Restorations and Renovations
Minikahda Club
Over the past couple of decades there has been an evolution in the projects for golf course architects. Course construction has moved from building new courses to restorations and renovations of existing properties. Across the country courses of all types, private, public and daily fee are returning courses to the original design.
Construction of new courses exploded in the ‘90s. A report from McKinsey and Company in 1987 concluded, “A course a day needs to be opened” to meet the demand. The market nearly met the prediction as an average of 298 new courses were opened from 1993-2002. Golf course architects just had to pick up the phone to get a contract to design a new course.
Suddenly courses were over built and construction of new courses came to a halt. By 2012 only 12 new courses were opened. It was lean times for golf course architects looking to build new courses. Ten years later, in 2022 only 30 new courses were under construction in the U.S.
Courses built in the ‘90s were in real estate developments. The day of the city or county building a public course has passed. In addition there are few new courses being built either by wealthy individuals or to be membership owned.
Taking the place of new construction is restoration and renovation of existing courses. “I’ve never been busier,” golf course architect Andy Staples told me.
“This is the golden age of restoration and renovation,” another architect said.
There are several reasons for the boom. Much of what happens agronomically at the top 10 courses in the country influences every course in the country. If Augusta National, Seminole or Merion are doing something to their golf course, in the next decade that type of project will be undertaken by courses across the country.
One of the influential courses, Pittsburg’s Oakmont CC, in 1994 cut down thousands of trees. After looking at old photographs of the course, they realized it looked nothing like what the architect, Henry Clay Fownes, originally designed. It had become choked with trees.
Trees were planted to enhance the aesthetic appearance of courses, not improve the design features. Following Oakmont’s lead, tree removal has swept across the country, restoring the vistas and design subtleties intended by the architect. Today even the most reluctant courses to remove trees are seeing that trees are encroaching on fairways, turf quality is suffering and angles envisioned by the architect no longer exist.
In many instances restoration programs begin with the need to improve the course irrigation system. Irrigation systems should be upgraded every 25 years. Frequently a project of upgrading an irrigation system leads to rebuilding or removing bunkers, restoring greens to their original design and re-grassing the course. It makes sense. Why not update everything in one big project instead of several smaller jobs?
The restoration and renovation movement has swept across the country. “It seems when one course in an area does a project then all the courses in the area see what was done and follow a similar path,” an architect told me.
In 2018, after several years of struggling with greens containing many strains of bent grass and poa, The Minikahda Club in Minneapolis decided to re-grass the entire course. Bunkers were re built, trees taken out. The course was closed for parts of two seasons.
It was a difficult decision that ended with a close vote. For older members with a limited number of years left to play golf, it was a tough call. Three golf seasons after the completion of the restoration the membership is happy with the result. “Some who were opposed have come forward to say to the decision makers, ‘You were right,’” said Kip Colwell a long time Minikahda Club member.
The result has proved a great decision. The uniformity of the grass on the greens produces a consistent, smooth putting surface. The new varieties of bent grass are more resistant to disease, take less water, fewer chemicals, and withstand the harsh winters and stressful summers.
As members from other clubs saw the results at Minikahda a “copy cat” movement has taken place. No fewer than a dozen private and public courses in the metropolitan area have completed, are currently working on or are planning projects. Several, as a result of seeing the great playing conditions, reduction in water, reductions in herbicides and pesticides at Minikahda.
“Historic courses have seen that renovation projects can be done in the appropriate style and be extremely successful,” a golf course architect said to me. “The industry is better at doing projects and bringing back the original character or an appropriate vintage character. Many courses around the country are approaching their centenary and want to modernize. Clubs that have only upgraded their irrigation system while the features of the course deteriorated are looking at old photos. They identify bunkers and green shapes long forgotten.”
Midland Hills CC in St Paul, a Seth Raynor design from the early 1920s, recently completed a restoration. An old set of the original drawings was found in the ceiling above the superintendent’s office. Members were surprised to see how the course had changed in nearly 100 years.
Trees were cut restoring dramatic vistas across multiple fairways that had not been visible for decades. Greens that had become nearly round, from triplex mowing patterns, were restored to their original rectangular shape. Corners were recovered with many hole locations, not on the green before the restoration work. It now stands as a wonderful Seth Raynor course with his classic punchbowl, biarritz greens along with other classic features.
“The members didn’t realize the potential of the course,” said course superintendent Mike Manthey. “Unless you had been to see other Raynor courses that had been restored, you wouldn’t realize what it could be.”
Today’s architects working on classic courses are not attempting to put their stamp on the course but to return and enhance the work of the original great architect. “I’m not trying to build an Andrew Green course but to make Interlachen look like Donald Ross had originally intended,” Andrew Green told me as he prepared for a project at Interlachen.
For the past twenty years big, wide fairways have become the standard in golf course design. “I think wide fairways will be a fad,” said golf course architect Andy Staples. “Labor, water, chemicals are too expensive. I’m seeing that golfers want a variety of shots and like backstops. To see the ball roll up and back on a green is fun.”
Technology is making renovations and restorations more efficient in the planning stage and more effective when presenting to a membership. “I can use graphic visualization to see precisely what a hole is going to look like when it is built,” said Staples. “I can look at the sight lines on a hole and see that a bunker needs to be moved. No longer do I have to wait for something to be built to see that it needs to be corrected. It’s a major cost savings.”
“Everybody thinks their project is working to achieve a perfect golf course,” said Staples. “Golf courses never reach perfection. I understand Oakmont is about to go through a major renovation. Twenty or thirty years from now courses that are undergoing renovations today, will want to make changes again.”
“Courses are still chasing distance, but shorter holes can be the biggest challenge,” said Staples. “It’s easier to reduce par than add distance. In a renovation I change angles, make stronger doglegs, getting the better players out of their comfort place.”
It’s human nature whether it’s a home, a ranch or a golf course, we always want to tinker to improve it. Sometimes when we see something our neighbor has done or when things are breaking down, a major project is called for. That’s where the golf world is in this “golden age of renovation and restoration” in a Life In Golf.
Oakmont Golf Club
