The new Monster Golf Club routing takes land from two previous courses at Resorts World Catskills in New York.
The Rees Jones-renovated Monster Golf Club in Monticello, New York, has reopened with a new routing that incorporates parts of the old Concord Monster Course and the property’s Old International Course. The new layout took nearly five years to reach completion and is part of a $40-million investment by Resorts World Catskills.
The previous Monster layout, originally designed by Joe Finger and opened in 1963, had been closed since 2015. Jones used holes and corridors from the two former courses to create a 7,650-yard, par-72 new Monster Golf Club in the Catskill Mountains about a two-hour drive from Manhattan. The public-access course will be managed by Arizona-based Troon Golf.
“The opening of any golf course is a special time, but to do it in the picturesque Catskills and to be able to combine the elements of two celebrated golf courses makes this a truly remarkable occasion,” Monster Golf Club director of golf Uri Jimenez said in a media release announcing the news. “The magic of Rees Jones is omnipresent throughout the course’s 18 holes and the hospitality excellence of Troon Golf and Resorts World Catskills will offer golfers an unrivaled experience at the Monster Golf Club.”
The course features six sets of tees to accommodate any player. The club has a new fleet of carts and a golf shop located in The Alder, Resorts World Catskills’ newest boutique lifestyle hotel adjacent to the property’s casino and resort.
“The grand reopening of the Monster Golf Club is a milestone moment for Resorts World Catskills as it completes the vision we had for this amazing property,” Robert DeSalvio, president of Genting Americas East, said in the media release. “We are proud to deliver on the commitment we made to the Catskills community to reimagine and reinvigorate this storied golf course in partnership with the legendary Rees Jones. We can’t wait to welcome golfers from around the world to face the Monster.”
Two of the hottest designers in golf will rework one of the main layouts at Pebble Beach Resorts.
Pebble Beach Company has hired the team of Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner to redesign The Links at Spanish Bay in Pebble Beach, California.
Opened in 1987, the original layout was designed by the trio of architects Robert Trent Jones Jr., former USGA president Sandy Tatum and PGA Tour player Tom Watson. Situated between the Inn at Spanish Bay and the Pacific Ocean, the course was built on the site of a former sand mine with ocean views on nearly every hole.
Hanse and Wagner have become one of the most in-demand architecture teams in recent years, with original designs such as Ohoopee Match Club in Georgia and the Black Course at Streamsong in Florida. They also have completed historic restorations to many highly ranked courses including Los Angeles Country Club, site of the 2023 U.S. Open.
The Links at Spanish Bay at Pebble Beach Resorts in California (Courtesy of Pebble Beach Company)
Details on the timing of the renovation were not included in a media release announcing the news.
“The Links at Spanish Bay possesses nearly every raw element you’d want in a golf course, from expansive ocean views to rolling, sandy terrain,” Hanse said in the media release. “With these natural attributes already in place, our team will have a significant head start on delivering a final product that will be in the top echelon of ‘must-play’ courses.”
Pebble Beach Company also operates Pebble Beach Golf Links, which ranks No. 10 on Golfweek’s Best list of classic courses in the U.S., and Spyglass Hill, which tied for 26th on the list of top modern courses in the U.S. The company’s Pebble Beach Resorts also operates Del Monte Golf Course and The Hay, a par-3 course designed by Tiger Woods.
New bunkers and tees to be added to one of the top private clubs in Connecticut.
Fazio Design and course superintendent Stephen Hicks have started a bunker renovation to Bull’s Bridge Golf Club in South Kent, Connecticut. The project to one of the top private clubs in the state will include the expansion of several fairways and approach areas and the addition of new tees on select holes.
Bull’s Bridge ties for No. 5 on Golfweek’s Best 2023 list of private clubs in Connecticut, and it also ranks No. 181 on Golfweek’s Best list of all modern courses built since 1960 in the United States. Designed by Tom Fazio, Bull’s Bridge opened in 2004.
