What do the pros face this week in the PGA Championship? StrackaLine shares the details on Oak Hill East.
Oak Hill’s East Course in Rochester, New York – site of this week’s PGA Championship – originally was designed by architectural legend Donald Ross and opened in 1926. The layout was revised several times over the decades, most recently as Andrew Green put much of the Ross flavor back into the East.
Oak Hill’s East will play to 7,394 yards with a par of 70 for this week’s major championship.
Thanks to yardage books provided by StrackaLine – the maker of detailed yardage books for thousands of courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges the pros face this week at Oak Hill.
When did this pristine place become worthy of major championships? Much like the course, that answer is still evolving.
ROCHESTER, N.Y — To witness Oak Hill Country Club’s East Course, a masterful layout that will test the world’s top players at the 2023 PGA Championship, is to see an ever-evolving block of clay, one that’s been molded and re-molded over a century.
So that begs a question: When did this pristine place become worthy of major championships?
Much like the course, that answer is still evolving.
The first glimpse the golf world got of the Donald Ross design came in 1934, when the City of Rochester’s 100th birthday and the 20th anniversary of hometown hero Walter Hagen’s U.S. Open win at Midlothian Country Club were rolled into a celebration at the course. Hagen invited a number of his closest friends, many of whom were big fish in the golf pond.
Although Hagen, then 41 years old, failed to crack the top 10 in the event, he played admirably. Meanwhile, the tournament was won by Leo Diegel, a four-time Ryder Cupper who won a pair of PGA Championships. Diegel shot 4 under to take the title, and he left as one of many who were impressed with the course.
May 15, 2023; Rochester, New York, USA; Fans walk behind the 1st hole during a practice round of the PGA Championship golf tournament at Oak Hill Country Club. Mandatory Credit: Adam Cairns-USA TODAY Sports
“It was the first time many of the great golfers of the world had ever seen Oak Hill East,” said club historian Fred Beltz, who joked that he didn’t attend that event. “This gave members at Oak Hill a taste of big-time golf and it gave big-time golf a taste of Oak Hill.”
And while that first peek didn’t result in instant success in terms of catapulting Oak Hill onto a national tournament stage, it helped build some momentum. In 1941, the founder of the Gannett newspaper chain – now owners of USA Today, Golfweek and the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle – put up $5,000 to host the first Times-Union Open, named in honor of the now-defunct afternoon newspaper. Frank Gannett, who was a member at Oak Hill, hoped the tournament would shed light on the track’s beauty and could serve as a gateway to Rochester hosting a larger tournament.
In 1941, Sam Snead was victorious in the event, but the crowning achievement came in 1942 when Ben Hogan set the layout ablaze, breaking the course record with a 64 in his opening round. It was a record that stood for 71 years, only matched in tournament play by Curtis Strange, who also shot 64 on his way to winning the U.S. Open in 1989.
Although the tournament was building steam, World War II threw a monkey wrench in any plans to grow the Times-Union event, and it was shuttered.
“The war years really limited a lot of professional golf,” Beltz said. “But then, when we moved into the big time, in my opinion, was in 1949 when we hosted the U.S. Amateur. In 1934 is when the world saw the course, in ’41-’42 we got a taste of bigger events, but then in 1949, that’s when we really got to the big stage.”
The story goes that at some point after the war, USGA executive director Joe Dey came to Oak Hill and was in awe of the design.
“Dey saw the course and said, ‘Where have you been? There’s nothing else like this in the whole country,’” Beltz said.
That 1949 Am was won by Charles Coe, widely regarded as one of the greatest American amateurs in history. Coe went on to win another U.S. Am in 1958 and finished second to Gary Player in the 1961 Masters.
From there, the course scored a pair of U.S. Opens in the next two decades, first the 1956 edition won by Cary Middlecoff and then the 1968 tournament, which proved to be the first PGA Tour victory and the first of six majors for 28-year-old Lee Trevino.
In Trevino’s win, he posted rounds in the 60s all four days, a first in a U.S. Open, but Beltz contends the course was susceptible to a low score, due to a specific set of circumstances.
“The course was lined with Dutch Elm trees, and the course went through a bout with Dutch Elm disease,” Beltz said. “The course was easier to attack than normal, but give Trevino credit. He did it.”
