Marcella Reveals Designers Of Second Golf Course To Join Tiger Woods

Forbes

04-08-2025

As the private club community of Marcella in northern Utah readies for the opening of its Tiger Woods-designed championship course, its membership now has even more to be excited about.
Rob Collins and Tad King, the golf architects behind several of the most popular courses of the modern era, have been tabbed to build the second 18-hole course at Marcella along with their newest design partner, Trevor Dorner. The team at King Collins Dormer Golf Design will break ground this summer on Ambush, a mountain course with 'otherworldly terrain' that is set along ridgelines overlooking the Heber Valley.
Collins, who teamed with King to create Landmand in northeast Nebraska and the 9-hole Sweetens Cove in Tennessee (two courses that have developed cult followings in destination golf circles), says the Ambush site is one of the most diverse, dramatic and beautiful locations they've ever seen for golf.
'It's a very interesting site in that it is a blend of a few different places,' Collins said. 'The big vista mountain holes have a Landmand level of scale to them, but the quieter valley holes have a touch of a Midwest 'dunesey' feel to them. It is a fascinating contrast and will be a great deal of fun to build a course there.'
A Unique Second Course
The developers of Marcella – the same team behind Black Desert Resort in Utah – were looking for a second course design with its own unique personality and 'edge' in turning to KCD Design. Jared Lucero, CEO of REEF Capital Partners and developer of Marcella at Deer Valley (one of Marcella's three locations), said they finalized a partnership shortly after meeting with King and Collins during a visit to Sweetens Cove.
'It became an inevitability that they would do Marcella because we hit it off so well,' Lucero said. 'And we wanted the second course to be a little different thematically from the Tiger course.'
'Their courses deliver the kind of magic that makes people fall in love with the game all over again,' he added.
Expressive design and memorable shot-making has become a hallmark of King and Collins, who in November 2024 brought aboard Dormer – a former associate for Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw for most of the past decade – as a partner. Dormer grew up in the mountains of Alberta, Canada, and that experience helped shape his early passion for golf architecture, studying those landscapes and envisioning how golf could be laid out on them.
'Rob has done an amazing job laying out the holes to perfectly capture the natural ebbs and flows of the terrain,' Dormer said. 'The scale of the golf course features will definitely match the aura of the landscape -- bold and beautiful. In my opinion, you can't have a small golf course on a property like this; it truly demands more.'
Marcella's Membership
The two courses will be exclusive to members at Marcella, which is a collaboration between REEF, Raintree Investment Corporation and Crosslake Partners. With the purchase of real estate in either Marcella at Deer Valley or Marcella at Jordanelle Ridge, buyers gain access to all three locations, featuring world-class golf and ski amenities. All 500 golf (and ski) memberships have already sold out, speaking to the demand for what will be the premier 36-hole private club experience in the American West.
In the states of Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho and Montana, only one other private community -- The Glacier Club in northern Colorado -- has two 18-hole courses built by different architects.
Marcella still has ski/social memberships that provide limited access to the golf courses. Memberships are only available through purchase of real estate at Marcella, which spans three locations: Marcella at Deer Valley, Marcella at Jordanelle Ridge, and Marcella on Main, located in Old Town Park City. Entry points start at $750,000 at Marcella Jordanelle Ridge and $9 million at Marcella Landing at Deer Valley.
'Together, these courses form the core of something truly rare — a complete high-altitude golf and lifestyle community built for generations,' said Raintree division president Cody Winterton.
Marcella's 36 Holes
Both golf courses are located on Jordanelle Ridge within the Marcella community, with the first tees of both located within about 1,000 yards of the Marcella clubhouse.
The Skyline Course designed by Woods and Beau Welling features 360-degree views of the Uinta Mountains, Jordanelle Reservoir, Deer Valley Resort and the Heber Valley. The Skyline routing takes advantage of the long-range views while incorporating intimate valleys between the ridges, and Woods has said he wants the course to be 'playable for all' – offering generous landing areas – while also presenting a strategic challenge. Some holes are expected to be ready for play by members this year.
Meanwhile, the Ambush Course will start and finish on a ridge, with a string of cliff-edge holes that boast panoramic views, while the middle of the round is characterized by a series of holes nestled into an Aspen-lined valley.
'There are massive amounts of variety, and it is quite different from many of the other mountain courses that I've seen in that it won't get trapped in some of the limiting factors and thematic elements that you see on 'typical' mountain courses,' Collins said. 'While it is extremely dramatic in spots, it also lends itself to a 'lay of the land' look and feel, which I think will be a great deal of fun to execute in the design and construction process.'
Landmand Comparisons
For those who have experienced the massive scale of Landmand -- which sprawls across an incredibly hilly and dynamic 588-acre site in Nebraska – the mental images are inevitable. Collins says that's understandable.
'Like Landmand, it is a very dramatic site with long vistas,' Collins said. 'If you took the 1st, 2nd and 18th holes at Landmand and placed them on top of a ridge at 7,500 feet overlooking a magnificent valley that also has 360 degree views of the Rockies, that would give you a pretty good idea of what we have to work with.'
Despite being a mountain course, Ambush's routing will lend it to be walkable, with close green-to-tee transitions throughout. The key for the KCD team will be executing the grade changes to make walking feel comfortable. Fortunately, Collins says, the valley holes currently 'meander at a nice grade back to the ridge for a dramatic finish.'
Another differing aspect for Ambush is that the course plans to have a fescue blend in the fairways, which Collins says will require the team to 'design and build to accommodate a lot of shots along the ground.'
The activity at Marcella – along with new courses at several other private clubs (Wohali and Three Bridges) and the very early stages of potentially an even bigger project for REEF Capital near Black Desert Resort – have quietly made Utah one of the most active states in the country in terms of new golf development. Percentagewise, Utah is experiencing the third-highest population growth behind only Florida and Texas.
'I suppose it has to do with the fact that Utah is a wonderful place to live and work,' said Collins. 'And people from all over the country are realizing that a state that has great weather in the summer along with some of the best winter sports anywhere in the world is a pretty damn good place to be.'