By Design - Summer 2019

South Carolina Mandell completes renovation of Keowee Key K eowee Key in Salem, South Carolina, will reopen in August following a renovation by golf course architect Richard Mandell, ASGCA. The project includes new tee complexes, which now also include additional forward tees, re-grassing of fairways and greens, rebuilding bunkers, fairway drainage, reshaping and some tree removal. Construction began on Jan. 1, 2018 and was completed in November, despite record-breaking rains which created challenging conditions for golf course superintendent Josh Sawyer and Wadsworth Golf Construction. The course is currently growing-in following the work and is expected to reopen in August. “I am most excited for the members to see the new seventh hole, which we expanded and reshaped to minimize a strong right-to-left cross slope which unfairly kicked balls into a creek on the low side,” said Mandell. Photo: Richard Mandell The renovation of Keowee Key has included rebuilding bunkers 10 | By Design DIGEST Washington Chambers Bay resurfaces greens C hambers Bay in University Place, Washington—host of the 2015 US Open—has resurfaced its greens, moving from fescue to poa annua grass. “In early 2017, turfgrass health issues surfaced on three putting greens—the seventh, tenth and thirteenth—and the decision was made to re-sod those greens with a local source of poa annua,” said Matt Allen, vice president of KemperSports —the operator of Chambers Bay. The course closed in October 2018 and all greens were sodded during a five-week period, with the course reopening in April. No design changes were made to any of the greens. “The golf course design, layout and aesthetic are universally regarded as an architectural gem,” said Allen. “As there were no trees or water hazards, the contouring of the course and the choice of traditional fescue grasses was used as its defence,” said ASGCA Past President Robert Trent Jones, Jr. “While fescue is an environmentally sustainable grass, using less water, fertilizer and herbicides, it has less carrying capacity and can suffer or go dormant when stressed,” said Jones. “Poa annua can provide excellent putting surfaces most of the year. Thus, on a course open to the public and popular as a former host of a US Open, it will provide excellent putting surfaces most of the year and increase the carrying capacity of the course.” Photo: Chambers Bay The greens at Chambers Bay have been resurfaced with poa annua