This week’s Waste Management Phoenix Open will be the last played on the current iteration of the TPC Scottsdale Stadium course.

Straight after the tournament finishes, architect Tom Weiskopf will start work on a major revamp of the 27-year old course, focusing on adding interest to the relatively flat greens, as well as improving both strategy and the landscape.

“TPC Scottsdale was part of former PGA Tour commissioner Deane Beman’s vision for a chain of Tournament Players’ Clubs,” said Chris Roderick, Weiskopf’s manager. “The site was a retention basin for the city, and totally flat. It was very stark, and there was a shortage of cash for landscaping at the time, so it isn’t as visually attractive as it might have been.”

The renovation has been several years in the planning, complicated by the differing roles of the city of Scottsdale, which owns it, the PGA Tour’s TPC division, which leases and operates it, and the Tour’s competition committee, which sets it up for the annual Waste Management event. “You do end up with a lot of different ideas from each,” said Roderick. “But around two years ago, the plans came to fruition, and the city approved the funding, so we were able to start the design phase a year ago, with a view to starting work straight after the 2014 tournament.”

Weiskopf Designs is carrying out the work along with Landscapes Unlimited as a design and build package. Only 70 yards of length will be added, but all the greens and tees will be resurfaced. Six greens will be significantly recontoured, while three will be repositioned. “The greens in general will be more rolling and challenging,” said Roderick.

A number of open drains are to be culverted. “For the resort golfer, the course will be both more playable and much prettier,” Roderick said. The project – including clubhouse renovations – is valued at US$15 million, of which US$9 million will be spent on the course.