When the USGA started to ask if the course was difficult enough to warrant major championships in the 1970s, club leaders summoned George Fazio and his nephew Tom to add some new wrinkles. The course played tougher and continued to host major events – including the 1995 Ryder Cup won by a European side that secured victory when Irish rookie Philip Walton topped Jay Haas on the 18th green.
Haas would return to exact some revenge, capturing the 2008 Senior PGA Championship in Pittsford. And the course hosted a pair of PGA Championships, one in 2003 won by Shaun Micheel and another in 2013 when Jason Dufner broke Hogan and Strange’s course record, one that stood for 71 years, by shooting a 63 en route to victory.
Jason Dufner celebrates with the Wannamaker Trophy after winning the 95th PGA Championship at Oak Hill Country Club. Mandatory Credit: Allan Henry-USA TODAY Sports
“I don’t want to take anything away from Dufner, but the course got quite a bit of rain, so it was really receptive, and there was a graduated rough,” Beltz explained. “The course was definitely playing on the easier side. And the older course was a little shorter and if you look at that with older equipment against a slightly longer course and new equipment, I’ll take the latter over the former any day.”
Fearing it had lost its roots, the course was renovated again in 2019 by Andrew Green, who attempted to restore the East Course to the original design Ross created nearly a century ago.
For Beltz, who has been picking at the club’s history for two decades, this offers a watershed moment in 2023 with the return of the PGA Championship. He’s hoping this year’s event ushers in a modern era of major tournaments at a place that has seen its fair share of changes.
“This is a pivotal year, for sure,” Beltz said. “If the players like the renovations and the weather treats us right, this could be a place where major championships are held for a long, long time.”
Oak Hill’s East Course will challenge the best players in the world. To see it from above is something special.
ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The piece of property housing the Oak Hill East Course that will challenge the best players in the world has undergone numerous changes over the years.
The original Donald Ross design first got some national love in 1934, when the City of Rochester’s 100th birthday and the 20th anniversary of hometown hero Walter Hagen’s U.S. Open win at Midlothian Country Club were rolled into a celebration at the course.
In the 1970s, club leaders called on George Fazio and his nephew Tom to add some new wrinkles. Then, the course was renovated again in 2019 by Andrew Green.
Here’s a look at the front nine of the course, which will be in the international spotlight this week:
Starting in 2015, the club decided to put the Donald Ross flair back into the course.
Nothing remains static on a golf course for long.
Grass grows, often in new places and in unexpected ways. Bunkers shift as sand is blasted out by players. Trees grow, blocking light, air and playing lines. Undulations shift on greens, which themselves often shrink over years and decades. Whether through intentional architectural efforts or natural evolution, every golf course changes in time.
Opened in 1926 with a design by architectural legend Donald Ross, the East had undergone many changes over the decades, many of them in pursuit of additional challenge to the best players in the world. Among its many championships, the East has hosted three PGA Championships (1980, ’03 and ’13) and three U.S. Opens (1956, ’68 and ’89), with winners including the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino and Curtis Strange. Add to those events a rich history of amateur and senior events, plus the 1995 Ryder Cup, and Oak Hill’s rich championship history clearly ranks among the best clubs in the world.
The greens for Nos. 4 and 5 at Oak Hill Country Club’s East Course in Rochester, New York (Photo: Gabe Gudgel/Golfweek)
But the course had changed dramatically over the years, losing much of its Ross flavor. Robert Trent Jones tweaked the East in the 1950s and ’60s, including – in the name of spectator flow – the replacement of a par 4 considered by many to be among the best in the country.
In the 1970s, George and Tom Fazio further modernized the layout, redesigning three holes – the fifth, sixth and 15th – and moving the 18th green. While these changes were all implemented in the interest of increased difficulty for touring professionals, the club received criticism about eliminating too much of Ross’s original design.
Add in naturally occurring changes to the course over the years, and club officials knew it was time to make some changes.
“It’s just like owning a home in some regard. You always have to do some housekeeping, always have to do some updating,” said Jeff Corcoran, Oak Hill’s manager of golf courses and grounds. “And I think the progression of the game dictates a lot of the work you need to do, in some regards, if you want to be a golf course that hosts major championships.”
Starting in 2015, the club decided to put the Ross flair back into the course. It hired architect Andrew Green, who the club said worked with Corcoran; Jeff Sluman, PGA Tour professional and Rochester native; and an East Course Restoration Committee led by Tim Thaney and Jim McKenna. The club said its objectives were to add length where possible, create more forward tees for members, expand areas where cups could be cut into greens and to evaluate options for holes that had been changed over the years. Green used Ross’s original drawings and historical photos to determine the best course of action in restoring the layout.
