Shooting Star Jackson Hole

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The Bridges at Rancho Santa Fe

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17th hole, 266 yards Opposite: 12th hole, 481 yards

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FA Z I O P R E M I E R C L U B S

SHOOTING STAR

ALLEN KENNEDY (2)

As big and bold as the American West, this family-owned club offers the best in year-round activities and truly breathtaking scenery

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S H O O T I N G S TA R

Holes 18 (left), 519 yards, and 10 (right), 186 yards

N THE U.S., FAMILY-OWNED FARMS and ranches are disappearing, shutting down or selling off to mega-corporations. Hoping to avoid that fate, the Resor family—which owns a 6,500-acre cattle ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyoming—had an idea that would keep the family, now grooming its fourth generation, involved and committed: Turn part of their property into a golf club.

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“We wanted something different, something sustainable over time,” says John Resor, Shooting Star’s president. “A way to keep the ranch intact and have a complementary business on the land.”

Their solution is Shooting Star, a two-year-old private community with a Tom Fazio-designed golf course, full-service club, single-family homes and “cabins,” and easy access to the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort (featuring the longest continuous vertical drop in the country) as well as proximity to two of the country’s most magnificent national parks, Grand Teton and Yellowstone.

Plus a healthy sense of realism.

“As good as the club is, as good as the golf is, we know we’re just one of many amenities for our members,” says membership director Mike Kramer, who worked for Fazio for 11 years and was involved in the design of the Shooting Star

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course. “There’s just so much to do here—hiking, fishing, white-water rafting, horseback riding, Nordic and downhill skiing, and amazing summer weather.”

Plus some of the world’s most beautiful mountain scenery.

Impossible to escape, the towering Tetons are literally in the club’s backyard, forcing the architect to build the course on 250 acres and with big enough scale to match the majesty of the surroundings.

To add drama to the pancake-flat grazing land, two million cubic yards of earth were moved, raising some parts of the layout and lowering others, and exposing 50 acres of ground water that were incorporated into the design. Streams and lakes are in play on 13 of the 18 holes.

All four of the par threes demand crossing or skirting water, often both; same with the four par fives (par is 72). There also are 84 bunkers, many large, deep, and fringed with long,

L.C. LAMBRECHT; ALLEN KENNEDY

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wispy fescue that waves in the afternoon winds. And although they might not always appear so from the tees, fairways are wide, making it possible to avoid the hazards—but usually leaving longer approach shots from less comfortable angles.

So better players hitting from the lengthiest of five available markers will find more than enough challenge while average players can avoid punishment by playing smart and within their means. But everyone has to think on every shot, beginning with the very first hole.

Number 1 is a dogleg-left par four with half a dozen bunkers on the right side, which is also the preferred side for approaching a green angled to the left. It’s followed by a mid-length par three with water down the right, then a long par five with a stream that begins on the right, crosses the fairway, then hugs

the left edge of the green. The opening holes give players a taste of the elements to come—water, sand, elevation change, playing the angles—and a chance to get used to the 6,300-foot altitude (which adds about one club to each shot) and firm, fast, and receptive greens surrounded by big collection areas.

The course continually changes directions, starting parallel to the Teton Range, turning toward the peaks then away, altering the effects of prairie breezes. The 7th is a straight par four that aims dead at the ski runs. Its wide fairway and the vastness of the view can easily lull the unobservant into a false sense of security: At just over 300 yards, a driver might be the wrong club because no one wants a tricky half-wedge to the severely undulating green.

One of the most confounding putting surfaces at Shooting Star is the 9th, which hovers at the end of a short par five that wraps around a lake on the left side and is dotted with sand on the right. Set to the right and sloped from back to front, the green is long, thin, and hard to hold. A similarly long, thin, and easy-to-find bunker guards the entrance to the green and partly obscures the golfer’s view: Many approaches to this green finish long and right, leaving treacherous chips and putts back onto the tilted tabletop.

The two par fives on the back, 11 and 15, sweep toward the mountains, one from left to right, the other right to left.

The tee shot at 11 crests a small hill to reveal miles of steppe

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16th hole, 372 yards

ALLEN KENNEDY

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The Tetons are literally in the club’s backyard, forcing Fazio to build the course with big enough scale to match the majesty of the surroundings.

