15 Jun 2011

Several months back we published an article on the greatest golf architects of all time, which nominated Texan Bill Coore as the finest of the current generation of course designers. Coore’s reputation has been built over the past 25 years building quality new courses with his partner, two-time Masters champion Ben Crenshaw. As well as creating masterpiece originals like Sand Hills, Friar’s Head, Bandon Trails and Tasmania’s Lost Farm, Coore is also noted for some wonderful restoration work on established courses across the United States. In March this year he completed, with Crenshaw, what was arguably his most significant such project to date, the restoration of Pinehurst No. 2.

Host of the 1999, 2005 and 2014 US Opens, Pinehurst No. 2 was the finest of the more than 400 American courses that Scotsman Donald Ross designed. Ross lived at the resort for almost half a century, continually tweaking his beloved No. 2 course until it was sculpted precisely the way he wanted. Between his passing in the late 1940s and the most recent US Open in 2005, however, things changed and the layout went from open, firm and sandy to narrow, damp and lush. While the putting surfaces remained interesting, from the tee No. 2 didn’t look or feel like a great course, as holes were made up of wall-to-wall green grass and the fairways lacked any real definition, being simply cut through sticky Bermuda roughs.

Enter Coore and Crenshaw, whose chief role at Pinehurst was to put some soul and character back into a layout that had lost much of its charm with the removal of Ross’s sandy wastes and the introduction of this dense rough. Crucially, the owners of the resort bought in completely to the restoration philosophy and allowed the design team to completely remove all the rough from the golf course, and to replace off-fairway areas with rugged sandscrapes planted out with a native wiregrass. These sandy areas transition beautifully into the fairways and greens, and give Pinehurst a much more organic, turn of the previous century, type look and feel. They also play great and save money on maintenance, as more than 25 acres of turf has been removed, as well as around half of the previous irrigation heads.

The changes at Pinehurst have garnered considerable attention and acclaim in the United States this year, and it’s hoped that, like Oakmont for tree removal, the influence of this project is felt right across the industry. Readers may remember that prior to the 2007 US Open at Oakmont the club removed thousands of trees from the interior of its property, in order to return to the more open nature of its earliest layout. In the years that followed a number of significant tree removal projects were undertaken in America, some with quite stunning results.

So while significant, the work done on Pinehurst No. 2 was just the latest in a string of high-profile restoration projects at established golf venues across the USA. With new design work drying up, many talented and passionate architects are pinning their future hopes for work on establishing themselves as master restorers. It’s become a competitive business, as traditional clubs look to both rediscover their lost spark whilst also modernising their golf courses to keep pace with a fast-changing game.

In America major works on established courses generally involve either turning back the clock and restoring the design integrity of the original creator, or engaging a tournament architect like Rees Jones to essentially standardise the holes and prepare them for championship play. Thankfully more and more clubs are heading down the former route, and choosing to ignore the PGA professionals and instead focus on providing members with an exceptional golf experience.

Here is a brief snapshot of some of the more significant US renovation projects of recent years.

 

The rebirth of Dr. Alister MacKenzie.

I’m constantly amazed at how frequently American golfers tell me that until recently MacKenzie wasn’t very well known in the States, despite him having designed the best (Cypress Point) and most famous (Augusta National) courses in the country. In Australia we have strong links to MacKenzie, and it’s been encouraging over the past decade or so to chart development on a number of successful American MacKenzie restorations.

Pasatiempo near Santa Cruz was the good doctor’s most cherished layout, and the recently completed bunker and green restoration work by Jim Urbina and Tom Doak has helped remind everyone who visits precisely why he loved the place so much, and also why he remains golf’s most celebrated course creator. Featuring a series of audacious green complexes and the bold use of natural ground contour, Pasatiempo is typically unconventional but oozes class and boasts a stunning back nine famed for a number of marvellous carries across native barranca’s (what we’d call ravines). Given it’s a public access facility, tremendous fun to play and is MacKenzie’s final resting place, the course comes highly recommended for all keen Aussie golfers visiting California.

