Trump Course Makes Progress

While Donald Trump has encountered difficulties in turning Ocean Trails Golf Club into Trump National Los Angeles, he says the arduous journey has been worth it.

The course, scheduled to open in June and to play host to an LPGA tournament in late September, still has a few speed bumps to negotiate, but it took a significant step forward Friday when Trump helped break ground on the housing development planned for the Rancho Palos Verdes property.

He sat in a room with Rancho Palos Verdes Mayor Larry Clark and other members of the City Council -- a sight that might not have been seen during the sometimes heated negotiations over the last two years -- and discussed the progress he has made on the troubled course.

“We inherited something that was a problem -- a mess,” Trump said. “But when it opens it will be something very special. Everything here is better than when we started. It will be the best course in California.”

Clark called the day significant. He had doubts that Trump could make happen all the things he has wanted to happen, but has come away impressed with the real estate magnate’s power of persuasion.

“Today was a major milestone in the history of his development,” Clark said. “This project has a long history and not all of it is the best.”

Red tape, logistical problems and at least one intense legal battle with the local school district have hampered Trump’s effort to rebuild the course, whose 18th hole slid toward the Pacific Ocean during a 1999 landslide.

Trump purchased the course in August 2002, renaming it and commencing a major rebuilding project.

Fairways were widened, bunkers were added and holes were lengthened, rerouted or, in a few cases, completely altered.

The course work is nearly complete. Most of the fairways and greens are playable, General Manager Mike van der Goes said, but the tee boxes have not yet been seeded and the rebuilt holes still need some work. Waterfalls are still under construction.

“Things here have dramatically changed since Mr. Trump came on board,” said Van der Goes, employed at the course since 2000. “He likes to do things grand. He wants people to leave with a ‘wow’ factor.”

The LPGA scheduled its Los Angeles-area stop for Sept. 30 through Oct. 2 at Trump National even though there was no guarantee that the course would be ready for the tournament.

Even as course completion draws near, there are questions about the planned driving range. The necessary permits for it have not been issued, and though Trump said they were close to finalizing those arrangements, he acknowledged that a major professional tournament would be unlikely without a range.

“I wouldn’t come here without a range if I were the LPGA,” Trump said. “It would be very difficult to tell Annika Sorenstam that there is no place to practice or warm up.”

Scheduling the tournament, Trump said, has helped light a fire in the bureaucratic process it has taken to complete the course. He said he hopes for the same with the driving range.

“If I don’t get the permits for it, then I’ll just build houses there,” Trump said.

The land for the range was originally set aside for housing lots and has the necessary permitting for housing. But Trump knew that without a range, he would be unlikely to attract a major event, so he sacrificed the 17 home lots, and the estimated $50 million combined selling price for those homes.

“It would take a long time to make 50 million selling buckets of golf balls,” Van der Goes said.