The Southern Pines, N.C., facility is celebrating its 25th anniversary by reopening its updated golf course with new Champion Bermuda and reduced bunkers. The greens at the property’s Mid South Club will be remodeled next summer, and the resort will also update the cart path system and make improvements to the halfway house.
Talamore Golf Resort in Southern Pines, N.C., hosted a grand reopening of The New Course, in time for the property’s 25th anniversary, and is planning work on its second course, the Mid South Club.
The Talamore Golf Resort opened in 1991 with an original Rees Jones design, featuring elevation changes of 150 feet and fully wooded property of towering longleaf pines.
This past summer, the green complexes at Talamore were converted from bent grass to Champion Bermuda. The Talamore green complexes were restored to their original 1991 design by recapturing the greens surrounds, which had been encroached by native Bermuda grasses. To ensure the design continuity of the putting contours, Talamore used the “no till” method pioneered by Champion Turf Farms out of Texas.
Talamore removed a number of bunkers from the original layout and re-contoured the areas to blend with the surrounding shaping, providing more forgiveness in the landing zones and around the greens. Also, Talamore now allows full cart access to all its holes with improved access everywhere.
More than 75 bunkers and nearly 90% of the actual sand has been eliminated from the original layout. A secondary effect of the improved playability and golf cart access has been a better pace of play, reducing playing times by more than 30 minutes.
And in a special touch reminiscent of Scotland, Talamore unveiled the Sandhills’ only sod wall bunkers—a dozen, strategically placed to provide a unique and fun challenge.
Next summer, the greens at Mid South Club will be converted to Champion Bermuda. Prior to that, during the upcoming winter season, Mid South will be working on its cart path system. Heavily damaged areas will be removed and in most instances will be restored with a natural packed sand base, and the paths will be re-concreted where necessary due to grade or traffic patterns.
In addition, while the Mid South greens remodeling project is being conducted, the club will also add a new set of forward tees to many holes.
The Mid South Club, designed by Arnold Palmer, offers 545 acres of towering pine trees and emerald fairways within a private, residential community. Mid South is also adding two new family style golf carts equipped to carry four people and four golf bags. In addition, the club will be making improvements to its halfway house and Mid South will have a new beverage cart in regular service during primary golf season.
Also in store for 2017 are member facility upgrades to include the addition of basketball on one of the tennis courts, and also a new barbecue and hospitality area at the Mid South pool. In addition to the greens redo and other golf course enhancements, Mid South is adding to an ever-expanding member social calendar of events.
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