A little further north and a little more private are two other intriguing ‘MacKenzie’ clubs, The Meadow Club and the California Club of San Francisco. Both have undergone significant renovations in recent years, taking two completely different paths but with very pleasing outcomes.

First The Meadow Club, and it was only by scouring archives and studying old aerial images of their property, that the custodians of the first MacKenzie golf course in North America discovered just how neglectful they had been when it came to looking after his design. When architect Mike DeVries was engaged to restore the layout some ten years ago it was cramped, completely covered in trees and full of small, puzzlingly contoured green sites. There was little MacKenzie left and little reason for anyone beyond the membership to bother playing it. DeVries worked off old design reports prepared by MacKenzie and black and white images of the original course, which occupied a completely barren meadow, to convince the club just how far they had strayed from MacKenzie’s original intentions.

Not only Mackenzie, but the club’s founder was also adamant that no trees were to be planted on his site, yet apparently on the day of his burial a delivery truck arrived at the club with thousands of Pine seedlings that were subsequently planted by amateur arborists in rows across the property. Thankfully many of these trees are now gone, and DeVries has managed to successfully put back MacKenzie’s fascinating green complexes, by expanding the putting areas considerably and accentuating contours that had been softened over the years. He also rebuilt the bunkering in a more original, rugged appearance. Without a single home on the site, and some of the most pleasant golf views in northern California, Meadow Club is a wonderful place to golf and will continue to improve as even more trees are removed from its interior areas. Unfortunately progress in this area has slowed in recent years because a disgruntled member, who disapproved of the tree removal, managed to convince council to limit the club to cutting down just five redwoods per year.

South of Meadow Club, and close by celebrated San Francisco golf courses at the Olympic Club and San Francisco Golf Club is the exclusive California Golf Club, which was recently redesigned by leading American architect Kyle Phillips. The Cal Club was originally created by Arthur Macan in 1926, but rebunkered the very next year by Dr. MacKenzie. One can only speculate how good MacKenzie’s work was here, because over the next seven decades the layout deteriorated so badly that virtually nothing from the 1920s remained, except a routing that was being squeezed by an ever-expanding practice facility. There were also very few archive images of the course.

A few years back submissions were sought from a number of leading architects to restore the layout back to the glory days of the golden age. After a detailed selection process the decision was taken instead to engage Phillips to implement a bold hybrid plan he had devised that involved the rerouting of five holes to allow for the shifting of the problematic driving range and the expansion of the course to modern specifications. The range was moved 200 metres away from the clubhouse, which many disliked, but the upshot is that it allowed Phillips room to expand the opening holes by removing containment mounding and screening trees. With the exception of the contentious freefalling par four 7th, his new holes tie seamlessly with the old and the restoration of the MacKenzie bunkering style across the entire property has accentuated the natural golf terrain and given the course a timelessness and an appealing sense of scale and grandeur. Thanks to Phillips’ design work, and the courageous leadership of successive club Presidents, the Cal Club has been greatly improved and is now a genuine hidden gem in America.

 

The Oakmont Effect

The success of the 2007 US Open at Oakmont Country Club in Pittsburgh helped shine a light on how reversing the effects of overzealous tree planting can do wonders for a golf course’s visual appeal, challenge and turf quality. Not to mention golf course ranking – note, Oakmont is currently ranked 4th in America according to our parent magazine Golf Digest.

From its sparse linksy origins in 1903, Oakmont descended into standard parkland fare during the 1960s when around 4,000 trees were planted across its property, primarily to screen holes and provide tree-lined avenues for the golf. Thankfully common sense prevailed a few years prior to the 07 Open, and the loss of the limbs combined with the addition of fescue roughs and improved playing surfaces has given Oakmont its more distinguished appearance. Crucially, it’s also inspired countless other clubs to look into whether tree cuttings could improve their golf experience as well.

