Under the proposal, $6.4 million would be spent to update the A.W. Tillinghast-designed golf course, removing 350 trees to make way for redesigned greens, tee boxes and vistas. The club is also proposing a $4.4 million upgrade to the clubhouse, including a larger bar and grill and a new pool. Member voting on the project will be tabulated on May 25.
Rochester (Minn.) Golf & Country Club has proposed a $6.4 million makeover of the course, which is one of the oldest in Minnesota, the Rochester-based Post-Bulletin reported.
The project would restore many features of the original A.W. Tillinghast design from the 1920s but change the course dramatically, according to one longtime member. Most notably, the plan would take out about 350 trees to make room for redesigned greens, tee boxes and vistas. The course already has lost about 1,200 trees after use of a weed killer about five years ago killed many of its distinctive pines, the Post-Bulletin reported.
The project would be paid for with money from the settlement with DuPont, which manufactured the Imprelis herbicide. The club also is proposing $4.4 million in clubhouse improvements and renovations, including a larger bar and grill and a new pool, the Post-Bulletin reported.
The club has 564 members, including 198 golf members who will determine whether the plan goes forward. Golf members have been voting by mail for several days, and a special meeting will be held on May 25 to count the ballots and announce the results, the Post-Bulletin reported.
The improvements to the golf course and club “will create a product unlike anything else in the Rochester area,” General Manager Carl Granberg said.
The vision is to restore the course as closely as possible to Tillinghast’s original vision, according to club treasurer Darryl Solie. “There’s no doubt in my mind that Tillinghast would approve of this,” as do most members, he said.
Some golf members have expressed concern about the number of trees that would be taken out and other changes in the decades-old character of the course. Others say it’s pouring too much money into the course when many golf courses are struggling, and the money should be spent on improving club facilities for all members, the Post-Bulletin reported.
One longtime member said the plan would “radically change” and turn it into a “links”-style course. Granberg, who has been on the job for just two months, said that’s not correct, the Post-Bulletin reported.
“It’s going to be an improved course with widened fairways, restored to the Tillinghast design. It will make this golf course stand out as one of the most prestigious in the state of Minnesota and allow us to bring back the heritage of golf here the way it was meant to be played.”
When asked if the proposal is controversial at the club, he said no. “I would say we have a vocal minority,” he said. “Otherwise, I would be shocked if it doesn’t pass by over 85%.”
The club, which celebrated its centennial last year, first opened as a nine-hole course in 1916 on 100 acres acquired from Mayo doctors E.S. Judd and D.C. Balfour. Tillinghast reworked the Rochester layout in 1926-27, and the “Tillie” connection adds luster to the club’s place in Minnesota golf history, the Post-Bulletin reported.
According to a letter that describes the plan and provides a ballot for voting members, the plan is intended to “help preserve Rochester Golf and Country Club as one of the premier clubs in Minnesota.” Club leaders surveyed members, held “multiple town hall meetings” last year and incorporated that feedback into what they say is a “balanced approach” for the project, the Post-Bulletin reported.
“This plan includes the restoration of bunkers, greens, existing tee boxes, adding several new forward tee boxes, adding a couple of back tee boxes (all consistent with the Tom Doak plan), a tree plan and new cart paths,” the letter said. “Over the years we have ‘lost’ the original Tillinghast design for most of our bunkers and greens,” and the plan is to restore them to their original designs, the Post-Bulletin reported.
The club’s board “has deemed the full Tom Doak tree removal plan too aggressive,” and they’ve proposed a plan that calls for removing about 250 trees for bunker and tee box restoration, with about a hundred more “to open the scenic views most critical to the Tom Doak vision while keeping some of the tree-lined feeling that we have at RGCC,” the Post-Bulletin reported.
The plan doesn’t include regrassing of existing greens and fairways. Work already is underway on a new drainage and irrigation system that will “assist in drying the chronically wet areas around the course” and create a new retention pond in the area where the practice tee was located. That work began in early April, the Post-Bulletin reported.
The existing drainage and irrigation system dates from Tillinghast’s day, in 1927, with an upgrade in 1949. The course will close on September 5 for major work on that project, which was approved by the board last year and didn’t need member approval, the Post-Bulletin reported.
If approved by members this week, the reworking of the course would begin in late summer 2018. The plan is to close the course on August 6, 2018, finish the work on greens, tees and bunkers by November and reopen the course in spring 2019, the Post-Bulletin reported.
Plans for changes in the clubhouse and facilities are just as ambitious. Members are being asked to approve major changes in the floor plan to enlarge Tillie’s bar and grill and rework space for the main dining room, with work to begin in January and be completed in April. All three floors of the building would see renovations. Also in the proposal is a new swimming pool, with a zero-entry children’s pool, a diving well and competitive diving board, and new locker rooms. That would begin late this year and be done by next summer, the Post-Bulletin reported.
“As most of you know, prior to any golf course or building construction master plans, the board of directors has paid off all outstanding debt, and we have set aside a $2 million capital reserve (after taxes),” the letter said.
Sources have told the Post Bulletin the DuPont settlement so far has amounted to about $21 million. Granberg declined to comment on that and also wouldn’t say how much the drainage and irrigation project will cost, the Post-Bulletin reported.
The course is only 6,469 yards long from the back tees, and the redesign won’t add much to that, but Solie said the changes likely will make it more attractive for tournaments such as the State Amateur, the Post-Bulletin reported.
“We just celebrated our 100-year anniversary, and part of of our goal in restoring this course is to set ourselves up for the next hundred years,” said David Petric, the club’s membership and marketing director. This project will be attractive to new members and “set us up for many, many years to come.”
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