Oak Tree National golf course in Edmond, Okla. will reopen this month after $6 million in renovations were completed to the course that hosted the 1988 PGA Championship and the 2006 Senior PGA Championship. And according to the USA Today, new owner Ed Evans hopes the changes will attract more major championships down the road.
The initial focus is on 2014. Evans plans to visit next week with U.S. Golf Association officials at the U.S. Senior Open at Crooked Stick in Carmel, Ind., to continue making his case to host one of the group’s main events. The USGA already has named venues for the U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open in 2014, but still needs to announce a site for the U.S. Senior Open or U.S. Amateur that year.
During the renovation every fairway and bunker was redone as the new ownership group sought to put the course back to the condition it was in when Pete Dye designed it in the 1970s, but with some modern updates.
A strain of U-3 Bermuda turf that’s common now was put in on the fairways, 22 bunkers were added, the tee boxes were laser-leveled and the greens were modified to play more like they did when the course opened.
Along with the physical changes came the addition of “National” to the course’s name, a move intended to create a distinction from two neighboring country clubs. Evans said membership will be limited to between 250 and 300 golfers — instead of the 550 or so that once belonged — along with 100 national members.
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