Design Notebook: The Mini-Muni Model

This installment of Design Notebook focuses on municipal golf course renovations. In a time of rising construction costs, it’s not easy for any public course, much less a city-owned one, to invest in improvements. Over the past several years, however, a number of municipal facilities in the U.S. have found clever, economical ways to get better. It’s important to document these projects and learn from them. Let’s dig in.

Looking pretty, Music City

On October 5, Percy Warner Golf Course—a municipal nine in Nashville, Tennessee—held a ribbon-cutting ceremony following a year-long, $2.4-million renovation. Bruce Hepner, a former associate at Tom Doak’s Renaissance Golf Design, oversaw the architectural work, which included the redesign of greens and bunkers, an overhaul of the drainage and irrigation systems, and the construction of a practice area. The course will open for play in June or July of 2024.

“[The] Percy Warner project has been a labor of love for all of us trying to give back to the game of golf,” Hepner told Fried Egg Golf. “With all the high-dollar projects going on around our business, we are proud of the relatively low-cost, high-quality product we’ve given the city of Nashville. The design is also very maintainable, knowing the limited resources allocated within the municipal-budget world. We didn’t dummy down the golf—just made it affordable and maintainable.”

Bruce Hepner's plan for the renovation at Percy Warner Golf Course

Partly because of this project’s success, the mayor’s office formed a $2-million grant for upgrades to the 18-hole Shelby Park Golf Course (frequented by Brandt Snedeker in his youth) and the nine-hole par-3 course VinnyLinks, both located within Nashville’s Shelby Park. Hepner will again serve as lead architect, and the work will begin next year. -Garrett Morrison

The mini-muni model

The renovations at Percy Warner and Shelby Park align with what I’ve started to call the “mini-muni model.” (Try to say it five times fast. It’s part of the fun.) Unlike “mega-muni” initiatives such as those at Bethpage Black, Torrey Pines, TPC Harding Park, and Chambers Bay, mini-muni projects are small-scale and low-cost. In the right architect’s hands, they can produce truly compelling golf. Recent examples include the enhancements at the Glen Golf Park in Madison, the Loop at Chaska, Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, and Lake Oswego near Portland. A pioneering moment in the trend was the $1.2-million transformation of Winter Park, carried out in 2016 by Keith Rhebb and Riley Johns.

Keith Rhebb and Riley Johns's is an exemplar of the "mini-muni model"

The mini-muni model takes on different forms in different places but has developed a few key traits:

A budget in the $1- to $3-million range, often supported by a public-private partnership. Even in today’s construction market, a couple million dollars can go a long way at a municipal golf facility. Yet most city governments are reluctant to devote even that amount of funding to a golf course project, so a public-private partnership can help. In Nashville, for instance, a group of local citizens founded the non-profit Tennessee Golf Foundation to bankroll the Percy Warner renovation. A similar fundraising structure powered Troy Miller’s Seth Raynor-inspired remake of Charleston Municipal Golf Course.

A design-build architect with a pedigree. The most successful mini-muni projects tend to be overseen by architects who 1) do their own shaping and 2) have worked for leading firms on some of the world’s greatest courses, but 3) don’t have deep portfolios of original designs. These architects tend to be affordable, capable, and hungry. Plus, their familiarity with construction sites and ability to operate equipment on their own helps to keep a lid on spending. Hepner fits this profile, as do Rhebb and Johns, Jay Blasi (Golden Gate Park), Craig Haltom (the Glen Golf Park), and Benjamin Warren (the Loop at Chaska).

A tree-removal program that emphasizes quality, not necessarily quantity. Many municipal courses in the U.S. are over-treed, which drives up water and chemical usage, blocks views, and diminishes playability. Unfortunately, tree removal can be expensive—not to mention controversial among environmentally conscious community members. So for mini-muni projects, the savvier route is usually moderate removal of unhealthy, non-indigenous, or particularly obtrusive trees. This was the approach Hepner took at Percy Warner. The course can still be described as “tree-lined,” but select removals have opened up several tee shots and improved air and light circulation around most greens. Better golf, fewer inputs, minor costs, negligible PR issues.

