Project Details
The Club Champion of Name-Dropping Few clubs can boast direct connection with so many of the great names of golf–both individuals, and tournaments–as Oakland Hills. Here's the honor roll of all who've worked and played at the storied club, and in what tournaments, during its first 90 years: 1918 – South Course, designed by Donald Ross, opens with Walter Hagen as first golf pro 1922 – Western Open, won by host pro Mike Brady; Jock Hutchinson runner-up 1924 – U.S. Open, won by Cyril Walker; Bobby Jones runner-up 1937 – U.S. Open, won by Ralph Guldahl; Sam Snead two shots back 1951 – U.S. Open, won by Ben Hogan 1961 – U.S. Open, won by Gene Littler (Doug Sanders and Bob Goalby runners-up; Jack Nicklaus plays as amateur) 1964 – Carling World Open, won by Bobby Nichols (Arnold Palmer runner-up) 1969 – North Course redesigned by Robert Trent Jones 1972 – PGA Championship, won by Gary Player (Tommy Aaron and Jim Jamieson runners-up) 1979 – PGA Championship, won by David Graham (Ben Crenshaw runner-up) 1981 – Second U.S. Seniors Open, won by Arnold Palmer (in playoff with Billy Casper and Bob Stone) 1985 – U.S. Open, won by Andy North 1991 – U.S. Senior Open, won by Jack Nicklaus (playoff with Chi Chi Rodriguez) 1996 – U.S. Open, won by Steve Jones (Tom Lehman and Davis Love III runners-up) 2002 – U.S. Amateur, won by Ricky Barnes 2004 – Ryder Cup 2008 – PGA Championship |
George Washington beat the average life expectancy of his era by quite a large margin, and saved some of his best work for his later years (he died at age 67, two years after competing his second term as President).
It's only fitting, then, that storied Oakland Hills Country Club–whose signature clubhouse was designed to evoke the Virginia charm of Washington's Mount Vernon estate–shows no signs of easing up as it readies for a series of 90th anniversary celebrations later this decade (the club dates to 1916, and its famous South Course was officially opened two years later).
If anything, in fact, Oakland Hills, located in suburban Detroit (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.) is in the best shape of its life and displaying the energy and confidence of a 19-year-old. The South Course–host to six U.S. Opens, two PGAs and several other major championships over the life of its "front 90"–will now "mark the turn" in 2008 by welcoming back the PGA Championship for the first time in nearly 30 years.
"Everything's 'living' very well," says Rick Bayliss, the club's Chief Operating Officer, when asked to assess the overall health of Oakland Hills as it gets ready for an eventful second half of the new millennium's first decade.
"There are a couple of areas that we might want to modify a touch here and there, and you always have to be on your guard with a property of this age," Bayliss adds. "But on the whole things are working marvelously well, and our members are very comfortable with the state of the club."
What Would Walter Say?
In the previous decade, however, as the turn of the new century approached, Oakland Hills was definitely showing its age. The club had gone through a series of renovations and expansion in the '60s, '70s and '80s, but plans for a major facelift sat on the table for much of the 1990s.
The hangup wasn't so much the scope or cost of the needed work, but rather how it could be carried out without disrupting the club's incredibly rich traditions (in addition to all of the tournament-related lore of the club, its two courses were designed by Donald Ross and Robert Trent Jones, and its first golf pro was Walter Hagen.
Because of this history, any discussion of tearing down the Oakland Hills clubhouse, which dated back to 1922, or of even changing its outside looks in any appreciable way, inevitably led to objections by members that it would be as unthinkable as defacing not only the original Mount Vernon, but perhaps even the White House itself.
Getting to Yes
Bayliss worked patiently through much of the '90s with Ken Evangelista, who ran his own Michigan-based architectural firm during that period (he merged with another firm in 2002), to try to get a major Oakland Hills renovation approved. The two even saw the project come up for a vote at one point, only to be rejected.
But with the specter of two prominent tournaments (the US Amateur in 2002 and the Ryder Cup in 2004) literally hanging around the corner as the new millennium approached, the club COO, and outside architect, kept pushing and pointing out the increasingly dire consequences of doing nothing. Finally, in 1998, the go-ahead was secured.