New bunkers will be added to eight holes, and other bunkers will be repositioned. With McDonald and Sons as the construction contractor, new back tees will be added to Nos. 2, 9 and 18. Forward tees will be built on Nos. 3, 6, 10 and 17. Grow-in and full completion of the golf course project is expected in November.
No. 16 at Bull’s Bridge in South Kent, Connecticut, during renovation (Courtesy of Bull’s Bridge Golf Club)
A clubhouse expansion plan also has been approved by the local zoning commission, with Furno Architects on board for that job. The existing clubhouse has been redesigned, and a new golf house with locker rooms and a golf shop will be added and connected by a breezeway. The project began in August.
“This is an exciting time at Bull’s Bridge, with these significant upgrades being made to enhance overall member enjoyment of our facilities,” general manager Brian Freeswick said in a media release announcing the plans.
Check out the first par 5 in the U.S. with an island green, and every other hole at Cherry Hills.
Cherry Hills Country Club near Denver wrapped up a multi-year renovation in 2022, putting the course in prime condition for this week’s U.S. Amateur.
The William Flynn-designed layout in Cherry Hills Village opened in 1923 and was the site of several major championships: three U.S. Opens (including Arnold Palmer’s 1960 victory, his only U.S. Open title), two PGA Championships, one U.S. Women’s Open and two previous U.S. Opens.
During the renovation, architect Tom Doak and his Renaissance Golf Design team, largely under the direction of Renaissance associate Eric Iverson on the ground, restored several greens to their original size. Bunkers also were reworked to reintroduce their original intent. The cross bunkering on the 17th hole, for example, was restored on what was the first par 5 to feature an island green in the U.S. Perhaps most striking: Little Dry Creek, which in no way is actually dry, was brought more into play on several holes.
Check out the photos of the new TPC Wisconsin in Madison.
The former Cherokee Country Club in Madison, Wisconsin, has been renovated by PGA Tour player Steve Stricker and reopened to members today as TPC Wisconsin. A grand opening will be planned for a later date.
Stricker, a resident of Madison, was helped in the renovation by PGA Tour Design Services. The private club becomes the 30th property in the TPC Network as part of a licensing deal signed in 2022, with ownership and operations remaining under Cherokee Park Inc.
Much of the course was rerouted and it all was re-grassed, and a new irrigation system was installed. Spectator mounding was added, as TPC Wisconsin will be the site of the PGA Tour Champions’ American Family Insurance Championship starting in 2025.
The club’s teaching center was enhanced — a new indoor hitting structure for club and putter fitting, plus Trackman technology, an indoor putting facility and an outdoor short-game area — and named the Steve & Nicki Stricker American Family Insurance Learning Center. The clubhouse was also extensively renovated.
“I’ve lived on this course for many years — since it was Cherokee Country Club,” Steve Stricker said in a media release announcing the news of the opening. “This is my home. I consider it a privilege to bring my PGA Tour career experience to bear on its re-envisioning, and I have totally enjoyed working on the project with PGA Tour Design Services. TPC Wisconsin will play to exact PGA Tour standards. It’ll be a fair test for players of all levels, and yes — it’s going to be exceptional.”
The renovation also saw the restoration of more than 35 acres of degraded wetlands that are tied to Cherokee Marsh.
“The redesign of the course has gone exceptionally well; we’ve raised our fairways two to four feet to ensure drainage and playing surface perfection,” Wisconsin golf legend Dennis Tiziani, owner and president of TPC Wisconsin as well as Steve Stricker’s father-in-law, said in the media release. “The work that has been put in on the property from 2021-2023 is an engineering marvel and an ecological miracle.
“I’ve been around the game of golf for a very long time, and I assure you that what we’ve created is not only going to be a challenging course, but a memorable one. Players will remember every hole — not just two or three ‘signature’ holes like on many courses. And because golf instruction is my passion, TPC Wisconsin will be among the best places in the world to improve your game.”
LA QUINTA, California — When the No. 1 men’s golfer in the world says your greens are among the best, it’s a compliment to be taken seriously.
