong exterior statement with a classic interior ambience and attention to detailing,” he said. “The result was a properly sized and graceful building statement that respected the environment and golf designer’s intent, and was executed on schedule and under budget.”
Judges for the contest were Bryan Webb, director of design/principal at MAI Design Group, Englewood, Ca.; Andre Landon, design director/principal at EDI Architecture, Houston, Tx.; and Jim Richerson, general manager/director of golf at Kohler Co., Kohler, Wi.
The Tullymore course, designed by nationally-acclaimed architect Jim Engh of Colorado, is highly decorated with numerous national and state awards. Among the latest, was it selection as the best golf resort in Michigan by Golf World magazine. It is ranked No. 15 on Golf Digest magazine’s list of the Top 100 public and resort courses in America.
The prestigious rankings are the product of the inspired three-year ownership of Peter J. Ministrelli and his nephews, Ronald, Richard, and Robert Marino. The group also bought and are refurbishing the nearby St. Ives golf club and its adjacent 44-suite inn.
The Tullymore clubhouse is the centerpiece of the $50 million the family developers have already committed to creating a vibrant, upscale recreational residential community at the resort, west of Mt. Pleasant.
In an unusual approach, especially in Michigan’s depressed economic condition, the developers are forging ahead with their five-year construction plan that will eventually double their personal $50 investment in the resort community.
Using their own money and resources from their construction and earth moving businesses, the group has created distinct residential villages and built elegant models of custom single family homes, condominiums. Villas in the ultra-luxury Residence Club, overlooking Tullymore’s 18th fairway allows owners who buy fractional ownerships of the units to vacation at similar clubs in the world-wide Registry Collection of similarly luxurious vacation homes.
Ministrelli, one of Michigan’s most noted philanthropists, has donated tens of millions to fund hospital development, charter schools, and Catholic Church ventures. He is also a major builder of upscale golf community homes in Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage, and Palm Desert, Ca. where he resides in the winter.
For more information, visit www.tullymoregolf.com.
