Paradise Restored Nicklaus-Designed Old Works Layout Provides Stunning Scenery, Challenging Golf

It’s difficult to decide where to begin when discussing the considerable upside of the Old Works Golf Course in Anaconda, Mont.

The trendy approach is to push the environmental angle. That’s what Golf magazine did last fall when it named Old Works one of the Top 10 courses in the United States open to the general public. Golf Journal took the same tack in introducing the course in a January 1997 article entitled “Works of Restoration.”

It was also the obvious slant adopted by Golf Course Management magazine, which named the Jack Nicklaus-designed gem the national public course winner of its 1999 Environmental Steward Award earlier this spring.

And why not? This remarkable golf course, which was designed by Nicklaus at a cost of nearly $15 million, unwraps in scenic splendor atop the long-abandoned site of a copper-smelting operation that earned the dubious distinction of being designated a Superfund site in 1983 by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

What Nicklaus - as part of an unlikely alliance that includes community leaders, the EPA and the Atlantic Richfield Co. - has accomplished with this 220-acre toxic-waste tract pushes the limits of one’s imagination.

The site on which the course rests was home to the first copper-smelting facilities in Anaconda, an old mining town of about 10,000 located just off I-90, about five hours east of Spokane and just 30 minutes west of Butte. The smelter, after which the course is named, was built in 1884 to process ore from Butte. It had been vacant since 1902, when operations moved to the nearby Washoe Works.

Since then, the southwestern Montana property had been used as an unofficial dump site. It was littered with garbage and rusting cars when ARCO - in a business gaffe for the ages - purchased the Anaconda Co. in 1977, thereby inheriting the Washoe smelter, which it subsequently closed in 1983, and an environmental disaster.

All that remained of the Old Works smelter were crumbling stone-wall remnants, several massive iron ladles, decaying timbers and a high volume of toxic heavy-metal tailings that were at the root of the Superfund designation.

Rather than pay for an ultra-expensive cleanup effort that would have required covering the area and fencing it off, ARCO took the innovative step of dealing with 100 years of damage by using it as the base for a world-class golf course. Nicklaus, working with the EPA and Anaconda residents, capped the toxic metal tailings with 2 inches of limestone and 16 inches of topsoil and proceeded to design one of the country’s most visually dramatic and physically challenging courses.

Having played a few other Jack Nicklaus signature courses, I was presented with the opportunity to play Old Works earlier this spring. And even though the greens had just been aerated, it became obvious early on that this inspired layout ranks among the Golden Bear’s best.

The course features five sets of tee boxes, playing 7,705 yards from the black Slag markers to a more friendly 5,348 from the red Brick markers.

It is long, tough, fair and visually stunning, thanks to the mountain scenery that contrasts so dramatically with the crumbling stone walls of the Old Works smelter and back slagfilled bunkers and waste areas that run along several fairways.

Trout-filled Warm Springs Creek winds along the outer edge of the course and a couple of large ponds bring water into play on three holes.

Like most Nicklaus designs, the Old Works layout is driver friendly. Broad, plush carpets of tightly cropped, deep green grass define each fairway, inviting golfers of all skill levels to forego caution and hit their big sticks off the tee.

Position with the driver remains important, however, because the massive bent-grass greens are rolling and severely sloped, and there are plenty of spots for imaginative pin placements - some of which make holes nearly inaccessible from certain areas of the fairway.

The course’s length, while startling on the scorecard, is not as unmanageable as it might first seem. And for that, the shorter hitters among us can thank Nicklaus’ design philosophy.

“Jack wants to keep the course long,” explained Steve Wickliffe, the director of golf at Old Works. “But he also wants to keep the fairways hard, so the ball will roll, and the greens firm, so you can hit short of the flag and still run the ball up close.”

Course superintendent Rick Hathaway has done a masterful job of satisfying Nicklaus’ wishes. There is little give on the greens and even less on the fairways, which afford big bounces and long rolls. Factor in Anaconda’s elevation of 5,300 feet and those 7,700-plus yards from the back tees seem much less-daunting.

Among the most challenging holes at Old Works is the downhill ninth, which stretches 485 yards from the back tees and features a 50-foot elevation change. The old 585-foot tall smokestack on the abandoned Washoe Smelter serves as a target off the tee, guiding well-aimed drives to the garden spot in the center of the fairway. From there, the mid-iron approach to a tricky two-tiered green becomes a bit more straightforward.

The seventh, a 238-yard par-3 that sits atop a hillside of black slag, is another gem where the prevailing westerly wind can offset another dramatic drop in elevation from the back tees.

Weak holes simply don’t exist at Old Works. The par-3s are all scenic and demanding, and the longer holes - with their slag bunkers and waste areas - offer some of the most unique views and challenges imaginable.

And you can play it for a pittance.

Eighteen-hole green fees range from just $29 (early and late-season rates) to $36 (May 28 through Sept. 12) and make the Old Works one of the best golf bargains in the region.

The course also boasts a splendid driving range and practice facility that includes three practice holes that can be played for $4.

IF YOU GO Old Works Eighteen-hole green fees at Old Work Golf Course in Anaconda, Mont., range from $29 (from opening day to May 27 and from Sept. 13 to closing) to $36 (May 28 through Sept. 12). Tee times can be made by calling (406) 563-5989. The practice facility includes three practice holes that can be played for $4. Stay-and-play packages are available at several local motels, including the Ramada Copper King Inn and Holiday Inn Express in Butte and the nearby Fairmont Hot Springs Resort, which has its own 18-hole golf course. For more information on packages, call (800) 392-4892.