MAKEOVER Extreme
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into the hazard along the right side, as that would help keep golf balls more in play. As for course setup, the par 5s now have
more variance in length than before. There’s nothing wrong with keeping the setup on the fourth hole as long as 629 yards. As for par 3s, every effort should be made to keep the second and sixth hole playing differently. Given their similar length and compass orientation, they could end up play- ing too similarly. A good rule of thumb on setup is to fl ex the tee position inversely with the relative hole location. At most courses, the crew will move the tees up to correspond to a back hole location, and correspondingly move the tees back to match with a front hole location. I’d suggest doing the exact opposite to give the holes maximum fl ex, and to make sure that between the second and sixth holes the relative cycle of setup is offset to avoid matching.
Verdict The NCGA got an awful lot right. Everything
from the hole markers to the unobtrusive cart paths and avoidance of signage makes it evident that this is a layout without artifi cial vertical intrusion. And the course shows itself off well in terms of likely ground contours and rollouts into greens—a far cry from the arbitrary shaping that governed the previous set of greens. Best of all, the course now feels like it’s on the Monterey Peninsula. That’s evident in the vistas across the site (under the canopies); in the integration of golf with the forest edge; and with the long views of the surrounding region (especially from the 12th tee looking north). The new Poppy Hills is dramatically
improved over its predecessor. I’m struggling to come up with comparable examples of upgraded modern courses. Monterey Peninsula CC’s Shore Course comes to mind, though that was a complete re-routing. The recent work on Trump National Doral-Blue Monster is equiva- lent in terms of dramatic transformation and improvement. From the standpoint of aesthetics
and playability, the new Poppy Hills is substantially upgraded. It turns out this isn’t (just) a Mulligan. This is a total swing improvement.
50 /
NCGA.ORG / SUMMER 2014 2
Brad Klein’s
Top 10 Golf Course Renovations 1
California Golf Club; South San Francisco It took real nerve for Kyle Phillips to take this heavily tree-lined layout and restore its meadow-like character, while in the process doing away with modernistic lakes and opening up long views of the restored MacKenzie bunkering.
Pinehurst No. 2; Pinehurst N.C. Credit here for returning to wiregrass and sandy scrub instead of 35 acres of Bermudagrass rough goes to the team of Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, as well as the resort management team. They embraced a radically scruff y, old look on this Donald Ross gem.
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Brookside Country Club; Canton, Ohio The work done in 2003-04 saw architect Brian Silva and course builder MacCurrach Golf recapture the depth, fl ow and character of one of Ross’ best set of greens at this long underappreciated course in north-central Ohio.
Franklin Hills Country Club; Franklin Hills, Mich. The strongest Ross course in the Detroit area, thanks to an intense restoration by Ron Prichard that recaptured lost green surface and cored out old bunkers.
Monterey Peninsula Country Club – Shore Course; Pebble Beach In 2004-05, the late Mike Strantz reversed what had been a lifeless routing by Bob Baldock and Jack Neville, creating stunning coastal views through infi nity edge greens and wildly bunkered fairways.
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Poppy Hills Golf Course; Pebble Beach What had been an over-shaped relic from the 1980s has now been transformed into a ground-hugging, naturalistic integration of turfgrass, sand, waste areas and maritime forest. Consider it Robert Trent Jones Jr.’s ultimate Mulligan.
Old Town Club; Winston-Salem, N.C. Perry Maxwell’s sublime shaping of putting surfaces and bunkering has been revived by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, after years of modernization and tree planting had taken the verve out of the place.
Trump National Doral – Blue Monster; Miami Gil Hanse made a close study of Dick Wilson’s once fearsome layout, and managed to fi nd space within the site to bring the water closer, the angles sharper, and the strategy back.
Aronimink Golf Club; Newton Square, Penn. A very strong Ross course back in 1928 had been heavily violated by tree planting, bunker modernization and green shrinkage until Ron Prichard’s uncompromising restoration in 1999.
Sleepy Hollow Country Club; Scarborough-on-Hudson, N.Y. An at-times outrageously dramatic Charles Blair Macdonald/Seth Raynor design had been tamed and rounded off . But in 2008-09 Gil Hanse, working with Macdonald/Raynor archivist George Bahto, brought back what had been lost over the years.
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