By Design - Spring 2019

Robert Trent Jones II Golf Course Architects, and implemented by Richard Mandell, ASGCA. “Tanglewood Park is a great Robert Trent Jones, Sr. course,” said Charlton. “We were hired to do a golf course audit and master plan. When we got to the point where everyone was happy with the master plan, we could start looking at how to implement it. “The county wanted to have a local presence. For a while they were talking about having civil engineering firms help us, but I said, ‘why don’t we see if we can get someone local that knows golf’. Forsyth County put out an RFP and Richard Mandell was the selected party. I know Richard well from our ASGCA ties and I was happy that we were going to have the chance to work with someone who does what we do. Richard’s enthusiasm made him a lot of fun to work with.” Mandell said: “Most of the master plan was done by Bruce, and when I started, I met with the county and the staff as well as doing course walkthroughs with the golfers. Then I took their ideas, and we blended it with Bruce’s ideas—I discussed it with Bruce to make sure he was on board. “The other element was trying to do a restoration back to 1974 when they had the PGA Championship. Bruce liked that idea, and I found some aerial photography and he embraced that, and we went from there.” “We had done all the preliminary drawings and ideas for what the changes and refinements to the golf course would be,” said Charlton. We submitted that to Forsyth County, and they asked Richard and me to look at specifications to get the work done.” Mandell said: “It went well, it is easy to collaborate when both people are on the same wavelength with what the ultimate goal is supposed to be. We made sure Bruce was on board with everything we did and when we got to the construction drawings, he was supportive of that and added suggestions. “We went through the bid process and once construction started, we kept in touch with Bruce. He came on site and gave me a few nuggets here and there of what RTJ would do, and some suggestions which we implemented.” “It worked very well,” said Charlton. “There were a lot digital photos going back and forth among Richard, the contractors and me.. I would be looking at bunkers and commenting—we were able to communicate with all kinds of stuff, including laptop touchscreens.” Mandell added: “For me it was fun to work with someone else and hear his ideas on the golf course. In particular, the relationship that he has with Bobby and the subsequent relationship from RTJ himself—it was sort of fun to hear the nitty gritty of RTJ, so to speak.” Charlton concluded: “It was successful—I think the product speaks for itself. It was set out in our master plan that the bunkers could do with some work and needed a facelift to bring back the It is easy to collaborate when both people are on the same wavelength with what the ultimate goal is supposed to be COLLABORATION 16 | By Design Photo: Richard Mandell, ASGCA Mandell and Charlton collaborated to bring back the look of the 1974 PGA Championship