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S H O O T I N G S TA R

and slope lush with aspen, cottonwood, spruce, and pine. The great American West feels within reach and the senses tingle, the rustle of leaves matched by the burbling of the stream along the right. (Building the streams, Fazio’s crew purposefully placed rocks near greens to create rapids’ rush and roar.)

The 15th is a goliath, more than 600 yards long, that curls around a 40-acre lake, turning 90 degrees left to a tiny green at water’s edge. Into the wind that rides down the mountain it can take three full-throated shots just to get near the green, then something delicately manipulated to approach the hole.

The finish is no less rugged. The 17th is a long par three (266 from the back tees!) with a stream on the right and a green that sits under iconic Sleeping Indian Mountain. The final hole is a brawny par four: The tee shot has to find a perpendicular landing zone sandwiched between bunkers, setting up a final approach over water.

It won’t be just the altitude that leaves survivors gasping.

Overlooking the 18th green sits the long, low clubhouse, built with reclaimed Douglas fir timbers, old barn wood siding, and Oklahoma Moss Rock, and filled with an eclectic collection of Western art ranging from Henry Moore to Andy Warhol. From the comforting lounges and cozy dining room— featuring a copper-topped circular fireplace and bar—walls of windows bring light, land, and sky indoors. The clubhouse also has a fitness center (with a separate room for spin classes and Pilates), spa with an exquisite couples’ suite, salon, men’s and women’s locker rooms, intimate dining/conference rooms, as well as a stunning tension-edge pool, children’s pool, and two Jacuzzis.

Connected to the main building, the Alpine Barn is a multipurpose space used for everything from casual dinners followed by big-screen sports to kids’ games. The barn also is lined with ski lockers equipped with boot dryers, and once the snow begins to fall—which it does, plenty—private

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shuttles run members back and forth to the adjacent Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. The club also offers the best Nordic track in the valley, utilizing the rolling terrain of the golf course.

There are presently 18 three- and four-bedroom cabins (with as many as 64 more planned), and land enough for 100 single-family lots. But only two residences will be on the golf course: most are to be located on the other side of the property, closer to the ski mountain with some alongside the mammoth, two-sided driving range.

The Resor family has good reason to ascribe to Fazio’s theory of “core golf,” in which the course is given the best terrain and remains home-free. In this way, the residences transition to the clubhouse, then the golf course, and finally the sprawling cattle ranch to the south.

“This land has been in our family since the 1930s,” John Resor explains. “This isn’t a developer-owned club where there is an exit strategy. The family is involved and is going to stay involved. Our reputation is on the line because we live here ■ and plan to for a long time.”

ALLEN KENNEDY (3)

Alpine Barn and Clubhouse Below: Inside the Alpine Barn

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Once the snow begins to fall, private shuttles run members back and forth to the adjacent Jackson Hole Mountain Resort.

LOCATION

Jackson Hole, Wyoming PAR 72 YARDAGE 7,550 YEAR FOUNDED 2009 ARCHITECT

Tom Fazio CONTACT

shootingstarjh.com

14th hole, 523 yards

The Main Clubhouse

Four Compelling Reasons Why Shooting Star Is So Reassuring In Today’s Difficult Economy Shooting Star has been profitable every year. It’s where you learn to appreciate the importance of family, wildlife, art, and life.

By Mark Pazdur, Publisher

The 10th and 18th holes

JACKSON HOLE, WYOMING: The success of Shooting Teton National Forest, the National Elk Refuge, and conStar is no fluke. Nor is it a surprising piece of luck in the servation easements. Shooting Star was planned so that it middle of a slumping economy. is contiguous to 1,800 acres of protected open space.”

There are basically four reasons contributing to the community’s achievements. The first is Shooting Star’s WYOMING: THE TAX-FRIENDLY STATE proprietorship. It is family owned and operated; second, it Another salient advantage that Shooting Star enjoys is was designed by some of the world’s top planners and Wyoming’s tax-friendly status, which, according to architects; third, it is administered by Bloomberg Wealth Management, bright and talented people; and makes it the most tax-friendly state fourth, it’s in a stunning location, in the nation. There is no state adjacent to the Jackson Hole income tax, no estate tax, no gift tax, Mountain Resort in the heart of the and low property taxes. Wyoming scenic Teton Mountains with elk, also does not tax out-of-state retiremoose, and deer as neighbors. ment income which is a real plus for Nature is a part of your daily life retired second home owners. here. Amenities include a Tom Fazio golf course, a Nordic Center, an FAMILY OWNED AND OPERATED Alpine Club, attractive residential Course architect Tom Fazio and John Resor.

