New Nick Price Design, Soleta, Opens In Florida By Len Ziehm, Pictures by Joy Sarver “I developed a serious elbow injury and had surgery. When I came back after a year I couldn’t play, so I retired.’’ He co-designed 11 courses with established architects, like Tom Fazio and Steve Smyers, before starting his own his own design firm in 2001. He now has 27 courses on his resume spread around the world in the Dominican Republic, Ireland, South Africa, Mexico and China, as well as Florida. Nick Price is one of the great golfers who has become a successful course designer, a fact that is underscored by the recent unveiling of the Soleta course, near Sarasota. The 67-year-old Price was the No. 1 player in the Official World Golf Rankings for 43 weeks in the 1990’s and topped the PGA Tour money list twice. He grabbed two PGA Championship trophies, plus the 1994 OPEN Championship. The South African was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2003. Price eventually found his way into course design, but it took a while. “I started with architecture toward the end of my career, but didn’t want to do anything while I still playing well.’’ Four years into his career on the Champions Tour that changed. American Golf Journal
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