By James A. Frank
Old Marsh Golf Club
In our business it’s very easy to get excited about new courses. We golf writers love talking to architects and owners about why they did what they did and then passing that information on to you, our audience of avid, savvy golfers.
However, as a few recent course visits reminded me, it’s easy to overlook an aspect of golf architecture that is just as exciting and, in the current economic environment, perhaps more important: Course renovation. It’s been my great pleasure in the last few months to see a handful of wonderful renovations that show how redoing old layouts keeps the game vibrant.
A renovation makes sense for a number of reasons.
First, it’s a lot less expensive to redo an old course than build a new one: The land is already purchased and dedicated to golf, and there’s an existing audience (although that audience might be shrinking, which could help account for the need to renovate). And those courses that install new turf, as many do, usually save money by using grass that needs less water, fewer chemicals, and less maintenance, and is stronger than what was there before.
Second, it’s a chance to bring back a course’s original features after years of neglect, changes, wear and tear, normal growth (notably trees), or any combination of those.
Third, renovation allows us to appreciate and play some of the great architects of the past. If you’ve ever played a great old course and said, “They don’t build them like that anymore,” a renovation often allows them to, and we golfers are better for it.
Fourth, good renovations help create, or recreate, a course appropriate to the moment. They can help make a course fit current skills and equipment; change features that are environmentally unsound or expensive to maintain; and, best of all, make courses more fun.
A few cases in point…
Old Marsh Golf Club, Palm Beach, Gardens, Fla. When I told a friend I was going to play this nearly 30-year-old Pete Dye design, he warned me that it was one of the hardest courses in the area, with every hole squeezed between water and sand. (Tom Doak described it in his Confidential Guide series by writing, “I believe Old Marsh has more water in play than any course I’ve ever played…”; Doak also put it on his lists of “hardest courses” and those requiring “most ammunition.”) But thanks to a recent redo by Dye and his associate Chris Lutzke, the course is much more playable and user-friendly, the fairways are wider (or at least seem that way), and the charms of the quiet, wetland-edged track are easier to enjoy. And playing from the appropriate tees, I didn’t lose a ball.
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The Loxahatchee Club, Jupiter, Fla. Just like at Old Marsh, the members are thrilled with this redo by Jack Nicklaus of his 1984 design that was famously difficult not only for water and sand, as above, but the chocolate-drop mounding he was famous for back then. I hadn’t played it before, but going around with three members a few weeks ago—they pointed out every bunker-removal site (of which there were many), flattened mound, and redone green complex—they were ecstatic and I was thrilled. There’s still plenty of challenge, but also much more room to land drives, allowing many different ways to approach the re-contoured greens.
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La Gorce Country Club, Miami Beach, Fla. This 90-year-old club has a great history as the former haunt of old pros like Al Besselink and Herman Keiser, as well as Miami swells like Joe DiMaggio and Eddie Arcaro. It also has a cleverly compacted course that Nicklaus’s crew recently redid by taking out trees, improving drainage, moving putting surfaces, rebuilding bunkers, and re-routing a loop of holes on the front side so the progression of play is more logical. Work was done on every hole, but the course remains authentic, merely modernized and opened up for both aesthetic and architectural reasons.
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Moraine Country Club, Dayton, Ohio. Keith Foster redid this 1930 Alec “Nipper” Campbell design last year, removing 2,000 trees, replacing and returning bunkers, widening fairways, and revealing a marvelously rolling landscape that plays as a true “inland links.” Foster has done terrific restoration work around the country, especially to Tillinghast courses. By bringing back Moraine—which hosted the 1945 PGA Championship—he uncovered a jewel. Every job he does proves how renovations can give new life to an old track.
There are dozens more renovation stories like this. I expect—and hope—to be hearing and writing about more of them in the years to come.
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What are some of your favorite course renovation stories? Let us know in the comments below!
How about the obvious – Pinehurst #2. Truly a great renovation and rebirth !
-JT
White Manor in Malvern, PA. A Bobby Weed gem.
I would like to read your thoughts on the courses at the Wigwam, particularly the Gold and Blue.
The oldest course in the world: St. Andrews, when was it last renovated? Maybe never! Why tweak history. With the exception of the growth of the trees, going back and playing the courses of old, allows me to reflect on those great memories of youth, when I could reach the par 5’s in two from the men’s tees.
Old Marsh is fantastic!
It is great to see the renovations that are going on. Knowing the architect is fine, but it would also be nice if the build/contractor was mentioned. These are the people that make the designs come to life.
Coore and Crenshaw have completely redone the old East Nine of Farmington CC in Charlottesville, Virginia. What had been a nine hole, par 34 loop now has a large range and practice facility as well as ten holes, most of which are par 3s – needless to say. It will open to play next summer and should be a wonderful compliment to the South and North Nines.
I was fortunate enough to open Old Marsh in the late 80s as the second assistant under Mr. Buddy Antonopoulos. Was one of the most special experiences of my life and I enjoyed my meetings with Mr. Dye prior to and during the opening season . PS I wonder how many of my golf balls are still there? 🙂
Joe Bartholomew was a black man who designed and constructed numerous local (New Orleans) courses from the 1930s through the 1960s. Because of segregation, he was not allowed to play many of them. Among them, for example, was the City Park No. 1 Course on which the New Orleans Open was played for many years. He learned course architecture from Seth Raynor. In 1950 the first upper middle class black neighborhood began development in New Orleans. Mr. Bartholomew agreed to construct a course for the development. I’ve heard, though cannot verify, that he bought and donated the land with the stipulation that it be a “muni” forever. The course was inundated by floodwaters from Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Eventually, Kelly Gibson was hired by the City to restore the course. Mr. Gibson is an interesting story in his own right. He played briefly on the PGA tour; one of a very few to make it to the tour from this area. However, personal problems cut his career short. He overcame them and assisted Steve Ellington and Pete Dye in the construction of the TPC Louisiana. He is now very active with the Fore Kids Foundation and the First Tee. He did a wonderful job. No changes to the routing or the basic layout of the holes. However, he added bunkering, restored the green complexes, added contouring for drainage and did a number of other things that totally revived the layout. A new clubhouse opened a couple of years ago. It is now without question the best golf value in this area.
The Billy Fuller remake of Pineisle golf Resort on Lake Lanier, Georgia. The renovation of Capital City Club by Bob Cupp in Atlanta, Georgia
The Retreat course on Sea Island and Brunswick Country Club by Davis Love III.
1. Billy Fuller opened up the course to the lake providing spectacular views.
2. Bob Cupp brought the lake into play got rid of a lot of underbrush and opened up the course by rerouting some holes and providing scenic landing areas.
Davis Love III, recovered some property from fairway side home owners at Retreat, redid some greens and made the course more playable for the members.
Davis Love III redid the greens at Brunswick Country Club to the original contours and design of the greens by the great Scottish course designer Donald Ross. If in the area it is a must play to enjoy the green design of the great master. If you are very nice to Dan Hogan he will provide you with a copy (perhaps a small charge for the copies), of the one of Davis Love III’s most interesting, and true renovations to the original design that I have had the pleasure of playing.
What about Turnberry? New routing is amazing!
Marsh Harbour Golf Links,Calabash,N.C.
Course closed early 2000’s.
Are you saying marsh harbour in Calabash has reopened? That was a really neat Dan Maples track.
Mike DeVries has just completed a magnificent renovation at Sunningdale Country Club in Scarsdale, NY. The course was originally designed in 1918 by Seth Raynor but little “Raynor” remained after 100 years of tinkering. DeVries has succeeded in delivering a course which retains much of the classical feel and shot making while the adapting to the modern game.