Resor is part of the family’s third opportunities and boutique shopping generation. In 1929 his grandfather and fine dining in Teton Village and the Town of Jackson. bought the first 100 acres sight unseen on the advice of Many real estate developers spin a story about scarcity. his 12 year-old son, John’s father. Those 100 acres have “Here it’s not spin,” explains John Resor, Shooting Star’s grown to over 6,500 acres, making it the largest working cattle ranch in Jackson Hole, on which the family runs president. “It’s fact. Less than three percent of the land in about 3,800 head of cattle every year.

Jackson Hole is privately owned. The other 97 percent is “When we decided to develop a portion of the ranch, preserved by the Grand Teton National Park, the Bridger 16

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The 12th hole

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Shooting Star

Shooting Star

The 16th hole

we knew we had to get it right,” explained Resor. “That’s it came time to close, he asked me to take $200,000 off why we hired Tom Fazio for the course and Hart Howerton the price of his friend’s lot and add it to the price of his for the clubhouse. Even when the economy turned, we lot. He explained that he thought he was getting too good didn’t cut corners. We stuck to our original a deal relative to his friend. It so happens plan and our original budget and delivered that they attended Stanford Business both the course and the clubhouse last July.

School together and studied under We’ve invested over $130 million in Professor Jack McDonald, who was our Shooting Star and have been rewarded with first member. We now have six of Jack’s over $165 million in sales in less than three former students as members. years. The only dividends that come out of “No question it’s been challenging, but the company are to pay taxes. even in this tough economy, we have closed “A down economy,” said Resor, “is a $45 million of cabin sales in the last nine strong reason to deliver the best product. months. We have been incredibly fortunate You have to fight for market share and you to have loyal customers who have taken a win by delivering a better experience. Last long-term view and stuck with us. In summer we had 150 families from 25 today’s economic climate, I don’t think a states and two foreign countries join pure golf club experience is sustainable. We Shooting Star which represented a market build amenities for the entire family, not share of well over 90 percent of new mem- Haystacks, by Roy Lichenstein. just for golf purists. Families want to share berships in Jackson Hole. This winter we more time together. Shooting Star is the added seven more families. I can’t say enough about the perfect place for them to build those memories. We curquality of our membership. I’ll give you one example. rently have two homes under construction and two in the When one of our members was selecting his lot, his longplanning stages. The first home to be completed will be by time friend couldn’t make the trip with him, so he selectJan and Chuck Davis. Chuck’s the CEO of Fandango. ed two lots—one for himself and one for his friend. When “Protecting the environment is also critical,” continued 18

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Resor. “Our golf course manager, Bill Shrum, conducts rigorous monthly testing, which has proven that water exits Shooting Star cleaner than when it arrives. I believe our members are comforted by the fact that our family lives here. We are not going anywhere. If the roof leaks, they know where to find us. We’re not in it for a quick flip.”

THE CLUBHOUSE—RUSTIC BUT ELEGANT

The clubhouse was designed to reflect ranch architecture with reclaimed board and batten siding, porches with knee braces, and detailed truss work with handforged metal strapping. In the entry is a massive fireplace, flanked by two photo realistic paintings by Don Coen that were done on the Snake River Ranch when the THE IMPORTANCE OF ART cattle were being shipped. On the second “Taking a long-term view allows us to do floor is the spa with six treatment rooms, things other developers don’t do,” said including a couple’s suite with a stainless Resor. “Take the art collection for example. steel Jacuzzi and limestone fireplace.

In most clubhouses you’ll find relatively Next door is the ladies’ locker room generic art that was purchased at the last which includes a steam room with 396 minute. We spent about a year putting our fiber optic lights that rhythmically change collection together. We commissioned sevcolors and create a soothing effect. “My eral artists and photographers, searched the wife and daughters experienced a fiberInternet and galleries on both coasts and in optic lit steam room in Provence,” said Four Bulls, by William Beckman.