“They may be some of the best surfaces I’ve ever seen,” Scottie Scheffler said last January of the greens at La Quinta Country Club, one of the three courses played in The American Express PGA Tour event. “They’re really, really good. That’s consistent. It’s been like that — I think this is my fourth time here at this event — and they have been like that every time I’ve been over there. It’s pretty amazing what that superintendent and the club can do with those greens.”
What Scheffler and the other golfers in The American Express might not have known last January was that the greens on the back nine of La Quinta Country Club had been stripped down and had new grass planted in the summer of 2022. That same process is taking place at the club this summer on the front nine, with superintendent Tim Putnam certain of the same results.
“If you look at the data, they were virtually identical, for the speed of the greens, the firmness of the greens, all that,” Putnam said of the back-nine greens from 2022 to 2023. “They were virtually identical.”
Putnam, approaching his 21st anniversary at La Quinta Country Club, said swapping out the tifdwarf Bermuda grass on the greens for basically the same kind of tifdwarf is needed to help the course and keep the greens receiving rave reviews from tour players.
“(Hybrid Bermuda grass) starts to mutate and revert back into its parent types, which were 328 (variety),” Putnam said. “And then you get a lot of contamination that comes in through various processes.”
The ninth green is seen dug out for renovations with the clubhouse in the background at La Quinta Country Club in La Quinta, Calif., Friday, June 23, 2023. Photo: Andy Abeyta/Desert Sun/USA Today Network
Part of an overall project at the club
The process this summer includes stripping all of the grass from the putting surfaces, with the help of some herbicides.
What’s the secret to La Quinta Country Club’s pristine greens once compared to Augusta National’s?
“Then we come in and we punch a little bit, stir it up a little bit and we apply a little granular fumigant to it,” Putnam said.
The tifdwarf being replaced now has been on the course since 1999, the year of a major renovation to the La Quinta course. While Putnam says players in The American Express should see no difference in the putting surfaces next January, the obvious changes will be in the late spring, summer and fall.
“(The greens) were bad in the summer and the renovation part of the overseeding (the transition of grasses in the spring) was becoming difficult because of the different growth habits of the mutations and the contamination species in there,” Putnam said. “It made it very hard to get an even renovation on the greens. It was going to eventually start affecting the overseeding process.”
“Long-term health of the golf course is the priority here,” said Chris Gilley, head golf professional at La Quinta Country Club. “The great thing about La Quinta Country Club is that it has the reputation it is because of who has been running it, not because the tour is dictating it. The tour chooses to come back every year, which is great.”
Another part of the work at the course this year is the removal of 135 trees from the property, 125 of which were single date palms. Putnam said the trees were getting old and becoming a hazard.
“Just this year we lost six date palms during the season to wind events,” Putnam said. “They are breaking at what is called a drought ring. When a date palm is transplanted, it undergoes a shock from being pulled out of the ground and put into a new one. What happens is the trunk will get skinny, and then as it gets established it goes back to growing its normal width.”
A young ghost gum or Eucalyptus papuana tree is seen planted between the first and ninth holes with older date palm trees standing in the background at La Quinta Country Club in La Quinta, Calif., Friday, June 23, 2023. The date palm trees are being phased out as a safety hazard since they are prone to wind damage and will be removed once the new trees are of substantial height in the next couple years. Photo: Andy Abeyta/Desert Sun/USA Today Network
The older trees become fragile at the drought ring and become a danger for breaking and falling. To replace the trees being taken out, La Quinta is planting 90 new trees, with varieties from eucalyptus to Chinese elm to mesquite.
“So it’s not like we are going to be changing the strategy of the golf course or anything,” Putnam said. “Some of the ones that were removed were at (the PGA Tour’s) request as well. And we still have more than 350 palm trees on the property.”
Putnam said while the PGA Tour doesn’t have approval rights to projects at La Quinta Country Club, the club takes its reputation for great greens seriously.
“It is definitely motivation,” Putnam said. “We’ve got to make sure that these greens are as good as they were last year. I don’t want to have a down year. You don’t want to hear, “What happened to these greens here?’ ”
The former Beacon Hill Golf Club near Leesburg, Virginia, has been acquired by Resort Development Partners, which plans to reintroduce golf to the property in 2024.
