THE 18TH HOLE RESTORATION
This year it has become apparent that 18 green needed to be modified. The green, as everyone knows, is very sloped on the front half. The right side is very sloped from right to left. As the greens matured from the 2004-2005 Master Plan Restoration, the green keeps getting faster in speed. It has left the green keepers with only two or maybe three pin placements that seem “fair”. This stresses the turf on the green to the point that it barely stays alive every year. It also makes the hole set up the same almost every time.
This was the same problem we had back in 2003 on number 17 green. That year we brought in Golf Course Architect Stephen Kay to redesign the front of the green. After his plans were approved by the Club, the Grounds Maintenance Department “lifted” the front of the green 14 inches with soil and planted bentgrass. Once the green healed, the project was deemed a success. It solved our problem of having only a few “fair” pin placements and the turf was much healthier. This is not to say that the hole was more fun and challenging to play with the “new” pin placements.
The 18th hole is short in yardage as compared to modern day designs. The green was designed to “protect” it from being an “easy” hole. When the course was built back in the early 1900s, the greens were mowed at half an inch. Now we mow the green at one tenth of an inch! This made the slope even more severe. Add to the fact that the surface is smoother; the green speed has increased dramatically. Then when we replanted the green in 2004, we used even better quality grass that increased the speed even more. These events have resulted in creating our current issues.
So what do we do? I consulted with the Green Committee and suggested we modify the green like we did to number 17 green years ago. From there we asked Stephen Kay to come back and design the modification. Our goal is to have as many pin placements as possible to spread the “wear” or “foot traffic”, make sure the green is still difficult enough to defend the hole and keep the green in character of the rest of the course.
While researching the “old” design of the 18th green from pictures from the 1920s and 1930s, I noticed some other features of the hole that had been removed. One was the fairway previously flowed up the right side almost into the green. Two, the fairway had only two trees on the right side and not four. These discoveries made me think we should go ahead and restore the entire hole. Stephen Kay reviewed the hole in person and the old photographs and agreed with going ahead with a restoration. He also felt we should add some more difficulty to the hole. He suggested the addition of another fairway bunker just after the current fairway bunker and some dolomitic mounds (mounds like the ones between the 15th and 6th fairway) on the left side. Remove just two trees on the right but keep the one maple and the large sycamore. He also suggested we rebuild four of the green side bunkers and plant some more trees along the split rail fence on 18 to screen the range.
Kay’s design was reviewed by the Green Committee. They approved the design unanimously. It was then presented and approved by the Board of Directors. The project known as The 18th Hole Restoration is slated to start construction on October 18, 2011. We are hoping we can finish in 14 to 20 days. All modified sections of the green and the installation of the new fairway will be sodded. We will also apply herbicide starting in August to remove bermuda grass that has spread throughout the 18th hole. Those areas will be seeded and sodded. I will be posting updates on the progress of the restoration on my blog. Weather dependent, we should be able to reopen the green in early April of 2012.
It is my intent that Membership will come to view the restoration as another step in the Club’s continued effort to have Llanerch’s be mentioned as one of the finest golf course in the Philadelphia Tri-state area