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Restore a course

rickterp

rickterp

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I'm sure most everyone here knows of a track they play on occasion or played in the past that has seen better days or may have even outright closed. My question to fellow THP'ers is as follows:

If you you could restore and rehabilitate one course you have played before, which course would it be and why?

This likely won't suprise many New Englanders, but for me it has to be Ponkapoag Golf Course in Canton, MA. 36 Holes, 27 of which were designed by Donald Ross, in a sad state of affairs. It is owned by the State of MA, but if I won the Golf Course Rehab lottery this would be my choice. The staff there does the best they can with limited funding and resources. Playing the course today you can see how beautiful it could be with its tall pine tree lined fairways, undulating greens and subtle quirks. Unfortunately, its fairway bunkers are mostly overgrown with crabgrass, fairways spotty at best and greens are in rough shape. I know the USGA bandied about this as a potential US Open site similar to the rehab at Bethpage State Park on Long Island, but the cost was deemed excessive as it would have been well north of 10 million dollars ten years ago. I think if they could see the potential, and from what I see, it would be a most deserving choice.

What course would you like to rehabilitate and restore?
 
Cobs Creek Olde without question. Designed by Hugh Wilson, it was the public course gem of the area, with Crump and Flynn some of the notable architects providing input as well. The course hosted all kinds of pro tourneys and enjoyed all kinds of accolades. After WW2, the military took over a portion of the course as a missile silo, which changed its routing. The course then deteriorated over the decades and is now a shell of itself, but sees a good amount of play from some die hard lifers and young guys. I play it a few times a year because the design is still there and still lots of good holes, even if conditions are rough.

The best part of this is a few local guys researched and uncovered the original routing, found private funding and the course is being restored to its original routing by Gil Hanse. The course will have a unique feature where the original, plus another nine holes, can be combined together to form a PGA tournament caliber course and will be one of the cornerstones of the Publinx. It'll take at least a few years, but I'm extremely excited about this coming together.


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Lakeside Hills in Olathe, KS. It's a Boy Scout campground now. You can still make out the layout on Google Maps. First course I broke 100 on. It is also the site of my very first birdie in 1978. Got as low as 92 on it.

I think it closed around 2005 or so.





lakesidehills_zpsb10ca688.jpg
 
The Idaho Club. Designed by Jack Nichlaus. played It last summer, it got into bad condition because nobody cared for it, then because it got into bad condition nobody wants to go play it, so they can't get money to fix it up. it's a sweet layout, but it's in pretty much horrible condition.
 
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