By Design - Spring 2020

21 looking bunker features that resembled the beach dunes of the nearby Atlantic Ocean. With lips ranging from four to eighteen inches and Bahia grass on the backside, it yields the sensation of playing a course sculpted right from the beach. All he kept was the old par- five eighteenth hole, for sentimental reasons—where Arnold Palmer’s chief nemesis, Jack Nicklaus, made history. Larsen is proud of the golf, but freely acknowledges that what preserved his club was the land itself. “This was basically a real estate deal that saved it,” he said. “As of 2019, there wasn’t one lot without a home on it. It’s completely built out and sold out.” Snead’s sacred ground In late May, 1949, Belmont Golf Course in Richmond, Virginia, sat atop the golf world. Known then as Hermitage Country Club, the 1916 A.W. Tillinghast design was among the finest in the south and had benefited from a subsequent Donald Ross tweak. That final week in May, native Virginian Sam Snead, the current Masters champion, was bidding for back-to-back majors as Hermitage served as venue for the PGA Championship. Snead downed Johnny Palmer in the final, 3 & 2, to capture the Wanamaker Trophy for the second time. It was hard to fathom that exactly seventy years later, the only course ever to host a major championship in the state of Virginia faced extinction. Then things changed dramatically. After Henrico County bought Hermitage Country Club in 1977 and changed the course name to Belmont, it enjoyed a long, healthy run operating the historic spread. However, by March 2018, ominous warning signs had emerged. Belmont’s operations had turned a profit only once since 2000 ($5,429 in 2008). The county explored their options. By October 2018, six proposals Waters Edge is a ‘small town USA’ golf course that has long been a significant part of the fabric of the idyllic town of Fremont in western Michigan. In 2015, the course was auctioned off due to upkeep issues and declining revenue. A decommission was contemplated with a plan for golf to give way to real estate. Instead, new investors hired Ray Hearn to develop a long-range master plan and ultimately to refurbish and repurpose. Two new holes opened in 2019 and a third is on tap for 2020, together with a new Player Performance Area (range, practice green, chipping, short game and sand practice). When the tee is closed, the range can be transformed into a three- or six-hole par-three course. More improvements are slated over the next four years, including clubhouse upgrades and a new training center. Play is up, revenues have increased and the course once again is the pride of Fremont. Waters Edge Golf Course Fremont, Michigan Golf course architect: Raymond Hearn, ASGCA Image: Raymond Hearn Golf Course Design Photo: Atlantic Beach CC Image: LarsenGolf