Design Notebook: Why We Like Long-Term Restorations

This week’s edition of Design Notebook explores the differences between long-term golf course restorations and brief, all-at-once projects. Also included are news items on a Kyle Franz design in South Carolina and a potentially misguided renovation of a Philadelphia-area public course.

The patient restoration

About 30 years ago, while Coore & Crenshaw were working at Riviera Country Club, a young Geoff Shackelford asked Ben Crenshaw, “What’s the most important thing in golf architecture?” Shackelford expected Crenshaw to say something about thought or strategy, something intellectual. Instead, Crenshaw simply replied, “Time.”

In today’s lively golf construction market, time has become a scarce resource. The courses that have taken things slow, therefore, are beginning to stand out.

Consider Meadow Club. I’ve visited this Alister MacKenzie design north of San Francisco on a few different occasions since I started working for Fried Egg Golf in 2019. The staff there are genuine golf nerds and have been exceptionally kind and welcoming to me and my colleagues. Every time I go back, Sean Tully, the longtime Director of Grounds, fills me in on the latest changes he and his crew have made to the course. Last week, before the Club TFE Member-Guest at Meadow Club, Tully told me to look out for the area between Nos. 16 and 17. When I arrived at the 16th tee, I saw that the trees and cart path that used to divide the holes had been removed, and the fairways had been joined.

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A big improvement. Slowly but surely, Meadow Club is becoming the course MacKenzie meant it to be.

This return to form has been a quarter century in the making. By the late 1990s, Meadow Club had strayed far from MacKenzie’s vision. Mowing lines had crept inward, bunkers had taken on overly formal shapes, and non-native trees had intruded on many hole corridors. But then the club made two smart, consequential hires: Mike DeVries as consulting architect and Sean Tully as assistant superintendent. DeVries and Tully have been reassembling MacKenzie’s Meadow Club ever since—bunker by bunker, stump by stump. Individually, the alterations have been subtle, sometimes barely noticeable. Collectively, they have been transformative.

DeVries and Tully have more to do—a few design details to tweak, a couple dozen nettlesome trees to take down. I’m sure they occasionally feel frustrated that they can’t just get it all done at once. But they’ve come a long way.

These days, high-profile golf course restorations tend to happen more quickly. Andrew Green’s overhaul of East Lake Golf Club, which began right after the 2023 Tour Championship in late August, will be finished in time for the 2024 Tour Championship. At Pasatiempo Golf Club, Jim Urbina started rebuilding all of the green complexes on the front nine in April. His work will be grassed and playable by December 4. Gil Hanse’s historic renovation of the Country Club near Cleveland, Ohio, debuted this past July after a single offseason of closure.

When helmed by skilled architects like Green, Urbina, and Hanse, these whirlwind projects often turn out well. One consequence of the sped-up process, however, is that the golf courses usually come out looking brand new, not exactly “restored” (or even “historically renovated”). For the majority of golfers, this is probably a feature rather than a bug. Many prefer the sharpness and shininess of 21st-century construction and agronomy to the worn-in quirks and inconsistencies of pre-World War II push-up greens and liner-free bunkers.

To me, though, age is an asset to a golf course—a source of character, local color, and pleasurable mystery. Part of the appeal of a longer-term restoration, such as the one at Meadow Club, is that each rebuilt feature has time to settle and blend in with the rest of the property. The result is a sense of continuity: the 100-year-old design still feels 100 years old.

My favorite example of a patiently restored course is Essex County Club, where architect Bruce Hepner has been chipping away at a restoration of Donald Ross’s original design for more than 20 years. The gradualness of the work has been partly due to necessity: the club’s members have never approved any significant closures. In Hepner’s and superintendent Eric Richardson’s hands, however, this restriction has become an advantage. Today’s Essex County—with its beautifully mottled turf, subtle green contours, and simple, weathered bunkers—is a time machine, set for 1917. There’s nothing else like it.

Clockwise from top right: Nos. 13, 14, and 17 at Essex County Club

We live in an exciting era of golf course development. Not for decades—not, perhaps, since the Golden Age—have we seen such a confluence of talented architects, willing investors, and intriguing projects. I just hope that, in the midst of our enthusiasm, we don’t forget the most important thing about golf architecture. -Garrett Morrison

Broomsedge nears takeoff

The Kyle Franz-designed Broomsedge project is finally a go. Located on a sandy site about 40 minutes outside of Columbia, South Carolina, Broomsedge has been searching for a source of funding for a few years. Mike Koprowski, who has partnered with Franz on several recent projects, found the land and has been busy shaping greens while waiting for more money to come. This week, the calvary is arriving. A full construction team is ready to build the course, with hopes of preview play starting this time next year.

Kyle Franz and Mike Koprowski's plan for Broomsedge

What excites me about Broomsedge is its proposed model: a private golf club that offers regular access to non-members. Along with Brambles outside of Napa, it is part of a micro-trend toward making private golf in America more accessible. This is long overdue. Many of the most revered golf clubs outside of the U.S.—such as Muirfield, North Berwick, and Royal Melbourne—accept significant amounts of outside play. The devotion to exclusivity among American private clubs is an oddity, and projects that challenge this convention are always going to be intriguing to me.

I’ve heard that Broomsedge has an excellent property that rivals those of its new-build counterparts in western South Carolina, the Tree Farm and Old Barnwell. Also, it will feature numerous double fairways, an emerging calling card in Franz’s portfolio. Broomsedge will be a project to watch as the young architect finishes up the first original commissions of his career at Cabot Citrus Farms in Florida and Luling outside of Austin, Texas. -Andy Johnson

A questionable plan at Paxon Hollow

Recently, on a trip to shoot Lancaster Country Club for next year’s U.S. Women’s Open, I stopped by the wonderful Paxon Hollow Golf Club just outside of Philadelphia. Formerly a private club, it is now open to the public—and all the better for it. Paxon Hollow is sporty and not overly long; it cleverly traverses a collection of hills and valleys, keeping interest high throughout the round.

A real standout is the 13th hole. The tee shot plays diagonally across a steep ridge, so players have to decide how aggressive to be. Successfully challenging the ridge and a series of bunkers on the left shortens the approach—a big plus coming into this small green.

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I was a little surprised to learn that the course is planning to undergo a rather large-scale renovation, with a master plan drawn up by Tyler Rae. (The course had previously been under the care of Hanse Golf Course Design’s Jim Wagner.) A lot of the project seems beneficial, including a new pro shop and locker room facilities—although the current setup is quite charming—as well as what appear to be some expanded fairway lines. But the biggest change will be the addition of a massive driving range and short course.

This doesn’t sound too bad on paper, except that the first three holes will have to be rerouted in order to make room. The course has published renderings of the proposed alterations on its website.

The plan for Paxon Hollow's upcoming renovation

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Although these images can’t fully convey what will be built, I’m not particularly optimistic, especially given the bad walk from the new second green to the new third tee. I happen to think the existing opening stretch is one of the best on the course. Assuming the project goes forward as planned, I hope I’m wrong. -Cameron Hurdus

A course we photographed recently

Lancaster Country Club (Lancaster, PA)—”Dogwood 18″ designed by William Flynn in 1920, restored by Ron Forse and Jim Nagle in 2007

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Quotable

“Putting greens to a golf course are what the face is to a portrait. The clothes the subject wears, the background, whether scenery or whether draperies—are simply accessories; the face tells the story and determines the character and quality of the portrait—whether it is good or bad. So it is in golf; you can always build a putting green. Teeing grounds, hazards, the fairway, rough, etc., are accessories.” -C.B. Macdonald