“Donald Ross set the East Course at Oak Hill Country Club on a stunning piece of ground where the holes turn direction and flow over the property in an inspired fashion,” Green – who has established himself as a restoration expert with such work completed at Wannamoisett, Inverness, Congressional and several other such classic layouts – told the club at the outset of the restoration. “We will utilize every ounce of historic data to reflect the strategy, style and intent of Ross with a keen eye on the way the game of golf is played today. The results will protect the legacy of Oak Hill for decades to come.”
The newly renovated sixth hole at Oak Hill Country Club’s East Course in Rochester, N.Y. (Gary Kellner/PGA of America)
Work wrapped up in 2019, with each of the 18 greens having been rebuilt to U.S. Golf Association specifications with enhanced drainage to provide firm playing conditions. All the bunkers were rebuilt with improved drainage and some were relocated, and they are now more classically Ross in appearance. An overabundance of trees of was removed to improve playing conditions, open vistas and reestablish playing lines. More than 175,000 square feet of new bent grass was installed on the putting surfaces and approaches, the club said, and Green led the restoration of green sizes and sometimes the alteration of existing contours to reestablish classic hole locations that had been lost in time.
“The big thing people are going to see is a tremendous amount of variety in the daily setup, because there are going to be hole locations that members haven’t seen for maybe 40, 50 years,” Green said in a club video commemorating the restoration. “It’s going to add to the aura and how great a major championship venue that it is.”
Most important, the three holes that been altered by previous designers were rebuilt to better match the intent of Ross, even if it was impossible to rebuild them exactly.
“Nos. 5, 6, 15 and to a lesser extent 18 had been the three or four holes that have been the most vilified here at Oak Hill,” Corcoran said. “They are the holes that were redone prior to the ’80 PGA. As we were walking around, we were like, if we’re going to all this trouble on the East Course, shouldn’t we rectify this biggest perceived problem?
“It really came down to, if we were going to redo something, how would we redo it in keeping the original architectural intent that Donald Ross had envisioned of this property? Andrew is phenomenal at that.”
The newly renovated fifth hole at Oak Hill Country Club’s East Course in Rochester, N.Y. (Gary Kellner/PGA of America)
Green designed a new fifth hole, a par 3 named Little Poison, in the same spot that held a par-3 fifth for the 1968 U.S. Open. The new green is slightly elevated and surrounded by Ross-inspired bunkers, with a wide range of flagstick locations and assorted challenges for any player who misses the putting surface on approach.
The club said the new par-4 sixth “sympathetically represents” Ross’s original par 4. Named Double Trouble, the hole crosses Allen’s Creek – a prominent feature throughout any round on the East – and can be stretched beyond 500 yards in a championship.
The new par-3 15th hole, named Plateau, removes a pond introduced during the Fazios’ renovation in the 1970s and reintroduces a large swale aside the “Postage Stamp” style of green that is long and narrow.
“They just feel like they flow,” Corcoran said of the new holes. “When you used to go to the old fifth and sixth holes, you would get to those holes and go, it just doesn’t flow, it doesn’t feel right. Anybody who had a little bent toward golf course architecture could definitely see it.
“Restoring that architectural intent, there’s just something very satisfying about that and knowing that future generations are going to get 18 contiguous holes to play out here. That’s a pretty special thing.”
The Donald Ross design’s North and South courses combine to form 18 holes for the Rocket Mortgage Classic, which is scheduled to be held on June 29 through July 2.
Vandalism at the Detroit Golf Club in mid-April has temporarily shut down two holes on the North Course, where the Rocket Mortgage Classic will be played next month.
Detroit police are investigating an apparent chemical spill on the course’s 11th and 12th greens that occurred between April 16 and 17. Police officials did not offer any details, other than they are aware of the incident, and are actively investigating it.
When I called Wednesday, the Detroit Golf Club declined comment.
But a social media post shows that an enormous area of grass on the greens is brown, the damage in a figure-eight pattern.
According to Nichols’ reporting, Stephen “Sam” Moynihan, head golf superintendent, told members in an email that a lab examination of the grass found “the active ingredient of Round-Up, glyphosate” on both greens. Glyphosate, in simple terms, is a weed killer.
Moynihan wrote in the email that his assessment is that the greens have suffered “very severe tip damage,” not enough to kill the roots of the grass.