Europe, and also supported local artists.”

Resor. “They convinced me to add the The clubhouse now has 109 works of art lights. The contractors thought I was crazy with pieces by legendary artists Lichtenstein, Rauschenberg, until they saw it work. It soon became one of their favorite Warhol, and Henry Moore; contemporary artists like parts of the clubhouse.”

William Beckman and Michel Tabori and local favorites The men’s locker room is spacious with ample room for September Vhay, Kathryn Turner, Molly Hirschfield, and a poker game or big screen TV viewing. Their steam room even attorney turned photographer, Gerry Spence. is circular, made from Ankara travertine, with a convexAPRIL 2010

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Shooting Star “Aside from golf, we created amenities for the entire family so they could share time together and fashion lifetime memories.” — JOHN RESOR everyone from Rush Limbaugh to Bruce Jenner, but I think the most excitement was created when Peyton Manning played. I know I was psyched when John asked me to play with Peyton. For all his accomplishments, he is a very humble person.

“Condoleezza Rice also created a lot of interest. She was the guest of one of our members, Roland Betts, who himself is a low handicapper, the developer of Chelsea Piers, and a trustee of Yale. I believe Ms. Rice played 27 holes one day. She’s very personable and the caddies really enjoyed working her foursome, with the Secret Service and all.”

A CORE GOLF COURSE When Fazio was asked about Shooting Star, he lauded the Resor family. “John’s very persistent. He’s a detail person and very hands on. To make sure I delivered to the family’s level of expectation,” recalled Fazio, “I built a core golf course to protect the open space and make the Tetons an awesome backdrop. shaped ceiling to collect moisture that drops in the center of the room and not on someone’s head.

The clubhouse dining room is intimate and divided into two sections by a circular wood-burning fire pit made from Frontier Stone and vented with a hammered copper hood.

On one side are three cozy booths and six tables with chairs upholstered with Italian leather. On the other side are a copper bar, more tables, and an elegant wine storage display where members can keep their vintage selections.

The ceiling uses reclaimed barn wood with custom light fixtures created from hammered steel and rawhide.

Executive Chef Michael Christie has already established himself as one of the very top chefs in Jackson Hole.

The swimming pool complex overlooks a lake and includes a 25-meter tension edge lap pool, a children’s pool, two Jacuzzis, and a fire pit.

A 2,400 square-foot fitness center features Life Fitness cardio equipment with an extensive array of free weights.

The center is designed so you can work out, keep an eye on your children playing by the pool, and enjoy great views of the Tetons.

The Alpine Barn, built from reclaimed snow fence and recycled Douglas fir timbers, makes every morning a good morning with complimentary blueberry muffins, scones, yogurt, oatmeal, fruit, coffee, and The Wall Street Journal.

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“My core-design concept eliminated the intrusion of interior streets, homes, and long walks from greens to tees. Playing the course feels more like a walk in the park rather than a ride through a crowded subdivision.

“As a destination, Jackson Hole would have to be in most people’s top 10. Our family loves golf [Tom is a single digit handicap] and we’re also a snow family. Golf in the summer and skiing in the winter makes Shooting Star a true year-round community.

“The Resor family is well capitalized, committed, and family oriented. They believe in quality construction and are responsible for the special golf course we have at Shooting Star today,” concluded Fazio.

Tom remains in close contact and this summer he will host the first annual Silver Spur Men’s Invitational Tournament at Shooting Star from August 26 through August 28. ■ For more information visit shootingstarjh.com; phone (877) 739-8062; e-mail John Resor at jresor@shootingstarjh.com.

The Barn accommodates wedding receptions, special events and children. Youngsters have their own private room with computers and a large television. Oversized lockers can handle ski supplies for a family of six. The lockers are equipped with boot driers, shelves for helmets, and hooks for jackets and gloves.

A ski concierge is always on hand to provide direct access to the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. The Club has two new, 14-passenger vans with leather seating to shuttle members to and from the lifts. Your driver will hand you his card with his phone number so you can call him for a pickup whenever you’re ready to return.

“Jackson Hole is the most exciting ski mountain in North America,” says General Manager Mark Aulerich. “It’s known for its steep and deeps, but the resort still has 40 percent intermediate terrain and some great beginner slopes. The combination of an average annual snowfall of over 450 inches of snow and a huge amount of backcountry terrain makes for an exhilarating experience.”