The course, originally known as Golf Club of Virginia, opened in 2001 with a layout designed by former PGA Tour star Johnny Miller – original plans also included a second course to be designed by Jack Nicklaus. The club later was renamed Beacon Hill, then it shut down in 2006 because of financial difficulties. The property has been neglected and overgrown since.
The Virginia-based Resort Development Partners has entered an agreement with the Beacon Hill Community Association to take over the abandoned and neglected 27-hole private course. The company plans to reopen it as 18 holes named The Preserve at Beacon Hill and later to add a nine-hole family-style course, a new clubhouse and a practice facility.
“Our sleeves are rolled up and work begins immediately to transform this property into an extraordinary golf experience commensurate with the beauty and prestige of the community,” Frank Denniston, Resort Development Partners co-founder and managing partner, said in a media release announcing the news.
Resort Development Partners has experience in operations and strategic planning for hotels, clubs, residential and resort communities in the United States. Its portfolio of clubs includes The Country Club of Indianapolis, Hidden Valley Country Club in Virginia, Pine Island Country Club in North Carolina, Out Door Country Club in Pennsylvania, Timacuan Club in Florida and Cat Island Club in South Carolina.
The homeowners association acquired the course in 2014 from absentee owners and has tried for years to renovate the property. Past deals to renovate have fallen through, leaving the future of the course in limbo for more than a decade.
“The commitment and support to reinstate golf have led to this opportunity to finally fulfill the promise that Beacon Hill was founded upon more than 20 years ago,” Beacon Hill Community Association president Sid Rudolph said in the media release.
One of the key architects in the SentryWorld renovation shares the details of rerouting the Wisconsin layout.
Editor’s note:Jay Blasi is a California-based golf course architect originally from Wisconsin. He served as project architect, working in collaboration with Robert Trent Jones Jr., on SentryWorld’s 2013 renovation. He also serves as a Golfweek’s Best rater ambassador, which includes writing for Golfweek.
STEVENS POINT, Wis. – SentryWorld plays host this week to the U.S. Senior Open, the third USGA event at the course and it’s first major of any kind. The route the course took to get here, both from an ownership standpoint and a golf design perspective, is unique.
The course is owned and operated by Sentry Insurance, which has been headquartered in Stevens Point since 1912. In the late 1970s and early ‘80s, Sentry developed a one-of-a-kind campus. Decades before Google and Facebook were lauded for their innovative work environments, Sentry crafted a massive headquarter building complete with swimming, basketball, barber shop, auto center and more, the theory being that an attractive campus and quality of life for employees would allow Sentry to attract and retain top talent when competing against firms in big cities.
John Joanis, Sentry’s CEO at the time, also wanted golf as part of the mix. He hired Robert Trent Jones Jr. to design a course in a flat, wet and rocky pine forest. The Jones team created large water bodies and routed holes through the forests. It was the addition of No. 16 – the Flower Hole – that gained most of the attention.
SentryWorld opened in 1982 and was unique to Wisconsin. It was a sight to see, complete with white sand bunkers, bent grass fairways, caddies in full outfits and the flowers. Before the four courses at Kohler, before Erin Hills, before Sand Valley, it was SentryWorld as Wisconsin’s first destination golf course.
Shortly after SentryWorld opened, Joanis passed away. Over the next 25 years the course aged, as with most other courses. By 2010 the course was tired – it essentially was at a fork in the road. Should it go away or devolve into a muni-type layout, or should Sentry reinvest and restore the luster to the gem. Enter Pete McPartland.
McPartland took over as Sentry president and COO in 2010 and chairman of the board in 2013. He was unwavering in his belief that SentryWorld is the front door to Sentry Insurance, and it needed to be special. Under McPartland’s leadership the company embarked on a journey to transform SentryWorld into the destination it is today (and once was). The layout received Golfweek’s award as top renovation in 2013.
