Bay Bridge Golf Brigade

By: Dave Droschak

As a young laborer in the early 1960s, Richard "Dickie" Foster helped build one of the nation's architectural marvels - the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, connecting more than just cargo ships, fishing boats and luxury yachts from the Tidewater area to the Eastern Shore of Virginia.

Four decades later, the Virginia Beach real-estate developer pulled off another architectural miracle of sorts by luring greats Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus to the same piece of property to design signature golf courses.

Foster, who has never hit a golf ball, didn't know any better. At the time, he was unaware that Palmer and Nicklaus had never worked on projects at the same place simultaneously.

"Mr. Foster did a bunch of very successful developments in Virginia Beach and he really liked landscaping, so he asked my boss and our director of grounds about building two golf courses on the Eastern Shore, and who should he get to do them," said Bay Creek Resort & Club director of golf Joe Burbee. "Well, they started talking about Rees Jones and Tom Fazio, and Mr. Foster said, 'Who in the hell are they? The only two golfers I know are Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer.' He asked, 'Well, can I call them?' And they said, 'I guess.' "

The Arnold Palmer Design Co. received the initial call floating the idea of Bay Creek.

"The Palmer folks said Mr. Foster would have to call the 'other guy' to see if he's OK with it, and that they don't usually do this intermingling thing," Burbee said. "So Dickie called Jack and Jack said it would be perfectly fine."

So, the idea of 36 holes of Bay Creek - along with its historic design collaboration - was born.

But the project was still a long shot by some standards. The nearby bay town, Cape Charles, was literally crumbling as the exodus of the railroad industry crippled its once vibrant and historic Main Street. And Northampton County, the southern 35 miles of the 70-mile long stretch of the Delmarva Peninsula, is remote and widely regarded as one of the poorest counties in the state of Virginia.

None of this stopped Foster from fostering his dream.

"The town had just about imploded when I decided to go over there," Foster said. "I thought it would be an opportunity to bring a town back to life with a lot of other people who were trying to do the same thing. As corny as that may sound, that was the driving force at the time."

Capt. John Smith, the English explorer, had walked the land hundreds of years earlier where Bay Creek now sits, and Foster was intrigued by its history and sheer beauty.

"Dickie knew nothing about golf but it was quite clear he loved the land, and as soon as I walked it I could see why," said Vicki Martz, the lead golf architect on the Palmer project. "First, we did a helicopter tour and we could see the beautiful marshes and creeks, and even how the Chesapeake Bay could come into play. All of the combination of things we immediately thought to ourselves, 'This could be our Pebble Beach.' We were quite excited."

"Because of the rivalry (between Palmer and Nicklaus) I wouldn't say who was going first," added Foster. "It was really four nines … so that's why the courses sort of crisscross."

Martz and the Palmer group got the first crack at 18 holes, but Foster made sure each designer would have an equal number of holes (five each) that virtually spill out into the expansive bay. Few courses in the United States play along sandy dunes, but Bay Creek offers some of the most breathtaking water/beach holes in the country - certainly along the East Coast.

"It's quite an exceptional experience to be able to play a golf course that is so tied to nature," Martz said. "What I mean by that is Mr. Foster gave us the latitude to take so many of those holes in, around and along the marshes so you feel like you are 'one with nature' when you play Bay Creek. It's not loaded with housing. It's really a beautiful experience to be out there on that beautiful site."

The Palmer Course opened in 2001, and the Nicklaus Course is celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2015.

"They are two very different golf courses," Burbee said. "The Palmer is basically a parkland course set on the bay and the Nicklaus course is more links with pot bunkers and dunes. He didn't do a lot of earth-moving on his course and there are 103 bunkers. We do have GPS so you should now where they all are."

But golf is really just ONE of many activities in and around the golf courses. If you love birds, you've found heaven at Bay Creek. You'll see raptors, eagles, herons, osprey and hawks on a regular basis. "Being located on the Eastern Shore of Virginia we're one of the largest migratory bird crossings in the world," Burbee noted.