PEYTON MANNING AND CONDOLEEZZA RICE “I worked for Tom Fazio for eleven years, and I’ve never seen a golf community get off to such a rock solid start,” says Membership Director Mike Kramer. “We’ve had several notable people play the course our first summer,

The 15th hole

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Shooting Star A private, sensitively planned golf community created by a ranching family, with roots dating back over 75 years, in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

By Mark Pazdur, Publisher

JACKSON HOLE WYOMING: Shooting Star’s president, John Resor, casually dressed in work boots, jeans, and a cowboy shirt, declared, “Even in this tough economic environment, we didn’t cut any corners. We’ve stuck to our plan and brought the course and clubhouse in on budget and ahead of schedule. Our family is going to be here for a long time. Therefore, we had to get it right. Our reputation is our most important asset. (continued)

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Shooting Star “On both a national and an international level, it simply doesn’t get any better than Tom Fazio, Hart Howerton [clubhouse architects] and Brayton Hughes [interior designers].” — JOHN RESOR Shooting Star is limited to 100 single family lots, 34 “Last year, volume was way down but the average sales hand-hewn cabins, and 48 townhouses. Over 75 percent price of Shooting Star homesites was up 16 percent from of the homesites are adjacent to lakes, ponds or streams, our record year in 2007. In fact, last year one hundred and Fish Creek, a Class I trout stream, winds through the percent of all sales in Teton Village over $2 million have property. Prices are available upon request. been at Shooting Star,” said Resor. “Why? Because of our reputation and our product, which is a tribute to the quality of our design team. On a national and an internationA CORE GOLF COURSE al level, it simply doesn’t get any better than Tom Fazio, Choosing Shooting Star’s golf course designer was no Hart Howerton [clubhouse architects] and Brayton gimme. The process was meticulous, according to Hughes [interior designers]. Locally, General Manager/Director of Golf Jonathan L. Foote & Associates [cabin Mark Aulerich. “After two years of architects] and Hershberger Design research to determine the course [land planners] are unique in their designer, it was evident that Tom approach and rank with anyone in the Fazio was the preferred choice. We country. We couldn’t be more pleased studied his design philosophy and with what they and our construction recognized the high percentage of golfers, with both low and high crews have achieved. handicaps, who enjoy his courses “Once you have the product because of their playability. About designed, real estate pricing is based 95 percent of the individuals interon scarcity and location. In Teton viewed by Mr. Resor said Tom Fazio Village, we have both. Less than was their favorite designer. When three percent of the land in all Fazio was hired, he was given a manJackson Hole is privately owned and date to protect the environment and one-half of that three percent is provide magnificent views. And he unsuitable for development. The Tom Fazio and John Resor survey a golf hole.

County has just approved a ten-year did it in spades,” beamed Aulerich. master plan at the Village that allows no new free mar“You’ll notice Hole No. 2, for example, is special from ket housing. And as far as location, how could you the moment you step onto the tee. To your left are draimprove on a Fazio golf course that is within walking matic views of the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. As distance of an internationally acclaimed ski resort and you pan to the right, you have stunning, long-range bordered by a cattle ranch.” views of the snowcapped Tetons. And, in the distance, The Resor family has been highly instrumental in the you can make out the mountains framing the edge of planning of Teton Village for over 20 years. The family Yellowstone National Park. has always been a staunch opponent of unplanned “I think you will notice the special touches on our growth. In fact, John’s brothers and sister-in-law helped course,” said Aulerich. “The tan bunker sand was shipped found the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance, and his in from Northern Utah and we planted a mix of fescues, father and brother Bill have been long-standing board sagebrush, and other native grasses on the course. Over members of the Jackson Hole Land Trust, which has pro2,500 trees have been planted at Shooting Star. John’s tected over 20,000 acres in Teton County. But the fambrother, Bill, harvested seeds from the cottonwood and ily has supported smart growth. Its first development, aspen trees that grow on the family ranch and nurtured Granite Ridge, protected 130 acres of open space, creatthe saplings for three years in a nursery in Montana. The ed the first real estate transfer fee in Wyoming that funds work paid off. The color of the trees in the fall is amazadditional open space, and helped pay for important ing and consistent with the native species.” affordable housing in the town of Jackson.

