By Design - Winter 2014

rogress continues to be made by

golf’s governing bodies on initiatives

that are designed to reduce the time

required to play golf.

ASGCA Past President Bruce Charlton

and Lester George, ASGCA spoke on behalf

of architects to 100 attendees of a two-day

symposium on Pace of Play at the United

States Golf Association headquarters in Far

Hills, New Jersey in November 2014.

Charlton and George illustrated how recent

projects had incorporated design elements

to reduce lost balls and give higher handicap

players more options to play recovery shots

without slowing down play.

At Poppy Hills GC in Pebble Beach,

California, Charlton and the team at Robert

Trent Jones II recently completed a renovation

where pace of play was an important part of

the equation. Fairways were widened, rough

eliminated, mounds removed, bunkers rebuilt

and green complexes redesigned, and the

entire course was sandcapped to provide firm

and fast playing conditions. “Our mantra is

now firm, fast and fun,” says Charlton. “It

gave us a lot of ability to speed up play.”

George highlighted a project at

Independence GC in Midlothian, Virginia,

where rounds had been averaging over five

hours. Among the changes made, his team

reduced roughs, removed more than 500

trees, bushes and shrubs and rerouted cart

paths. The net result was a one-hour reduction

in average round time, increased revenues

and reduced maintenance costs, resulting in

a $52,800 annual improvement to the club’s

bottom line. “The popularity of the course is

way up,” said George. “And we don’t get any

complaints from lower-handicap golfers. It’s

still a very challenging course.”

Pro tours stepping up

The USGA continues to gather data on

pace of play, with technical director Matt

Pringle overseeing the study of thousands of

rounds throughout the country using GPS

devices that track how golfers make their

way around the course. The data is helping

them to identify the causes of slow play and

propose measures for improvement.

This work has already been put to good

use, with the LPGA Tour seeking advice

to inform a new pace-of-play policy for its

tournaments. A combination of increasing

tee-time intervals to 11 minutes and giving

a single clear message to golfers that they

must keep up with the group in front have

contributed to a 14-minute reduction in

the average round time over the course of

the 2014 season. “We’ve had a lot of great

feedback,” said Heather Daly-Donofrio, the

LPGA’s chief Tour operations officer. “The

approval of the players has been huge.”

The USGA has also developed a practical

solution for faster play at clubs of any size:

a simple flagstick monitoring tool that can

help clubs identify groups with a longer than

expected cycle time, enabling staff to get them

back on track instead of letting the delay

increase waiting time for following groups.

DIGEST

Architects contribute

to new pace initiatives

Pace of play

Renovation makes Spring Run

‘dynamic and fun’

The course at Spring Run GC

in Bonita Springs, Florida

has reopened following the

completion of a renovation

led by John Sanford, ASGCA

of Sanford Golf Design. “Our

goal was to provide the

members with a new course

that would be visually and

strategically dynamic and

most importantly, fun to play,”

said Sanford.

Work resumes on new

Compass Pointe course

An improving economy has

led to work restarting on

the Compass Pointe course

near Wilmington, North

Carolina, following six years

on hold. Architects Rick

Robbins, ASGCA and Brian

Lussier, ASGCA drew up the

original layout when work

started in 2005 and have

since refined the design to

make routing adjustments to

fit with the development and

wetland delineation changes.

Construction is expected to be

completed by spring 2015.

Dunwoody renovation leads to

membership boost

A year after renovation work by

Bill Bergin, ASGCA Associate,

Dunwoody CC in Atlanta has

a full membership and, for the

first time in five years, a waiting

list. Bergin’s renovation saw

the introduction of new greens

complexes, modifications to

bunkers, leveling of tees and

significant tree work, including

removal and pruning.

New initiatives to reduce the time required to play golf were discussed at the USGA Pace-of-Play Symposium

Image: USGA/John O’Boyle