By Design - Summer 2019

7 Virginia C onstruction work is progressing on Love Golf Design’s redesign of the Birdwood course at the Boar’s Head Resort near Charlottesville, Virginia. Seeding is under way on the course, which is home to the University of Virginia’s golf teams. The UVA Foundation recognised the opportunity to re-think their golf business and began to consider facilities to address the demands of today's golfer and resort guest. “They initiated the idea of a new 18-hole course along with a new putting course, a six-hole short layout, and new practice facilities,” said Scot Sherman, ASGCA, golf architect at Love Golf Design. “At the same time, there was an opportunity to build new practice facilities for the UVA women’s and men's golf teams to mesh with their new building— the Dean Family Golf Performance Center. After studying more than a dozen routing options, we all settled on the locations for these new facilities and unveiled the plan in mid-2017. “Every aspect of the project involves completely new construction. Along with this, the design, strategy and aesthetic of the course will be completely new.” The new golf facilities cover just over 220 acres. Love Golf Design opened up about 50 acres of unused property south of the old layout to build nine new holes. “We re-used the corridors of five existing holes and rerouted four other holes to arrive at the new course routing,” said Sherman. “Two old golf holes were used for the new short course and team practice area.” The course is expected to reopen in late spring 2020. Sherman leads redesign at UVA's home course DIGEST HERE ARE LINKS TO OTHER RECENT “TARTAN TALKS”: • Greg Martin, ASGCA, discusses what golf can learn from companies such as Disney and Starbucks. • Rick Robbins, ASGCA, talks about his career and presents ways to integrate practice with revenue. In the latest podcast from Golf Course Industry’s "Tartan Talks" series, ASGCA Past President Jeffrey D. Brauer talks about why he has spent most of his career working on municipal courses and how he approaches bunker design. “Golf has no doubt been moving — since I’ve been in the business — towards more public courses,” said Brauer. “I think two-thirds of courses are public and I felt the guys like Jack Nicklaus had an advantage on me on those big-name projects. But, through history, I’m proud to be in that cluster of golf course architects who have made golf affordable and pleasant for the everyday golfer.” Brauer was asked about whether he designs bunkers differently depending on what region he is in. He said: “Everyone is influenced by the current hot courses — like the Streamsongs and the Pacific Dunes — with that rugged look along the ocean. But the difference being, is that Texas has a lot more wind and rain, which means the practical bunker here is flatter and deeper, set below the grade just to keep more sand in the bunker. We try and tune the style for the environmental conditions.” Listen to the full “Tartan Talk” at golfcourseindustry.com . “It is very satisfying to give the public golfers something close to country club level” ASGCA PAST PRES I DENT J EF FREY D . BRAUER Image: Love Golf Design