When I asked Fazio about Shooting Star he was com6

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Shooting Star “My core-design concept eliminated the intrusion of interior streets, homes, and long walks from greens to tees. Playing the course feels like a walk in a park rather than a ride through a crowded subdivision.” — TOM FAZIO plimentary about both the land and the developer. “This is the Resor family’s land and they vehemently protect Jackson Hole’s environment,” recalled Fazio. “Jackson Hole has an excellent worldwide reputation and the Resors are well respected in the community.

“To make sure I delivered to their level of expectation, I built a core golf course to protect the open space around Teton Village and made the Tetons an awesome backdrop on many of the 18 holes. My core-design concept eliminated the intrusion of interior streets, homes, and long walks from greens to tees. Playing the course feels like a walk in a park rather than a ride through a crowded subdivision.”

The spa at Shooting Star includes a salon, two steam rooms, and six treatment rooms, including a spacious couple’s suite with a fireplace and a stainless steel Jacuzzi.

THE ALPINE BARN: It is designed to accommodate parties, wedding receptions and special events. It has a separate catering kitchen, an activity room for kids, and a large screen for movies. In the winter, it houses ski lockers with boot driers and ample storage space for all your skiing and snowboard gear. A ski concierge and shuttle will provide direct access to the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort.

Outside is a 25-meter tensionedge lap pool, a kids pool, two Jacuzzis, and a fire pit overlooking the lake.

ACTIVITIES FOR EVERYONE THE GOLF PRO SHOP/NORDIC Shooting Star provides three distinct CENTER: It serves as a golf shop durfacilities: the clubhouse, the Alpine ing the golf season and as a Nordic Barn, and the Golf Pro Shop/Nordic shop during the winter. You’ll love Center. Here’s the rundown: the club’s miles of Nordic trails that THE CLUBHOUSE: The architecinclude a dog loop. Golf Course ture reflects western traditions. The Manager Bill Shrum was quick to siding is reverse board and batten point out extra features for golfers. made from reclaimed poplar, the “There are two amenities golfers will timbers are reclaimed Douglas Fir, Mark Aulerich and Bill Shrum assess the course. love. We have a large room housing a and the stone is Oklahoma Moss golf simulator and a launch monitor. rock and Frontier stone. The south and west sides of the After a golfer’s exact specs are determined, he or she can clubhouse offer western-style porches with ample outwalk over to our club repair room and tinker with their door seating. equipment.””

• The Main Dining Room, which overlooks the 10th tee and a large lake, has an intimate, residential feel. It FAMILY OWNED AND OPERATED has a copper bar; a circular, wood-burning fireplace; an While John heads up Shooting Star, his brother Bill and elegant wine storage display; and beautiful light fixtures cousins Barbara Hauge and Henry Laughlin are the manmade from rawhide and hammered steel. aging partners of the Snake River Ranch, which runs • The Fitness Center is 2,400 square feet and offers 3,800 steers on over 6,000 acres of ranch land. The magnificent views of the Tetons while you exercise on ranch has been in the family since 1930. “We intend to state-of-the-art equipment. There is also a large be here for a long time,” says John. “Nobody can predict Yoga/Pilates studio and a separate spinning room. the future but with the golf course and clubhouse, we • The Spa was designed by Health Spa Napa Valley believe we’ve laid the foundation for a successful club and Natural Resources Spas, who between them have that will serve its members and the community well.” ■ designed three of the most highly acclaimed spas in the world: The spas at Kukio on Kona in Hawaii; and in For more information, you may phone John Resor toll free California, at the Montage Hotel in Laguna Beach and at at (877) 739-8062, e-mail jresor@shootingstarjh.com, or The Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel. visit shootingstarjh.com.

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A Star Collection

+ Story by Jennifer Dorsey + Photography by Latham Jenkins

Don Coen’s paintings of the Snake River Ranch were commissioned for the clubhouse collection.

Barbara Van Cleve’s photo of a cowboy under a shower of stars hangs in the clubhouse dining room.

Kathryn Mapes Turner, a Jackson Hole artist, painted this fall scene from her photos of the Snake River Ranch.

