The historic Tulsa, Okla., club will thoroughly renovate its Perry Maxwell-designed championship course as well as its practice facilities, including the creation of a new short-game area and a first-ever indoor teaching facility. The course will close on August 1, 2018 and reopen in June 2019. While Southern Hills has been promised its fifth PGA Championship (and eighth major) by 2030, the project is primarily designed to “keep us relevant as a premier country club for our members,” said General Manager Nick Sidorakis.

 

Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Okla., announced that it will launch a $19 million facility renovation in 2018. The project will include a thorough renovation of its championship course and practice facilities, including a new short-game area and an indoor teaching facility that will be the first for the historic club.

The on-course renovations will be done as part of a master plan submitted by noted golf course architect Gil Hanse, with the overriding theme being to restore and honor the original 1936 layout of the Southern Hills course by architect Perry Maxwell as closely as possible, while accounting for changes in modern technology and the game.

Hanse, who designed the course used for the recent Olympic Course in Brazil, has acquired a reputation as a master at restoring and renovating courses from the co-called golden age of architecture, in addition to being a first-rate designer of new courses that honor the early designers. His latest design recently opened at Streamsong Resort in central Florida, where his Streamsong Black joined earlier courses by Tom Doak as well as Ben Crenshaw and Bill Coore.

For the renovation, Southern Hills will close its championship course to members on August 1, 2018, with a scheduled reopening in June of 2019.

Southern Hills has been the site of four PGA Championships and three U.S. Open Championships, along with numerous other USGA championships and top-level events. The KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship will be held there in May of 2021, and a fifth PGA Championship has been promised by the year 2030 by the PGA of America, although a firm date has yet to be confirmed.

The upgrades at Southern Hills, however, are not a direct reflection of the upcoming championships, said General Manager Nick Sidorakis.

“The decision was made to fold in a master plan on the golf course with the complete facilities upgrade plan we had been working on, and do it all at one time,” Sidorakis said. “The changes keep us relevant as a premier country club for our members. The championships are secondary, and it’s just great that the timing works.”

On the course, the upgrades will include:

• Rebuilding each of the club’s estimated 85 bunkers with new liners and in a style more reminiscent of Maxwell’s original, slightly more rugged-looking bunkers, rather than the clean-edge saucer shapes on the course today.

Several bunkers will be moved for strategic purposes, including the fairway bunker on the first hole shifting from the right side of the fairway to the left, and the fairway bunker on the famous par-4 12^th being moved farther toward the green, requiring a longer carry to clear it from the tee box.

• Rebuilding of every tee box on the course. Many will be in same areas, but built to fit better into the existing landforms and not be as noticeable. Additional distance will be captured in a few instances; for example a tee box to the west of the 12^th green for the par-5 13^th will considerably lengthen that hole from the championship tees. The fierce closing 18^th hole will also be lengthened by some 40 yards with a new tee.

• All 18 greens will be cored out and rebuilt after installation of a hydronics system—a series of flexible tubing just below the root surface that allows for the pumping of warm or cool water to raise or lower the temperature of the green surface.

Southern Hills’ Superintendent, Russ Myers, said the hydronics system can lower the surface temperature as much as 17 degrees, which will be a huge benefit for bentgrass greens, particularly in the months of July and August.

“Studies show the ideal months for growing bentgrass are June and September, and the average temperature difference in the soil between those months and July and August is 5 to 7 degrees,” Myers said. “So you can see how much benefit you can derive from adjusting the temperature just a few degrees.”

Myers had the system installed at Los Angeles Country Club, where he worked from 2010-16 after his first stint at Southern Hills from 2006-10. He saw firsthand how well it can work, and during his tenure at Los Angeles CC the club was selected to host this year’s Walker Cup and the 2021 U.S. Open.

The greens will be rebuilt using a new bentgrass variety on their existing locations, using mostly existing contours except for No. 7, which will move back some 40 yards and be hard against a creek. That hole will still require pinpoint accuracy on the tee shot.

• Other strategic changes created through the project will involve the creek that meanders through the property. It will now wind its way in front of the 17^th green as it did decades ago, giving pause to “bombers” who try to drive the green on the short but dangerous par-4. The creek will also be rerouted to go completely across the 18^th fairway in the bottom of the landing area, where it is now only partially exposed, and will then come back above ground on the 10^th hole at the end of an expanded expanse of fairway, to provide a few new options and considerations on that tee shot.

• On the long par-4 second hole, a second fairway option to the left will be restored, necessitating the removal of some 14 to 15 trees. There will also be a restored landing area on the left on 17, and other subtle changes throughout the course.

Overall, the changes will add nearly 300 yards to Southern Hills’ championship tee distance; the course will now stretch to 7,500 yards at a par of 71. Pure length, of course, has never been the course’s primary defense, and playing it will still place a premium on the accuracy and strategy required by the undulating fairways and greens.

• A new state-of-the-art irrigation system will be installed through the project, and all current cart paths will be replaced, with many shifted to become visually unobtrusive.

• The project will also include a complete renovation of the club’s practice facilities, cart barn and staging areas, including the new indoor facility. Long overdue at a club of Southern Hills’ stature, the indoor facility will have four bays with TrackMan, golf simulators, SAM Puttlab, V-1 Coaching System, and custom fitting. Southern Hills will hire a Director of instruction once the facility is complete.

Outside the lab, the changes to the practice facilities will be extensive, with the addition of a new short-game area that will replicate three of the greens on the course. The current range and putting green will be rebuilt, and the entire area west of the current pro shop, including the cart and bag-storage building, golf parking lot, staging area for the first tee and all current practice facilities, will be renovated and shifted to ease the current congestion around the first tee.

These changes have many of the club’s 950 members truly excited, Sidorakis reported. “For us as a premier country club and championship golf facility, the construction of the indoor facility and the new short-game area with the renovation of the driving range and practice putting green will catapult our golf program to the highest level,” he said. “If you’re a golfer, you could spend all day out there just chipping, pitching, putting and working on various shots. And I’m sure a lot of members will.”

In addition to all of the course improvements, Southern Hills will also be updating its men’s locker room, renovating the Snug Harbor restaurant, and resurfacing its eight outdoor tennis courts and the tennis patio area.

The club’s West Nine course will remain open during construction, and members will also be afforded reciprocal playing privileges at other premier clubs in and around Tulsa.