By Design – Issue 50 // Fall 2020

16 Sanford Golf Design created a new short game area at Dupont CC that can also be played as a five-hole short course LAND USE that would transform the club’s offerings, and make new facilities much more accessible from a new clubhouse that would also be a key part of the overhaul of the club. “The new owners wanted to do something different and innovative with their practice facility that utilized the latest technology, allowing golfers to practice every shot they’d encounter on the course, and provide a fun experience for the entire family while helping grow the game in the Wilmington area,” says David Ferris, ASGCA, of Sanford Golf Design. Ferris worked with the clubhouse architect to create a new plan that would repurpose 24 acres from the club’s par-61 executive course, the Monchanin, for use as a new practice facility. “The new practice facility provides a five-acre short game area with three practice greens that can also be played as a five-hole short course. The new 15-acre practice range is set into Montchanin’s former hole corridors, allowing for longer practice shots that truly replicate the on-course experience and a variety of target greens for practicing shots from 50 to over 200 yards.” The project also included a new 10,000-square-foot learning center, six indoor TrackMan hitting bays, and an outdoor area with views across the practice green and putting course. “Members love everything about it,” says John Burke III, the club’s director of golf. “The vision came together due to David’s ability to understand what we were asking for and then making the land work. I am grateful for his ability to do what he did to turn our facility into one of the best in the country.” A new nine-hole routing has been created from the holes that remain from the Montachanin course. But a long-range plan has been developed to replace those with a new 18-hole par-three course that would further the owners’ goal of growing the game. Baths for the wolf Blackwolf Run in Wisconsin and sister club Whistling Straits are owned by the Kohler Company, and together form one of the most popular golf destinations in the country. The two clubs have four courses designed by ASGCA Past Presidents Pete and Alice Dye, including the famous Straits course, host of three PGA Championships and the 2021 Ryder Cup. When the courses at Blackwolf Run were laid out in the late 1980s, an area of land was set aside for future development between the first and eleventh holes of the club’s Meadow Valleys course. Photo: DuPont Country Club