High-end clubbing

Greg Encarnacion intends to tee off soon at the Irvine Co.’s new luxury golf club in Newport Coast.

But it might take a few weeks and a few paychecks.

Encarnacion, who worked in guest services at the Pelican Hill Golf Club before it closed for renovation two years ago, has bided his time ever since working — and playing — at the Oak Creek Golf Club in Irvine.

He remembers the old Pelican Hill as one of the lushest, most challenging courses in the region, and he knows many of his customers do too; they’ve peppered him with questions about the revised golf club that the Irvine Co. intends to reopen Friday.

The Pelican Hill Golf Club, which overlooks the ocean in Newport Coast and charges a $235 guest fee per round, may cater mostly to the wealthiest golfers in the region. But Encarnacion and others are determined to toe the green sooner or later.

“It’s worth it,” the Aliso Viejo resident said Friday as he swatted golf balls into the morning mist at Oak Creek. “It’s worth the money. If I had the money, I’d play there.

“It feels like Pebble Beach in Southern California. That’s the best way to describe it.”

BIGGER PICTURE FOR O.C. RESORTS

The Pelican Hill Golf Club, which is scheduled to open its clubhouse at 6 a.m. Friday and hold its first tee time an hour later, represents the first phase of a property the Irvine Co. hopes will change the face of hospitality in Orange County.

The company announced plans four years ago for the Resort at Pelican Hill, which features 204 bungalows, 128 villas, a spa, a wedding chapel and a number of restaurants. Irvine Co. officials won’t reveal the price tag for the project, but they’ve been up front about its lofty goals. A promotional book for the resort, distributed this year, features quotations from Galileo, da Vinci, Michelangelo and Shakespeare. The resort’s official slogan is “The Possibility of Perfection.”

The Irvine Co. has slated the Resort at Pelican Hill’s full opening for fall 2008. In the meantime, visitors can catch a glimpse of the Italian Renaissance-style grounds with the revised Pelican Hill Golf Club and the Pelican Grill restaurant, both launching Friday.

RUSTIC AESTHETICS SOUGHT

The Irvine Co. sought a unique vacation spot when it planned the Resort at Pelican Hill — and that meant that, construction-wise, machines often gave way to human hands.

To give the resort an old-fashioned look, Vice President of Architecture Brad Neal and his team had construction workers coat buildings in lime plaster, which ages quickly and gives off the appearance of decades of wear.

They ordered hand-carved doors and windows for the bungalows and a hand-painted sign for the resort’s cafe. The most elaborate part was the bottom of the Colosseum-shaped swimming pool: 1.1 million iridescent tiles, created one at a time by a San Diego manufacturer.

Neal and Rob Elliott, who oversees urban planning and design for the Irvine Co., modeled the buildings after the spare, symmetrical style of Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio.

To make the resort look more like a cozy village than a posh hotel, the architects kept the buildings low to the ground and imported mature fig and olive trees to set around the premises.

“The whole idea is to make the resort feel like it’s been around 20 or 30 years,” Elliott said.

CLUB CHANGING COURSES

The golf club bears only a partial resemblance to its former self. Some of the 36 holes remain the same, but designer Tom Fazio altered others, resetting turf and adding new tees and bunkers and an irrigation system. The Irvine Co. built the restaurant and clubhouse from scratch.

A round of golf at Pelican Hill won’t go for cheap any time soon, but the Irvine Co. has offered an incentive to repeat customers with its Players Club program, in which participants pay a $600 annual fee for reduced per-round costs at both Pelican Hill and Oak Creek.

At Pelican Hill, the membership fee will lower the cost to $188.

Even golfers who belong to other clubs said they planned to check out Pelican Hill at least once, just for the experience.

“It was such a fine venue before that it’s kind of taken for granted that it’s going to be top-notch,” said Bill Geller, a Costa Mesa resident who plays at the Mesa Verde Country Club.

Steve Friedlander, the general manager of the Pelican Hill Golf Club, said he is counting the days until the opening — more with anticipation than anxiety.

“Butterflies wouldn’t be the right word, not at all,” he said. “We’re ready.”

PELICAN HILL AT A GLANCE

The Resort at Pelican Hill, a 504-acre resort overlooking the sea in Newport Coast, is set to open in two phases over the next year. Highlights of the resort include:

 Two golf courses

 128 two-, three- and four-bedroom villas

 204 bungalows

 A circular swimming pool shaped like the Roman Colosseum

 A 23,000-square-foot spa with 22 private treatment rooms

 A wedding chapel with a gazebo and a seaside lawn

 Dining choices including an Italian restaurant, a poolside grill and an espresso bar

MICHAEL MILLER may be reached at (714) 966-4617 or at [email protected].