Moraine Country Club in Kettering, Ohio has been closed since early July for a renovation, and members should be able to play by June. Stoatin Brae, the sixth course at Gull Lake View Golf Club & Resort in Augusta, Mich., is set to be complete by mid-2016, while Keney Park Golf Course’s $5.7 million renovation will be revealed in Hartford, Conn., by May.
A golf course renovation at Moraine Country Club in Kettering, Ohio is now complete, and members should be able to play by next June, the Dayton Daily News reported.
Except for the grooming that can be handled by the club’s maintenance crew, Moraine’s major renovation has been completed. It has been closed since early July, but the members have been able to play 22 courses in central and southwest Ohio this summer as a result of reciprocal agreements that will extend into next spring, the Daily News reported.
Under the direction of architect Keith Foster, the Moraine layout has undergone major renovation as Foster sought to return it to the Scottish flavor it had when Nipper Campbell designed it in the 1930s. The original Moraine course underwent some changes prior to the 1945 PGA Championship and again in 1954. Foster felt the holes that were not original—numbers 3, 12 and 15—did not fit in. Using architectural drawings and aerial photos taken during the ‘45 PGA, he re-worked those three holes, restored some bunkers that had been eliminated and re-designed others to direct water away from them, the Daily News reported.
The project got off to a slow start because of heavy rainfall in June and July, but the workers were able to finish the job because they had favorable weather in the fall. The plan was to begin at the south end of the course and work toward the clubhouse, but when construction was behind schedule there was concern that the five holes nearest the clubhouse might be seeded too late for a good result, the Daily News reported.
Consequently construction of some fairway bunkers in the middle of the course (which would be surrounded by sod) was postponed while holes 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 were shaped and seeded. That meant some equipment would have to retreat across seeded ground to finish the bunker work, but the damage caused by the equipment was a small price to pay for having mature grass on the last holes as winter approached, the Daily News reported.
“The kudos need to go to Jason Mahl,” Moraine golf professional Brent Sipe said. “He’s the one that pulled the whole thing together.” Mahl, Moraine’s greens superintendent since 2006, served as project manager. Mahl began his preparation two years ago. He visited superintendents of other courses that had been rebuilt in recent years to get some advice on what to do and what not to do. One thing he did was plant two acres of bent-grass in a nursery on site and had it ready so the approaches to the greens could be sodded rather than seeded, the Daily News reported.
Because the weather didn’t cooperate early, it was necessary recently to purchase more sod than intended, but Ray Lane, chairman of Moraine’s restoration committee, was on site every day to deal with such issues, the Daily News reported.
Every aspect of the course has been upgraded. All of the tees, greens and bunkers have been rebuilt, complete with modern drainage. There are four sets of tees on most holes and the forward tees for use by women and senior players have been built directly in line with the others rather than off to the side, the Daily News reported.
Moraine’s crew seeded the fairways plus 50 acres of rough and 28 acres of tall native grass. The greens have a collar of low-mown bluegrass and there is seven feet of the same grass bordering the bent-grass fairways, the Daily News reported.
Among the significant changes were a new first tee attached to a putting green, the softening of the slopes on the first three greens and the last two, a new, elevated green at No. 4, which was built directly above the old one, an entirely new 12th hole and new teeing ground at No. 13. Both the tee and the green on the par 3 No. 15 have been moved to the left, the Daily News reported.
What isn’t so obvious is the extensive work done on drainage, particularly at the south end of the property where water will be pumped out to where gravity will move it along. Although the fairways have the same undulations and most of the greens have the same contours, the course looks much different than in the past because so many trees have been removed, the Daily News reported.
In Augusta, Mich., Stoatin Brae, the sixth golf course at Gull Lake View Golf Club & Resort, is being built on the site of a former apple orchard by a creative process linked together by the Scott family and Renaissance Golf Design, the architectural firm founded and owned by Tom Doak.
However, Doak is not involved in the project but has given his blessing to his senior associates Eric Iverson, Brian Schneider, Brian Slawnik and Don Placek to independently design and construct Stoatin Brae. “The overall approach is consistent with what Jon Scott really feels strongly about,” Iverson said. “Bring back the fun in golf. It’s one of the things we all need to do to make sure the game perseveres.”
The property sits high on a ridge line above the Kalamazoo River. With the trees from the apple orchard gone, the entire ground is clear wall-to-wall and replanted to prairie grasses. Within the golf course, many of the holes are visible across the property.
“The desire is for the course to play fast and firm,” Schneider said. “There will be the option of running the ball along the ground and into the greens. The fairways are wide. It was built to be fun.
The completion date is mid-2016. From the back tees, the scorecard will offer 6,700 yards with tees on the short end down to 5,200. Scott also has been adamant in favor of an extra set of forward tees to accommodate beginners, young golfers, women and seniors—anybody that might be distance-challenged—at about 4,000 yards.
In Hartford, Conn., Keney Park Golf Course has completed a $5.7 million renovation project, Golf Course Architecture reported.
Owned by the city of Hartford, work began at Keney Park in August 2014. Dusenberry Design was hired to oversee the design and execution of the renovation. Originally designed by Devereux Emmet, Keney Park was constructed in 1927. In recent years the course had fallen into disrepair, however.
The project focused on the course’s greens tees and bunkers, while a new irrigation system was put in place and improvements to the drainage were also made. The course has also been slightly lengthened and will now play 6,449 yards, with a par of 70, having previously only played 5,995 yards, Golf Course Architecture reported.
The areas of the course that the renovation focused on are currently growing in, with a scheduled reopening of May 2016, Golf Course Architecture reported.
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