Restoration is a trend that’s gaining momentum in golf course
architecture: San Francisco Golf Club rebuilt three original A.W.
Tillinghast
holes; U.S. Open host Oakmont Country Club cut down
thousands of trees to reinstate club founder
H.C. Fownes’ vision for
the course, inspired by the links of Scotland;
Sedgefield Country Club
in Greensboro, North Carolina, where Sam Snead won five
of his eight
Greater Greensboro Opens, is undergoing a restoration of its Donald Ross
design.
So far, Augusta National Golf Club has been immune to such a
movement, although many architects feel the course no longer looks or
plays the
way it used to. Old photos show greens with more tongues to
accommodate hole
locations and bunkers with more fingers and jagged
edges that were a calling
card of co-designer Alister MacKenzie. In
addition, the ground game was more
prevalent, as wider fairways and
lack of rough created strategic angles for
approach shots and allowed
balls to run more—into possible trouble.
Architects feel a restoration may bring back certain shot values,
given that greens on par 5s like No. 15 and long par 4s like No. 11,
originally
designed for fairway wood or long iron approaches, now
handle mid and even short
irons.
The following drawings from Mike Benkusky, Kelly Blake Moran and
Mike DeVries
show the
young architects’ plans for restoring MacKenzie’s vision—as
well as displaying
some of their original touches.
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Michael Benkusky
Kelly Blake Moran
Mike DeVries