That was the good news. But by this point, Evangelista says, the delays had exacerbated existing problems to there the project loomed as one of the largest renovation ever attempted at any club, let alone one with so much history and such a large physical challenge (the 67,000-sq. ft. clubhouse ranks as the second-largest frame building in Michigan).
"The whole club was very fatigued," Evangelista says. "The kitchens were a disaster, the locker rooms weren't up to speed, administrative areas were badly needed, especially with tournaments coming up, and a bigger pro shop was needed. There were also a couple of signature rooms, including the main ballroom and the dining room, that needed to be redone.
"And those were just the issues relating to how the club functioned," Evangelista added. "There were also structural issues, such as basement floors that were caving in, and the need to bring everything up to code, as well as to address issues relating to disability standards."
Not Only in the Movies
To be able to accomplish an overhaul of this degree. Without jeopardizing the historical value of the building, Evangelista says a construction approach was required that, early in the project, had the Oakland Hills clubhouse "looking like a movie set, with only the facade of the building still standing and pretty much nothing left behind it." As the work progressed and the full extent of the clubhouse's age and deterioration were exposed, Evangelista says, the approach became pretty much one of "don't try to reuse anything, just take it out and put in what's needed as new." One plus from the protracted planning and approval period, he adds, is that due diligence had been completed many times over, giving the renovation team ample alerts, to what they were likely to discover once the dismantling began. These advance "heads ups" also went a long was towards helping the massive project, once it got started in January 1999, get completed in a remarkable short period of time, with a grand reopening help in May of 2000.
The final cost of the renovation came in at $16.25 million, a figure that represents a complete accounting "right down to the dishes and silverware," Evangelista says. He acknowledges that costs were higher for the way this renovation was approached, because of the skilled labor needed to carefully take things apart, but adds that "Practical assessments [of the cost of new construction vs. renovation] are really not part of the equation when you're dealing with [an historic] building like this."
Plenty to Play With
And certainly, there's no question that Oakland Hills got plenty back right away, and stands to get much more down the road, for what it spent. Whe
n the clubhouse reopened, members found a new lobby and grand stair hall; new elevators, restrooms and coatrooms; expanded and completely renovated women's and men's locker rooms with lounges; and an exercise room, health spa, and sauna. When the sat down in the expanded dining areas, they were served through two expanded and completely renovated full kitchens that now also had the capability of fresh baking in a new lower-level bakery. When they wanted to shop, they could do so in a glittering new pro shop with almost double the area (now close to 2,000 sq. ft.) of merchandise display space (much of which was opened up by relocating a golf bag storage facility to a new, adjacent building). The pro shop was also much more conveniently located, as it was now included as part of a north wing addition that had a separate entrance but could also be accessed from within the main clubhouse. The addition also created badly needed office and storage areas for the pro shop.
Oakland Hills no also runs more efficiently behind the scenes, thanks to expanded administrative offices on the second floor of the renovated clubhouse, a new set of back stairs, and a new lower-level service entrance.
Watch Your Head
While it's easy to see how members have benefited from all of the features of the new club, has the renovation paid off from a management and operations standpoint, too? Rick Bayliss, who says he went through three renovations ranging from $3 to $5.5 million, at previous clubs before coming to Oakland Hills, doesn't recommend letting things get to the point where a project of such magnitude is required. And he doesn't foresee–"unless I happen to bump me head in the morning"–ever pushing to go through something of the same scope again.
But again, Bayliss acknowledges that the special nature of Oakland Hills makes many things different. "This is not like other clubs or resorts where there are investors who are only concerned about the payback," he says. "There's so much emotion attached to buildings like ours. We have members who actually like creaky floors."
So operationally, Bayliss notes, there will always be "certain efficiencies associated with newer buildings that we will never be able to take advantage of." But Oakland hills is now "functioning as planned" after the renovation, he says, and is certainly much better equipped to stand up to the added use that will come when the PGA and other tournaments arrive.
Where members' use of the club is concerned, Bayliss adds, the positive effect of the renovation was both immediate and dramatic. "We can now offer many more options for casual dining and overall the club is more comfortable, user-friendly, and far more attractive," he says. "Our food and beverage revenues increased 65% in the first year after we reopened, and we've stayed at those higher levels ever since." C&RB
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