Sparse, simple bunkering. Bunkers can be money pits. The USGA’s George Waters once told me that some courses spend more per square foot on bunkers than they do on greens. That’s why the smartest mini-muni renovations keep bunkering to a minimum and adopt an easy-to-maintain shaping style. The Glen Golf Park, for example, features a total of seven bunkers across nine holes, and Hepner’s plans for Percy Warner called for 11. At both courses, the bunker edges are aesthetically appealing but stable and straightforward. They won’t be difficult or expensive to keep up, so the maintenance crews will be able to prioritize what golfers really care about: turf conditions.

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Creative green contouring. If you have cool greens, you have a cool course. That’s the most important lesson of the best mini-muni projects, from Winter Park to Percy Warner. Even the humblest course can have an inspired, expertly sculpted set of green complexes; it’s a component of great golf architecture that can and should be available to everyone. Just consider that the Loop at Chaska, a diminutive par-3 course scheduled to open next spring after clubhouse-related delays, will boast greens shaped by Jim Craig, Brett Hochstein, and Jonathan Reisetter—three of the most talented and renowned golf course builders on Earth.

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The mini-muni model works. Make it happen in your town. -GM

A Lake Oswego visit

A few towns over from where I live in the suburbs of Portland, Oregon, architect Dan Hixson has completed a mini-muni-style renovation at Lake Oswego Golf Course. The $3.2-million project is part of a larger vision: what used to be a soggy, struggling 18-hole par-3 course will soon house a recreation and aquatics center in addition to Hixson’s nine-hole, par-30 design. The course is expected to open about a year from now, after the completion of the clubhouse, pro shop, and parking lot.

Is it slightly sad, with tee sheets packed at every public course in and around the city, to lose about 10 acres of golf? Sure. But even if the quantity of golf will be smaller, the quality will be much higher. Also, as an ex-swim coach with young kids still learning to be water-safe, I’m excited for the aquatics facility. The Portland area needs more public pools.

Hixson’s design embodies many of the characteristics of my favorite mini-muni projects: a reasonable price tag, in-house detailing (Hixson shaped the greens himself while his go-to dozer guy Norbert Painter took care of the bunkers), targeted tree removal, minimal bunkering, and inventive contouring of greens and surrounds.

I particularly like the punchbowl-ish third hole and the Redan-ish fourth, which travel up and back down a hill at the northwestern corner of the site.

Nos. 3 (right) and 4 (left) at Dan Hixson's renovated Lake Oswego

I’m also a fan of the ripples leading into the greens on the three par 4s (Nos. 1, 5, and 8). Prior to Hixson’s work, the property had decent general movement but no undulation to speak of. These contours will bring some variety to the ground game—a dimension that the previous course almost completely lacked.

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The main challenge for the new Lake Oswego Golf Course will be achieving firm turf conditions on a wet, clay-based site. As the course awaits its fall 2024 debut, employees of the parks and recreation department are maintaining the property. Since they are not golf specialists and don’t have daily direction from a superintendent, I worry that the new Lake Oswego will take a while to get on its feet after opening. Either way, it’s an exciting addition to the Portland golf scene, and I can’t wait to make it part of my local rota. -GM

A couple of courses we photographed recently

Winchester Country Club (Winchester, MA)—founded in 1902, designed and redesigned by Donald Ross in the 1910s and 20s, soon to be renovated by Andrew Green

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Soule Park Golf Course (Ojai, CA)—designed by William F. Bell in 1962, redesigned by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner in 2005

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Quotable

“When reconstructing the bunkers it’s important to obtain a certain amount of variety—there may be a general style, but without variation, the course quickly becomes monotonous. Even the pot bunkers on the best links courses like St. Andrews come in an array of sizes and shapes—they aren’t all small and round. Classic architects were sure to follow this example. When someone tells you they can build a Ross bunker as if they were all alike, beware.” –Tom Doak and Bruce Hepner

Got a question you want us to address in a future edition of Design Notebook? Ask it in the comment section below. We’d be happy to run a regular Q&A segment, if you’re into that kind of thing.