Painted Woods Golf Course in Washburn, North Dakota, is in the midst of an expansion project.

The US$650,000 project will see the construction of nine new holes, extending the course to 18 holes. Painted Woods will expand from its existing 3,000 yards to almost 7,000 yards. Four sets of tees will accommodate a range of skill levels.

A creek on the property is an instrumental feature of the course, coming into play on all of the existing nine holes, and four of the new ones. Shaper Randy Workman is placing more emphasis on bunkering and creating some links-style holes to offer new challenges to golfers.

“After much consideration I put a proposal together for the board to consider that would have us contracting with a shaper and doing a lot of the work ourselves. It was the only way we could afford to do the project,” explains president of Painted Woods and project manager Trevor Leidy. “Randy has been a huge asset for us. I drew a routing that I felt would best utilise our land and it would also remove two holes from our old course. Once Randy was on site, he and I would stand on the location of the proposed hole and discuss how to proceed. A lot of it was designed as we went but we let the land really dictate how the holes would be shaped. He designed all the greens on the go. It looks great so far and we are on schedule.”

Seven of the course’s existing holes will remain intact, but the third and eighth holes will be moved as part of the project. The club hopes to have all holes built and seeded by mid August 2013.

The original nine holes will remain open throughout the expansion project. The new 18 hole course is scheduled to open in July 2014.