But the incident will cause both holes to remain closed indefinitely.
“The greens will need to remain closed to allow the fastest possible recovery time and to keep any undue stress off the plants,” Moynihan wrote in the email, obtained by the Detroit Free Press. “The length of time the greens will take to recover will continue to be weather dependent, the colder the weather, the slower the recovery. I will be working in conjunction with the PGA Tour Agronomy Department to develop an appropriate plan for optimal recovery.”
The vandalism at the course likely won’t disrupt the high-profile Rocket Mortgage Classic, to be held June 27 through July 2.
The tournament layout starts on No. 8 of the North Course, then plays No. 9 of the North. Players then tackle what is normally No. 1 of the South Course before teeing off on what is normally No. 2 of the North and playing the next five holes in order.
Tony Finau celebrates with his caddie Mark Urbanek after winning the 2022 Rocket Mortgage Classic in Detroit. (Photo: Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports)
The back nine is the same as usual for the North, playing in order from No. 10 through 18. The composite course has played to a par of 72 at 7,334 yards for the Rocket Mortgage Classic.
Both the North and the South were designed by legendary architect Donald Ross and opened in 1916.
“They say a winner is just a loser that just kept on trying, and that’s me to a T,” Finau said. “How many times do I lose? But one thing I won’t do is give up, and I’m only here as a winner because I chose not to give up and just keep going.”
Finau, 32, became the first player to win consecutive tournaments since Patrick Cantlay did so a year ago at the BMW Championship and Tour Championship. It was Cantlay who produced the biggest threat to spoil Finau’s day. Cantlay birdied five of the first eight holes in his final round, but a bogey at No. 12 was costly. The reigning FedEx Cup champion shot 6-under 66, recording his Tour-best 10th top-10 finish of the season.
Donald Ross’s list of top-ranked courses extends into New Hampshire.
The influence of famed golf architect Donald Ross stretches across the Golfweek’s Best course rankings, including into New Hampshire.
Omni Mount Washington’s Ross design was completed in 1915 and was restored in 2008 by Brian Silva. It ranks as the No. 1 public-access layout in New Hampshire on Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play list in 2022, a distinction it has held for more than a decade.
Golfweek’s Best offers many lists of course rankings, with that oftop public-access courses in each stateamong the most popular. All the courses on this list allow public access in some fashion, be it standard daily green fees, through a resort or by staying at an affiliated hotel. If there’s a will, there’s a tee time.
The “Muni”, as it’s often called, opened in 1927 and is on the National Register of Historic Places.
The city of Asheville, North Carolina, was the big winner in Buncombe County Tourism Development Authority grant funding announced Oct. 26, with nearly $6.5 million allocated toward four projects.
The grants include $1.6 million for the revitalization of the Donald Ross-designed Asheville Municipal Golf Course.
The allocations come through the TDA’s Tourism Product Development Fund. The TDA board approved over $9 million in new investments in 10 community projects, and that comes in addition to $6.64 million the board approved at its August meeting.
For the 2022 cycle, the total investments come to $15.68 million, the most in 20 years the Tourism Product Development Fund has existed.
By law, the TDA must allocate two-thirds of its revenues, which primarily come from the local occupancy tax on hotels, vacation rentals and bed and breakfast inns, to advertising and marketing. The remaining one-third goes to the TPDF, which funds projects that are likely to extend tourists’ stays but also benefit the local community.
While the TDA and the grant fund now operate under the two-thirds/one-third model, the funding for this year’s grant cycle collected under previous legislation that mandated the TPDF get 25 percent of the occupancy tax, while 75 percent went to marketing and advertising.
The TDA’s budget is listed as $46 million in Buncombe County’s budget line items. In March, the authority adopted a $40.8 million “revenue objective” for the current fiscal year, which runs through June 2023.
Since the TPDF fund was created, the TDA has allocated almost $60 million to 46 community tourism projects, according to the release.
The TDA notes that, “Grant applicants are required to provide matching funds when applying for projects.” This grant cycle had two phases involving written applications, presentations, and project site visits.
Here’s the list of projects funded in the 2022 cycle:
Swannanoa River Greenway: $2.3M. City of Asheville project.
Coxe Avenue/Green Street project: $1.95M. City of Asheville project.
Asheville Municipal Golf Course revitalization, phase I: $1.64M. City of Asheville project.