The new No. 3 at SentryWorld, created during a 2013 renovation, plays out to what had been an unused peninsula that was covered with trees. (Courtesy of Jay Blasi)
Not only has Sentry completely redone the golf course, it has rebuilt and expanded its giant fieldhouse, added on-course dining pavilions and crafted a boutique hotel dubbed The Inn that opened in 2022. In addition to campus investments, the company has become the title sponsor of the Sentry Tournament of Champions at Kapalua on the PGA Tour, the official insurance partner of the USGA and a corporate trustee of The First Tee.
Sentry’s path to becoming a leader in golf was unique, and so too was the evolution of the golf course.
After extensive study from 2010 to 2012, Sentry decided to completely rebuild the golf course in 2013 – all new irrigation, greens, tees, bunkers, paths, drainage and more. And the biggest decision was to reroute the golf course.
Many owners and clubs don’t reroute because they know the course as it is and are afraid of change. But the cost to reroute – if you are already redoing irrigation, drainage, tees, greens and bunkers – is nominal and the impact can be profound. Routing and green complexes are probably the two biggest factors in how well a course is perceived, so not addressing a less-than-ideal routing is a huge missed opportunity for any course that is renovating.
No. 4 at SentryWorld was converted from a par 3 into a par 4 during the 2013 renovation. (Copyright USGA/Fred Vuich)
When studying a golf course routing, it is important to assess what is working well along with opportunities for improvement. In the case of SentryWorld, the majority of the holes fit the land nicely and just needed more breathing room after 30 years of tree growth. Some holes with sharp doglegs through the woods felt awkward given technological advances in golf. The range was too small, and the short-game practice areas were limited.
There was also little variety throughout the round, with water on the left on eight of nine holes, plus trouble left and right on 17 of the 18 holes. The good news was there were unused pockets of land within the site.
The original layout was organized as two clockwise loops of nine holes. The front occupied the northern half of the property with the back nine on the southern side. As you played the course and studied the routing, there were some awkward spots that stood out.
The routing for SentryWorld in Wisconsin before the 2013 renovation – the yellow circles indicate areas of the course that were not utilized in the original routing. (Courtesy of Jay Blasi)
Hole 1: The dogleg was too sharp for opening hole, and the transition to No. 2 was awkward.
Hole 3: The dogleg was sharp, and the water and bunker on the outside of the dogleg were awkward.
Hole 9: A hidden creek and trees blocked the route to the green on the right.
Hole 11: There was hidden water left of the green.
Hole 13: There was a sharp dogleg with blind water through the fairway.
Hole 17: There was a sharp dogleg with a turning point at an awkward spot, and an impossible approach.
Looking at the image, you also can identify several spots on the property that were not being utilized for golf (yellow circles).
The area left of No. 3 green.
A peninsula of land on north side of the lake left of No. 3 and 13.
The woods right of No. 9 fairway.
A wooded area right of No. 11 green.
An area right of No. 12.
The woods between Nos. 17 and 18.
And so begins the puzzle of using the open spaces to get to the routing you see today.
The routing for SentryWorld in Wisconsin after the 2013 renovation – the letters are areas of the greatest change, as described in the story below.(Courtesy of Jay Blasi)
Here are the 10 moves that were made to get to the current layout:
A: Combining Nos. 1 and 2 into a long par 5, which is the new No. 10. This allowed us to eliminate the awkward tee shot on No. 1 and the awkward transition to No. 2. It also allowed us to expand the driving range.
B: Add a new par 3 out to the peninsula north of the lake, which is the new No. 12. This allowed us to take advantage of a great natural green site and spread out the routing.
C: Change the tee angle on No. 13 by 90 degrees. The new hole plays straightaway over the water, eliminating the sharp dogleg and blind water. The key to this change was Sentry installing a new bridge across the lake.
D: Open the right side of No. 9. This allows players options off the tee and on the second shot for the par 5.
E: Shift the 11th green to the right up the hill for the new second hole. This makes for a straight hole playing slightly uphill and eliminates the blind water. It also opens up a space for back tees on No. 6.
F: Eliminate the old No. 12 and create a new hole in the woods right of the old hole, which is the new No. 3. This takes advantage of some topography and offers a new shot with water behind.
