Chocolate Drops: The Pinehurst No. 4 Closure Isn’t Surprising

Did you celebrate May the Fourth by watching Andor? If so, congratulations on having excellent taste.

Here are a few stories from the golf architecture industry that have my attention right now:

→ Pinehurst Resort announced last Tuesday that Pinehurst No. 4 will close on May 19 to undergo a “full greens restoration.” In a social media post, the resort stated, “Recently, the condition of the greens on Pinehurst No. 4 fell well below our standards. Unfortunately, warmer spring temperatures have not brought about the expected recovery.” The No. 4 course, one of the resort’s most popular since Gil Hanse’s redesign in 2018, will reopen on August 7.

I don’t know the full agronomic backstory here, but I have heard that this past winter was a tough one for the Pinehurst area, with multiple long freezes and snowfalls. Why was No. 4 apparently more affected than the resort’s other courses? I’m not sure.

What I am certain about, however, is that many destination golf courses will continue to face agronomic hardships. Last year, Sweetens Cove shut down during a similar timeframe — May to August — in order to repair winter turf damage. Also, as Andy Johnson documented in a Design Notebook piece almost exactly a year ago, the courses at Bandon Dunes have struggled in recent years to maintain firm, fast, and consistent playing surfaces, especially during the winter and early spring.

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Pinehurst, Sweetens, and Bandon have a few key things in common: they are open year-round; they are located in moderate yet unpredictable climates where harsh winters are not uncommon; and they have been very, very busy over the past several years. The combination of winter storms and heavy play will always lead to dodgy turf conditions, no matter how smart and hard-working a maintenance crew might be. There’s no avoiding the occasional closure.

→ Last week, the members at Portmarnock Golf Club voted to approve a course renovation by Mackenzie & Ebert. The proposed changes include converting the par-4 second hole into a par 3, modifying the design of the fifth hole, and creating a championship routing in which the current 17th would become the 18th and the current 18th would serve as the opener. The project is understood to be part of the club’s effort to attract an Open Championship.

My colleagues and I are on the record as skeptics of the quality of M&E’s work at Open-rota venues. For the time being, though, I’ll reserve judgment on the Portmarnock renovation and just hope that the changes to the course meet a higher standard than the ones the firm made to Royal Liverpool.

→ I enjoyed this article in Golf Course Architecture by Mike Clayton on vegetation management in the Melbourne Sandbelt. A fine pairing of author and subject matter.

→ In the April 22 Design Notebook, I relayed the news that Royal Dornoch Golf Club had hired King Collins Dormer to create a master plan for the Struie Course, the club’s sportier, less famous layout. That plan is expected to be presented to the membership tomorrow, May 6. Keep an eye out.

→ I was at Bandon Dunes last week with my colleagues Cameron Hurdus and Matt Rouches filming something for our YouTube channel. I spent a couple of mornings walking around Bandon Preserve, the stunning 13-hole short course built by Coore & Crenshaw in 2012. Here’s a quick photo tour:

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