WNC Nature Center, Gateway to the Southern Appalachians Enhancement: $567,000. City of Asheville project.
UNC Asheville Karl Straus Track, renovation and expansion: $1.5M. UNC Asheville Foundation project.
Karen Cragnolin Park, greenway phase: $360,790. RiverLink Inc. project.
Glass Center in Black Mountain: $330,000. North Carolina Glass Center project.
AVL Unpaved Phase I: $188,355. Asheville on Bikes project.
Museum beautification project: $125,000. Asheville Museum of Science project.
The Wortham Center phase II: $80,000. Wortham Center for the Performing Arts.
Woodfin Greenway & Blueway: $5.89M. Buncombe County government/Woodfin project.
Enka Recreation Destination: $750,000. Buncombe County government project.
“We are grateful for the thoughtful community projects brought forward by municipal and nonprofit partners that reflect collective local goals and values,” Vic Isley, president & CEO for Explore Asheville and the BCTDA, said in the press release.
The Asheville Municipal Golf Course sorely needs the money, as the historic course has fallen into disrepair in recent years and spawned a lawsuit filed by the city against the former management company for $340,000 in unpaid fees.
Asheville Municipal Golf Course in Asheville, North Carolina. (Photo: Angela Wilhelm/Asheville Citizen Times)
The city filed the lawsuit Oct. 4 in Buncombe County Superior Court, over three months after the city attorney’s office sent a letter to Keith Pope, CEO of Pope Golf, based in Sarasota, Florida, advising that the city intended to initiate litigation over the past due lease payments, some of which have been accumulating since 2016.
Located in East Asheville, the “Muni”, as it’s often called, opened in 1927 and is on the National Register of Historic Places. It’s also home to the longest-running African American golf tournament in the nation.
Chris Corl, the city’s director of Community and Regional Entertainment Facilities, said late in the afternoon of Oct. 26 he’d already received over 20 texts and emails from happy golfers.
“We’re really excited to be awarded the grant,” Corl said via email. “It’s now the second major funding commitment after the initial $1 million commitment from the city. We’re finalizing the first phase budget plan with Commonwealth Golf Partners Asheville right now and hope to have it set within a month…”
Chris Corl, the city’s director of Community and Regional Entertainment Facilities, walks above a sinkhole that formed on the Asheville Municipal Golf Course on October 2022. (Photo: Angela Wilhelm/Asheville Citizen Times)
The $2.3 million for Swannanoa Greenway will construct the first three miles of the project, and it leverages the city’s 2016 bond issue to boost local parks and recreation. The WNC Nature Center will renovate its facilities and expand operations, according to the press release.
The $1.95 million for Coxe Avenue Green Street fits with the “South Slope Vision Plan,” formulated by the community.
“The transformation of Coxe Avenue includes streetscape improvements that enhance walkability such as wider sidewalks and pedestrian scale lighting, in addition to placemaking interventions such as gateway features and street furniture,” the press release states.
Asheville Mayor Esther Manheimer said in the release the funding supports facility and experiences that city residents value.
“These and future infrastructure and quality of life improvements are made possible through partnerships and collaboration, in this case between the city, county, and the TDA,” Manheimer said in the release. “I look forward to more such partnerships in our community.”
The TDA offered these details on other allocations:
The UNC Asheville Foundation will reconstruct an expanded Karl Straus Track, install new field equipment, and improve field conditions.
RiverLink, Inc. will develop the greenway phase of the new Karen Cragnolin Park connecting adjoining parks and serving as a link in the Wilma Dykeman Riverway.
The North Carolina Glass Center will develop a new state-of-the art public glass studio and school in downtown Black Mountain.
Asheville on Bikes will use its grant for the first phase of a 4.9-mile network of multi-use trails in urban Asheville, known as AVL Unpaved.
Asheville Museum of Science will start a museum beautification project that expands exhibition space.
The Wortham Center will grow the capacity of its facility to enable the simultaneous use of all three venues by local and touring production companies.
Janet Cone, UNCA’s director of athletics, said the $1.5 million award “helps us tremendously in modernizing and improving the track not just for our student-athletes, but everyone in the greater Asheville and Buncombe County area.”
Where to play golf of any kind in Florida? Check out these Golfweek’s Best course rankings.
