Design Notebook: Another Entry in the “Renovation on a Budget” Files

Welcome back to Design Notebook, where we simply cannot get enough of Lydia Ko, the Old Course, and especially Lydia Ko winning at the Old Course.

This multimedia edition of DN kicks off with a video conversation between Andy Johnson and superintendent Kyle Kreklow, who is leading a promising, low-budget renovation at Pioneer Creek Golf Course in the Minneapolis suburbs. Also included: Garrett Morrison’s take on a proposal to develop a portion of a Florida state park into a golf complex.

A Cost-Effective Transformation at Pioneer Creek

By Andy Johnson

It’s rare for municipal golf courses to undertake ambitious improvement projects. Since these facilities depend on regular income from greens fees (whereas private clubs can get by with monthly dues), they face revenue challenges when play is interrupted. But it’s not impossible. At Pioneer Creek Golf Course outside of Minneapolis, for instance, superintendent Kyle Kreklow, with the help of the supremely skilled architect Dave Axland, has undertaken a slow but impactful renovation.

Kreklow is not your typical municipal-course superintendent. He worked at some of the country’s premier golf courses, including Sand Hills, Friar’s Head, and Maidstone. It was at the latter club that he met Axland, who was contributing to Coore & Crenshaw’s restoration of the Long Island course. But Kreklow has now decided to return home to help Pioneer Creek, his family’s course.

In my opinion, municipalities and public golf courses too often spend money haphazardly. They start with a mediocre course, hire a local architect, shut down for a full-scale renovation, and end up with a new, equally mediocre course. At Pioneer Creek, Kreklow and Axland are creating a roadmap for how to refresh and improve an affordable golf facility. They are transforming the quality of the golf at a fraction of the usual price with minimal disruptions to daily business. This is the value of an excellent architect and why more public courses should consider hiring one rather than settling for the standard local firm.

Last week, I spoke with Kyle about his and Axland’s work on this 2000 Joel Goldstrand design. Here is that conversation:

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A Bear of a Plan

By Garrett Morrison

Last week, Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection unveiled its “Great Outdoors Initiative,” a proposal to create new recreational and lodging options at nine state parks. The plan calls for the construction of lodges, cabins, pickleball courts, and—most relevant to the purview of Design Notebook—a 45-hole golf facility at Jonathan Dickinson State Park near Hobe Sound. “The initiative will work to expand public access, increase outdoor activities, and provide new lodging options across Florida’s states,” the department said in a press release.

The land at Jonathan Dickinson, according to Florida residents I’ve spoken with, is ideal for golf. However, the notion of turning pristine state parkland into a golf complex ignited what the Tampa Bay Times described as “a firestorm of public outcry.” A series of meetings to discuss the initiative is scheduled for tomorrow, August 27.

The proposed site of a potential golf development at Florida's Jonathan Dickinson State Park

An intriguing wrinkle: this isn’t the first time golf developers have eyed the Sunshine State’s parks. In 2011, then-governor Rick Scott briefly floated a measure that would have allowed Jack Nicklaus to create Florida’s version of the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail.

Then, last year, Lt. Col. Dan Rooney and his veterans nonprofit Folds of Honor pitched local and state officials on a golf facility at Jonathan Dickinson. The same group is likely behind the new proposal, as Terri Parker of WPBF News reported last Friday. I wouldn’t be surprised if Jack Nicklaus were involved as well. Nicklaus is close with Rooney, having worked with him on the recent redesign of American Dunes Golf Club in Michigan. Plus, Nicklaus has connections in the state government: his son Gary serves on the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and his wife Barbara accepted a Medal of Freedom from Governor Ron DeSantis two years ago.

The development of public lands is a complex topic, worthy of more nuanced treatment than it usually receives in political discourse. Some state parks make excellent sites for golf and other forms of recreation; most probably shouldn’t be touched. I would lean toward putting Jonathan Dickinson in the latter category. After all, does Florida really need more golf courses, particularly at the cost of a wildlife habitat in a hyper-developing area?

Update #1: On Monday morning, 8/26, news circulated that the group behind the effort to build golf courses in Jonathan Dickinson State Park had withdrawn its plan. Evidently, a shadowy nonprofit called the Tuskegee Dunes Foundation, which shares a mailing address with Folds of Honor and is represented by a former secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, was the primary advocate of the proposal. Fascinating stuff!

Update #2: Around midday on Monday, 8/26, Nicklaus Companies and Nicklaus Design released a statement declaring themselves opposed to the (now-abandoned) Jonathan Dickinson golf project. The statement also mentions that “Jack Nicklaus resigned from Nicklaus Companies in May 2022” and that “Nicklaus Companies has no inside information regarding projects he may or may not have pursued over the last two years outside of our companies.” (The ongoing legal proceedings between Nicklaus and the companies bearing his name are too intricate to summarize here, but this July update from Golf Digest should bring you up to speed.)

Chocolate Drops

By Garrett Morrison

Conant in Connecticut: Architect Blake Conant started last week on a project at Shorehaven Golf Club, a Long Island Sound-adjacent course in Connecticut routed by Willie Park Jr. and built by Robert White in 1924. Conant tells me that he’s “restoring what I can and then bridging the gap with what’s been blown up.”

OCM in New Zealand: The Hills Golf Club near Arrowtown, New Zealand, has hired Australian firm Ogilvy, Cocking & Mead (OCM) to reimagine its John Darby-designed 18-hole course. A regular host of the New Zealand Open, The Hills is now run by a partnership that includes the big-money developers behind Tara Iti and Te Arai Links.

Going Green: As his renovation of East Lake Golf Club makes its public debut at this week’s Tour Championship, Andrew Green has precious little time to stop and reflect. His work at another high-profile Donald Ross design, Interlachen Country Club (pictured in the next section), recently wrapped up. In addition, Green is currently either planning or executing projects at Franklin Hills Country Club, Chevy Chase Club, Karsten Creek, Jupiter Island Club, Olympia Fields North, Winchester Country Club, Kansas City Country Club, Charlotte Country Club, Shoal Creek Club, and Linville Golf Club, among other courses. The busiest man in golf?

A Course We Photographed Recently

Interlachen Country Club (Edina, MN)—designed by Donald Ross in 1921; worked on by Robert Trent Jones, Geoffrey Cornish, and Brian Silva between the 1950s and 2000s; renovated by Andrew Green in 2024

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Quotable

“There is something so undeniably pleasant about a natural hazard that it seems out of the question to duplicate it artificially. Take, for instance, a creek found on a property. Something about the way the banks have shaped themselves adds greatly to their attractiveness. But when a like effect is attempted artificially, it falls far short, no matter what pains and expense are taken. Man cannot do in a few days what nature took years to accomplish.” –Donald Ross