G: Extend No. 4 back, converting it from a par 3 to a par 4. This allows for a seamless transition from the new No. 3 and offers a drivable par 4 with options.
H: Open the right side of No. 17 and shift the green to short of the water. This provides players with options off the tee and a short, tricky approach with water behind the green.
I: As evidenced above, this made for new hole numbers in the routing. They are as follows:
Old 10 = Now 1
Old 11 = Now 2
Old 12 = Now 3
Old 4 = Still 4
Old 5 = Still 5
Old 6 = Still 6
Old 7 = Still 7
Old 8 = Still 8
Old 9 = Still 9
Old 1 & 2 = New 10
Old 3 = Now 11
New hole = 12
Old 13 = Still 13
Old 14 = Still 14
Old 15 = Still 15
Old 16 = Still 16
Old 17 = Still 17
Old 18 = Still 18
The renumbering allowed us to recapture the original tee shot from the course when it first opened while keeping the Flower Hole as 16.
All told, the changes to the routing allowed us to eliminate the awkward shots, highlight some great unused parts of the property, add 400-plus yards to the course and add variety, playability and flexibility.
The changes also allowed Sentry to attract the U.S. Senior Open.
A new golf course, the Cardinal, will open in the spring of 2024 at Saint John’s Resort in Plymouth, Michigan. Designed by Raymond Hearn, the 18-hole Cardinal was laid out as an entirely new routing on land formerly used for a 27-hole layout at the Inn at St. John’s.
Alongside the new 18-hole layout will be a seven-hole short course, a two-acre putting course and a shortgame practice area. All that will wrap around the resort’s driving range and a Carl’s Golfland retail store.
It’s all part of a renovation to the property formerly owned by the Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit. The property was donated in 2021 to the Pulte Family Charitable Foundation and has been rebranded as Saint John’s Resort. The $50-million transformation includes updated rooms at the resort’s hotel, a 6,200-square-foot pavilion, a ballroom and more.
The routing for the new Cardinal golf course at Saint John’s Resort in Plymouth, Michigan (Courtesy of Saint John’s Resort)
The Cardinal will be the first new high-end, public-access layout in the Metro Detroit area in more than 20 years.
“The land, with its natural glacier forms and beautiful 100-year-old trees, was a great foundation to work with,” said the Michigan-based Hearn. “We were able to save many of the old mature trees and create a routing that kept them in play around green sites and along fairways, which is a bit unique in today’s golf course architecture that focuses more on tree removal.
“This also allowed me to draw on my inspiration from previous Donald Ross, Tom Bendelow and Willie Park Jr. projects as well as one of my favorite courses, the Old Course at Sunningdale by Willie Park Jr. Our goal was to create a fun golf experience, and I believe we have achieved that and then some with this project.”
Players typically serve as advisors on these projects, but this was more of a polite debate than a straight strategy session.
FORT WORTH, Texas — Before revered golf course architect Gil Hanse was signed on the dotted line to lead a massive $20 million overhaul of Colonial Country Club, longtime member and Colonial advocate Ryan Palmer sat in a room with Hanse to hash out a few details.
Players typically serve as advisors on these projects, but according to Charles Schwab Challenge Tournament Chairman Jim Whitten, this was more of a polite debate than a straight strategy session. Palmer and caddie James Edmondson, who has won the Colonial club championship five times, talked through a few of the holes they’ve seen in other places, some of which they haven’t been particularly fond of.
“That was a turning point. There were a lot of people bitching about the money and some other things,” said Whitten, who was driving around the course on Friday in his Tartan plaid members coat. “This was an airing of grievances about some of the stuff he’s done across the country. At one point, Ryan said, ‘Tell me what you did on 17 at TPC Boston. Tell me what your explanation is, what you did with that green. I hated that hole.’ Gil explained why he did some of these things and both he and James went, ‘OK, I get it now.’ And then Gil explained what he wanted to do here at the club, so they kind of went back and forth.”