The No. 1 public-access course in Florida isn’t really a surprise, seeing how it has been broadcast worldwide into living rooms during each year’s Players Championship for decades. The Players Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass ranks as one of legendary designer Pete Dye’s top five masterpieces, perplexing PGA Tour pros since it opened in 1980, and it ties for No. 15 on Golfweek’s Best list of all modern courses in the U.S.
And it isn’t the only course on the Ponte Vedra property to rank among Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play in Florida. Next door to the Players Stadium Course is Dye’s Valley, which clocks in at No. 18 among the Sunshine State’s best public layouts. Dye’s Valley doesn’t have the scale or fame of its neighbor, but it does have plenty of the features, challenges and visual tricks that made its designer and namesake famous.
Dye’s Valley at TPC Sawgrass in Florida (Courtesy of TPC Sawgrass)
Looking for even more highly ranked public-access courses all at one property? In Florida, that would be Streamsong, home to Nos. 2, 3 and 4 on Golfweek’s Best list of public-access layouts. The popular resort in Bowling Green, about an hour’s drive east of Tampa or 90 minutes southwest of Orlando, features courses by Tom Doak, Gil Hanse and the team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw.
Coore and Crenshaw’s Red Course tops the rankings for Streamsong’s courses, coming in at No. 2 among the state’s public-access layouts and tying for No. 37 among all modern courses in the U.S. Hanse’s Black Courses isn’t far behind, ranking No. 3 in the state and tying for 50th among modern courses. Doak’s Blue Course is right there, too, ranking No. 4 in the state and No. 53 among modern courses.
Streamsong’s Red Course (Courtesy of Streamsong/Laurence Lambrecht)
How do you choose which layout at Streamsong to play? Take our advice: Play all three, then get back to us on your favorite. Every player to visit has plenty of opinions on which course they prefer and why, and none of them are really wrong. Combined, the three layouts make Streamsong one of only a handful of resorts in the U.S. to offer so many highly ranked courses, and the resort also has started construction of a new short course, the Chain, by Coore and Crenshaw that promises even more golf.
No. 5 in the state is no stranger to PGA Tour fans either, as Bay Hill Club and Lodge in Orlando is home each year to the Arnold Palmer Invitational. A statue of Palmer still stands guard near the first and 10th tees, reminding players of the decades in which the King lived at the resort while leaving his fingerprints on every aspect of the operation.
Florida is also home to a staggering array of private courses, many of which serve as winter retreats for well-heeled clientele and residents who chase the warmth south each year. Topping the list of private courses in the state is Seminole, a Donald Ross design in Juno Beach that is No. 12 on Golfweek’s Best list of classic courses in the U.S. and one of the most exclusive clubs in the U.S.
Can’t get a tee time at Seminole? Get in line – almost all of us are waiting on that call. In the meantime, check out the rest of the best public-access and private clubs in Florida below.
The original nine holes were designed by famed architect Donald Ross and opened in 1926.
An extensive redesign and renovation of a Donald Ross-designed course in western North Carolina is drawing the ire of local residents who say thick smoke has been the result of piles of debris being burned.
The original nine holes at Waynesville, which is near Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the Blue Ridge Parkway, were designed by famed architect Ross and opened in 1926. Another 18 were added later.
But a fire marshal insisted the company is handling everything correctly.
“Folks are calling and complaining about the smoke and the ash,” Waynesville Fire Marshal Darrell Calhoun told the TV station. “They have a burn permit. They have a burn pit with berms on each side with an excavator. They’re doing everything to a T.”
The renovation of a Waynesville golf course is under way. What residents and fire officials are saying about smoke from the burning of debris piles.@WLOS_13#LiveonWLOSpic.twitter.com/csSdCMknS1
According to earlier reporting by Golfweek, the resort’s master plans include a study on possibly adding a short course and Himalayan-style putting green. Other master plan highlights include addressing infrastructure and capital improvement needs, a hole-by-hole analysis, a full course restoration, introducing agronomic best practices and efficient budgeting.
The facility is owned by Raines Company, a hotel ownership group with multiple locations in the southeastern United States.
Bobby Weed will renovate the course at Waynesville Inn & Golf Club in western North Carolina. (Courtesy of Waynesville Inn & Golf Club)
The work was expected to last 16 to 24 months as the 111-room inn and accompanying mountainous course joins Raines’ boutique hotel division, Woven by Raines.
The course needs major renovations and the upgrades are estimated to cost more than $10 million.
DELRAY BEACH, Florida — Upset residents have called on Delray Beach to overhaul its municipal 18-hole golf course, which, some say, is spotted with bare patches and covered with more weeds than grass.