And then there are the roses, oh my, the roses!

Foster loves landscaping, particularly flowers. His personal and lasting touch at Bay Creek was to plant not dozens, not hundreds, but thousands of vibrant roses in and around tee boxes, along creek banks, and just about any place Foster wanted some additional color. And the roses are truly a spectacular scene-setter for one of the more spectacular golfing getaways you'll find.

Foster laughs when asked about the plethora of roses not normally seen in a golf setting.

"I'm not a golfer but I do like landscaping and I do like flowers," Foster admitted. "So I felt with 600-some acres I could do some pretty neat things. I was approached by a guy who did a lot of landscaping for me and he said, 'I've got these roses I want you to try.' I said, 'No way, I've got roses and I know how much trouble they are.' Well, he says he has this guy in Alabama who has patented these roses and you don't have to do anything - they will bloom all the time. He gave me like a 100 of them. His words were, 'I'm going to give you these because you're going to make me rich when you like them.' He was right. He is now retired. Yes, there are plenty of knockout roses to go around at Bay Creek."

There are also enough success stories to go around. Cape Charles and its nearby beach are once again booming, with places like the Brown Dog Ice Cream serving up its famous homemade waffle ice cream sandwich. "They make the waffle right there - it takes like five minutes. You smell it and then they put the two scoops of ice cream together … it's like a religious experience," Burbee said.

And hammers are pounding again at Bay Creek, with property moving, bolstered by two mature golf courses designed by legends in an unmatched, unhurried setting.

And don't you dare call Bay Creek Resort a "development." Foster hates that word with a passion.

"That word just has a stigma about it," he said. "I discovered the tree spade back in the 1980s and found I could move large trees. A development starts as one thing and then eventually it is called a community. I'm of the opinion when the trees mature people stop calling it a development or a project, they call it a community. So, I said, 'OK, I can plant big trees and lay sod and make Bay Creek look like it has been there for 15 years' and that's what we did. That's why we use the word 'community' because they use that word after a place has matured. We were just trying to rush the maturity."

But not much else is rushed here along the southern tip of the Eastern Shore.

"There is not even a single traffic light in Cape Charles. Where do you get that?" Burbee asked. "There is no crime, there is no traffic, there is no noise. There is not even any light pollution; it's amazing because on a clear night you can see all the stars for miles."

For golf packages or additional real estate information log on to www.baycreekresort.com.

David Droschak has covered golf in the Carolinas for three decades, mostly with The Associated Press, where he worked for 20 years as AP sports editor in North Carolina prior to launching Droschak Communications, a full-service marketing and PR firm based in Apex, N.C.

Dave, 53, has covered numerous major golf tournaments, including the 1999 and 2005 U.S. Opens at Pinehurst Resort, and is a longtime member of the Golf Writers Association of America. Dave will represent Cybergolf to provide coverage of the historic back-to-back 2014 U.S. Men's and Women's Opens at Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina's Sandhills.

Dave was honored with the Sports Writer of the Year award in North Carolina in 2005, and is currently editor of Triangle Golf Today (www.trianglegolf.com), a print and online publication regarded as the "No. 1 Source for Golf News in North Carolina." He is also golf editor for Pinehurst Magazine, an award-winning glossy publication.

Dave grew up in Penn Hills, Pa., about five minutes from famed Oakmont Country Club and was introduced to the game of golf as a caddie at Green Oaks Country Club in nearby Verona, Pa. Dave was the co-captain of the 1978 Penn Hills state championship baseball team, was a pitcher for the 1982 Atlantic Coast Conference champion University of North Carolina Tar Heels, and pitched professionally for two years in the St. Louis Cardinals organization. He is a member of the Penn Hills High School Sports Hall of Fame, which also includes NBA coach George Karl and former four-time Pro Bowl offensive lineman Bill Fralic.

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