Not April Fools: Trump Hires Coore/Crenshaw For Virginia Project

A Donald Trump public course to be built by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw would normally cause me to check the calendar, but Joe Passov isn't joking in this exclusive golf.com story.

Though it's probably years away, the Virginia project on the Kluge estate near Monticello still sounds great. Assuming The Donald doesn't find a way to screw it up make it even greater than Coore/Crenshaw could have imagined.

Last September, he told several media outlets that a handful of golf course architects had toured the property and those architects came away impressed.

"They all unanimously came back and said this could be one of the best golf courses in the country or in the world," Trump said.

Trump's course won't be the first-ever golf course on the property. Years ago, the Kluge estate housed an Arnold Palmer design, but Kluge's third wife, Patricia, who obtained the estate in a 1990 divorce proceeding, let the course go fallow. The old course will not be part of the new design. However, Trump said the new course will take advantage of the Kluge estate's historical setting.

"We can hit a pitching wedge to Monticello," Eric Trump said, referring to Thomas Jefferson's iconic estate next door. "Kluge had amazing taste in land, and coincidentally, so did Thomas Jefferson. We're situated on the same ridge as Monticello. It's incredible to look out from the top of the hills."