While city leaders agree that the almost 100-year-old course along Highland Avenue, just west of Interstate 95 and Atlantic Avenue, needs major renovations, the upgrades are estimated to cost more than $10 million. That’s not an easy task, especially for a city that has a nearly $11 million budget deficit.
Yet for those who have griped about the well-worn course for almost a decade, talk about the renovations has stretched on for far too long.
“The golf course is in horrible condition right now,” said former Delray Beach Mayor Jay Alperin. “Although it gets a lot of play, it’s no justification for ignoring the needs of the golf course. As far as I can remember, about eight years now, we’ve been told that there was money set aside in the city budget to fix up the golf course.
“They’ve let it fall apart so badly that it needs almost complete re-grassing. Even the equipment that maintains the course is old and falling apart. By ignoring the issue instead of keeping up with it, they’ve made it worse and more expensive to repair.”
When the city discovered that the drain pipes under the course had to be replaced, the renovations were postponed again.
“It was something that was so sizable that we really had to reevaluate,” Delray Beach Mayor Shelly Petrolia said. “You don’t want to put $7 million into a golf course and then be digging it up in another couple of years to replace the infrastructure below.
“The question is, ‘Are we really to the point where that has to be done? Or can we go ahead and do the top of the golf course and then worry about that at a later date? When I say a later date, I mean 10 years or 12 years from now. If that’s the case, let’s get the golf course up and running.”
Delray Beach Golf Club in disrepair: Course was designed by famed architect Donald Ross
Residents have urged the city to put money toward the renovations, noting that the historical course designed by famous golf course architect Donald Ross has the potential to draw visitors from far and wide.
“Nobody’s asking them to move earth,” Delray Beach resident Paul Schmitt said. “We’re just asking them to plant grass. If this course was fixed up, it would have such prestige that we would be able to compete with almost any public golf course in Broward or Palm Beach County.
“I’m fortunate enough I get to play country clubs. I don’t expect it to look like a country club, but compared to 15 years ago, on a scale of one to 10, this course is probably a three, and easily it could be an eight or nine.”
As the years have passed, the miserable condition of the greens has pushed residents to spend more time at other courses across Palm Beach County, some said.
“I used to play that course three times a week,” Alperin said. “I don’t average once a week anymore. I’m tired of not being not being treated well as a citizen of Delray Beach. They’re not worried about me or the other golfers who pay taxes. We should be able to have a reasonably well-maintained golf course.”
[listicle id=778124584]
Delray Beach Golf Club in disrepair: Does the city have the money to upgrade the course?
The former mayor, who oversawthe renovations of the course in the 1990s, questioned whether the city lacked the funds to move forward with the upgrades now.
“When I was on the City Commission 30 years ago, we created an enterprise fund to run the golf course,” Alperin said. “They were making enough money to pay off the bond that we redid the course in the 90s. Where’s the money going now? Is it going into the general budget, or is it staying where it’s supposed to be at the golf course? You wouldn’t have to go back and fix up what you ignored if you had maintained it instead.”
Petrolia argued that the fund did not have enough money to pay for major renovations.
“The golf course is not a money-making entity, so I’d be surprised to see a whole lot in there,” Petrolia said. “I’ve never seen anything where it’s like, ‘Oh, there’s the money we can use.’ If there’s money, it’s probably not anywhere near what it’s going to take to renovate that course.”
The mayor added that the city plans to find a partner to develop a small portion of the course along Atlantic Avenue and hopes to put the money from the sale back into the course. That portion, she said, could be used for a hotel.
Her suggestion, however, was met with criticism.
“They want to take some of the holes along Atlantic Avenue and either sell or lease them out for development,” Alperin said. “That’s a little crazy. Look across the canal, there’s a shopping center there that’s been struggling for decades. Why put another piece of commercial property or retail property next to one that’s failing?”
While the city figures out how it will pay for the renovations, which the mayor said she would like to see in the process or completed in the next two years, it will also assess if it should turn the rundown course into a premier one.
“With the golf courses that have gone out of business – a lot of places have closed down and they’re building on top of these golf courses instead of restoring them – they’re becoming fewer and farther between,” Petrolia said.
“That makes it more interesting to me to do something really amazing with our course. There are more golfers out there that are looking for places because they don’t have as many to go to. And you’ll be able to charge more for a round, if it’s a really great spot to go golfing.”