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anching isn’t just a part of the Resor family’s past; it’s part of their present and future as well. The new Shooting Star golf course and residential development they’ve built at Teton Village is bordered on the south and east by their Snake River Ranch, a working cattle operation for nearly 80 years and a living, breathing piece of Jackson Hole’s heritage.

Shooting Star President John Resor spent summers on the ranch when he was growing up and then attended Williams College, where art history was one of the subjects he studied. With his ranching background and art education, it was only natural for him to have taken an interest in selecting the artwork for the Shooting Star clubhouse. He and Elizabeth Weiner, a California-based art consultant, worked together to round up a collection of paintings, prints and photographs. Their criteria: “Each piece had to have some connection to the West, and it had to be ‘real,’ ” Resor said.

“I wanted to connect the club to the ranch,” he said. “Each entity supports the other. The ranch provides open vistas and scenes of a working cattle ranch, and the success of Shooting Star will help support the cattle operation and make the ranch more sustainable.”

A group of bulls drawn in charcoal by William Beckman acknowledges the area’s ranching heritage.

An American Indian portrait by Robert Rauschenberg adds another dimension of the West to the collection.

Some pieces in the collection are more obviously “real” than others. Resor likes the way a Susan Burns photo of a cowboy in a barn shows the grit on the floor. “That’s the way barns are,” he said. The handles on a fire screen crafted by local metal worker Kevin Davenport are genuine old railroad spikes. Photographs of the ranch formed the basis for “Fall Morning,” a landscape painted by Kathryn Mapes Turner, a Jackson Hole-based artist who herself has a feel for the lifestyle, having grown up on the Triangle X in Grand Teton National Park. On a giant charcoal-on-paper mural by William Beckman in the hallway between the lobby and dining room, four bulls gaze out at passers-by, a reminder that roundups are as much a part of the presentday Jackson Hole lifestyle as teeing off on the Tom Fazio-designed Shooting Star golf course outside or skiing at the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort.

Resor and Weiner didn’t fence themselves in by equating “real” with photorealistic. They share an interest in pop art—“It doesn’t take itself too seriously, and it’s very accessible,” Resor said—so they incorporated prints

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Art consultant Elizabeth Weiner mixed black horses by Henry Moore with red horses by September Vhay, a Jackson Hole-based painter.

by legends Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Robert Rauschenberg into the clubhouse collection. A colorful cow portrait by Warhol, for example, is part of the lobby collection, a whimsical counterpart to the genuine horse hair bridle hanging nearby as well as the prints from Lichtenstein’s abstract haystack series positioned on another wall. It was eye-opening, Weiner said, “to realize you could put something so urban and out there in a collection that’s all about ranches and cows and the West.”

She and Resor let their art-collecting lassos fly far and wide as they searched for pieces for the Shooting Star collection. While roaming the Internet, Resor discovered a Native American portrait by Rauschenberg that was going up for auction in Germany. The artist’s incorporation of elements like a pickup truck and a basketball hoop gave the piece a feeling of authenticity that appealed to him. Weiner’s son discovered Beckman’s charcoal bulls in a New York City art gallery. “It’s the only drawing the artist did in that style, which I thought was kind of relevant,” Weiner said.

Other art in the clubhouse came from private collections, art galleries around the country and auction houses. Weiner even “created” a piece or two herself, when she combined groups of abstract prints of horses by September Vhay and Henry Moore in a way that makes it look as though the two artists were of one mind. And in the men’s locker room, a montage of Tom Fazio’s sketches and before and after photographs of the course offer insight into the designer’s creative vision. “It’s not just a golf course,” Weiner said of the 18-hole course. “It’s a work of art in itself.”

It took the two of them about a year to pull the collection together for the clubhouse, which opened in the summer of 2009. Resor admits that he felt a bit protective as they pulled all the elements together. “I thought, ‘I don’t want anyone to see this until it’s all up,’ ” he said. What’s unique about the clubhouse art in Weiner’s mind is the way it incorporates unexpected elements in a cohesive manner. “The collection becomes the cohesive element as opposed to any one piece of art,” she said.

A round of golf is a relatively new part of the Jackson Hole lifestyle. Cattle ranching has long been a way of life. At Shooting Star, a unique art collection manages to accommodate both. hs homestead | 79