A comprehensive greens renovation at Westmoor Country Club in Brookfield, Wis. has been completed. In a project led by Westmoor Superintendent Jerry Kershasky, the club worked with Lohman Golf Designs, a Marengo, Ill.-based firm, to regrass all 18 putting surfaces with a turf variety, A1 bentgrass, that is relatively new to a climate this far north. A1 bentgrass is a premium turf with extreme density that helps it resist poa annua encroachment, which is especially pervasive in the upper Midwest.

Only four greens were actually rebuilt from scratch, with soil profiles prepared for these new putting surfaces to replicate the other 14 greens and allow for consistent maintenance practices course-wide.

While the 18 greens were regrassed, their drainage was also enhanced this past spring, before the fumigation and seeding process. The drainage work started when two-inch strips of sod on each green were removed before digging 15-inch drainage trenches, spaced every six feet in a modified herringbone design. Two-inch drainage tile was then laid, and the trenches were refilled with a 7:2:1 mix of sand, soil and peat, to match the greens’ existing push-up soil profile. The sod was then re-laid and members were able to play the greens up until August 1 before the last phases of the renovation work began.

The redesign at Westmoor also called for the removal of some 500 trees, an act that, contrary to some fears, actually increased its slope rating.

Through the renovation and other aspects of the club’s master plan, Westmoor’s course has been lengthened from 6,846 yards to what is now something more than 7,050 yards from the tips.