Full Throttle

Jeff Gordon has sold most of nearly 2,000 acres he owned in the high country above Missouri Heights to a development group headed by the man who created the Dallas National Golf Club in Texas a few years ago.

John MacDonald said he plans to build much the same kind of project here as he did in Dallas. The course designer is to be golf architect Tom Fazio, who also designed the Dallas National course.

Gordon, who reportedly bought the land outside of Carbondale in 2006 for $9 million, was not even thinking of selling the land until MacDonald approached him. But over time he became convinced it was the thing to do, according to John Bickford, Gordon’s stepfather and business manager.

“I found it by actually driving around and looking for golf property,” MacDonald said of the deal, adding with a hearty laugh, “It took a while, but I wore him down.”

Gordon retains a 50-acre parcel of his own, as well as “a couple of memberships in the club,” MacDonald said.