Two of the best examples I’ve seen in America of mass tree removal greatly improving the quality of golf are located on Cape Cod Peninsula in Massachusetts. Both Kittansett and Eastward Ho! are situated on such ideal golfing ground that it’s hard to imagine anyone wanting to spoil the aesthetic and expansive nature of their rolling landscapes by planting trees. Yet this is precisely what happened at both clubs. Several hundred trees had to be removed from the shoreline at Kittansett to open up views of Buzzards Bay and re-capture the exposed, windy nature of the test. Meanwhile at Eastward Ho!, about the most unheralded top-class course in all of golf, thousands of pines were plucked from across the site this past decade to restore both its gorgeous ocean outlooks and its wildly tumbling dunes, which were surely bequeathed for the sole benefit of those who play our great game.

 

Tournament Prepping

The final renovations to highlight are from the Rees Jones school of design, where you essentially take tees back as far as they can go, grow rough, shrink greens and narrow fairways as tightly as the USGA will allow. You then ensure that the latest turf technology is installed under the soil, and label yourself a championship test.

I fully realise that I’m in the minority here, and that most readers would enjoy playing high profile tournament courses like Congressional (site of last month’s US Open), and Atlanta Athletic Club (site of next month’s US PGA), but neither holds any architectural merit at all, nor would repeat play encourage a lifetime addiction to our game. The reason Jones courses work for majors is that they provide an uncompromising test of execution for the professional players. Unlike Augusta, St Andrews, Royal Melbourne or any of the great courses in golf for that matter, which offer width, varying angles of attack and provide a stimulating test of both mental and physical skills in equal measure, these venues instead tell the golfer where they have to hit the ball and punish them completely when they err. Major tournaments played on Rees Jones courses are golf’s equivalent to the French Open in Tennis; long, painful slogs that can be difficult to watch and where execution alone trumps strategy, cunning and nous.

Like Australia, golf in America has become more competitive in recent years as playing stocks dwindle and golfers find it increasingly difficult to justify paying large membership fees for their pastime. Unlike the US, however, at home there aren’t a large number of prestigious clubs that would benefit from sweeping restorations as most of our good originals have been reasonably well preserved. The exceptions would be places like Royal Adelaide and The Australian in Sydney, which both have significant room for improvement.

Elsewhere, established clubs planning major course works would be wise to consult widely with industry experts to determine the value of restoration versus redesign. Oakmont and Pinehurst were both elite golf courses when they were renovated, and it would be unrealistic to expect such fanfare for similar programs on second-tier golf clubs in Australia. That said, removing invasive trees and reducing maintenance costs by eliminating unnecessary watering in the rough is a pretty good starting point for any follow.

 

 Darius Oliver, Architecture Editor

 

Architecture Updates

Exciting news in Sydney, with Ogilvy Clayton starting work in May on the redesign of the Bonnie Doon Golf Club. Due for completion by March 2012, Stage One of the club’s Masterplan will cost around $3Million and involve the rebuilding of five existing holes as well as the construction of two new holes on an adjacent former dump site.

The Bonnie Doon project is the first of significance for the newly formed Ogilvy Clayton Golf Design team, established last year when US Open Champion Geoff Ogilvy partnered with acclaimed course designer Mike Clayton. We will be following progress at Bonnie Doon closely, and provide readers with updates on what promises to become one of Sydney’s premier golf courses.

 

Another project to watch closely is the expansion of Australia’s oldest golf course, Ratho in Tasmania, from 14 holes to a full 18. Undertaken by architects Neil Crafter and Paul Mogford, the new holes will run alongside and across the Clyde River and are expected to be in play toward the end of 2011. Golf was first played in Ratho in 1822, with the course believed to be the oldest continuous layout in existence outside the United Kingdom. It is owned and managed by Greg Ramsay, the driving force behind the development of Barnbougle Dunes.

Back to News
0 Comments


 

More News

Report reveals golf's $3.3 billion contribution to Australia

AGIC report reveals total annual benefits to the Australian community, economy and environment from golf.

Cape Wickham Links – The Inside Design Story

Co-designer Darius Oliver reveals the truth behind the design of Australia’s premier modern golf course

Have your say on the future of Moore Park Golf

Golfers unite – another one of our cherished public access golf courses is under threat

Cameron John wins The National Tournament by two strokes

Victorian claims breakthrough professional victory at The National Tournament presented by BMW

Tags and Countries