Soon after that meeting about a year ago, the paperwork was signed and Hanse agreed to help revamp the acclaimed club, which was designed by the duo of Texas’ John Bredemus and Oklahoma’s Perry Maxwell, and opened in 1936. The course ranks 85th on Golfweek’s Best Classic Courses 2022 list.
The project still needed the club’s support and to help garner favor Hanse set up a number of open meetings for club members to attend and poke holes in the plan.
After the meetings, which Palmer and Edmondson took part in, 85 percent of the members voted in favor of the plan, even with the hefty price tag.
“You can’t get 85 percent of the people to vote on what’s black and what’s white,” Whitten said. “So we were very happy with that kind of support.”
Palmer took part in the final walkthrough of the plans with Hanse and Tour officials in advance of this week’s event. The four-time PGA Tour winner said the end result will put a shine on a golf course that has been a stern test for Tour players for decades.
“It’s going to be spectacular,” Palmer said. “We kind of put our little stamp of approval, I guess you could say, of being a Tour player. I was able to talk about different shots we wanted to see, what we don’t do and don’t want you to do to the golf course.
“The plans are going to be unbelievable. This will be the best golf course in town easily, I think, after it’s all said and done. Just the way it plays, it stands up to the game’s greatest each and every year, and this course shows. I think it’s going to get harder for us, and I’m excited for the membership and for the city of Fort Worth.”
Ryan Palmer plays a shot from the first tee during the first round of the 2020 Charles Schwab Challenge golf tournament at Colonial Country Club. Palmer was the first player to tee off as professional golf made its return. Mandatory Credit: Raymond Carlin III-USA TODAY Sports
A much-needed revamp
Although the course is among the shorter on the PGA Tour, the reason for the redesign had little to do with adding length. In fact, that wasn’t even on the task sheet for Hanse, according to Whitten, who has been a member at Colonial for 31 years.
“We had significant drainage and irrigation problems. And our greens, depending on how bad the summer was were really getting stressed out,” Whitten said. “Our greens are thirty-something years old and they were having layer after layer fixing and this and sanding and all this stuff, so they got bigger. And when you do that, it creates an area that holds moisture in it, which isn’t good for the green and it needs to get in and out of the green. So holding moisture was a problem and so when it was all said this golf course has not been looked at in many years.”
Although a few greens were redone two decades ago, many of them had been untouched for much longer and so the plans call for adding a hydronic system about a foot below the putting surface which can circulate warm or cool water to alter the temperature of the soil.
Colonial members decided to stay with bentgrass and maintained much of the green complexes, but let Hanse work his magic in other areas.
[pickup_prop id=”33667″]
Positive reaction from players
That has some, like Jordan Spieth, eager to see what the 2024 version of the tournament will be like. Shovels will go in the ground to start the renovation as soon as a winner is crowned on Sunday.
“I always thought courses like this, Hilton Head, these classic courses that stand the test of time, it’s like what are you going to do to these places? I think that’s kind of everyone’s first response,” Spieth said. “Then I saw them, and I was like, wow, this looks really, really cool. It looks like it maintains the character of what Colonial is while creating some excitement on some holes that maybe could use a little bit of adjusting.
Jordan Spieth plays his shot from the third tee during the third round of the 2020 Charles Schwab Challenge golf tournament. Mandatory Credit: Raymond Carlin III-USA TODAY Sports
“So changing a few of the tee lines where, instead of as much of a straight shot, you kind of see more of working the ball into a fairway. I’m not sure how much is public, but I know the idea of flipping the nines and making the 8th hole into the 17th, I think that might be the biggest change on the course from what I’ve seen. It looks like it might be a great par 3 to bring more of the creek and the river into play. So I’m always a proponent of that.”
Spieth said a recent Tour stop highlighted what can happen when a historic track is refurbished, while keeping history and the original designer’s intent in mind.
“Last week at Oak Hill you saw a renovation that was done extremely well and very highly regarded by, it seems, critics and players alike,” said Spieth, who missed the cut this year, but has plenty of success at the Charles Schwab, including a win in the 2016 event. “Change is sometimes better, sometimes not necessary. I think here Gil will do a really good job of maintaining the integrity while adding even some more character and modernization to it.”
