Brandon Johnson, senior architect at Arnold Palmer Design Company, has completed the first phase of renovation work at PGA West’s Palmer course in La Quinta, California.

The multi-year project is part of a larger scheme to renovate all nine PGA West courses in order to improve the overall playing experience and to restore original features. The Greg Norman course has recently been renovated and work has started on the Pete Dye-designed Stadium course.

Johnson has restored greens back to Palmer’s original design, allowing for more hole locations, and has replaced the existing TifDwarf bermudagrass with TifEagle.

“While we restored some greens, we also made strategic enhancements; expansions that introduced new pin locations in addition to restoring pins that had been lost for years,” said Johnson. “We also adjusted all the fairway lines to expose and incorporate more of the existing contours.”

Greenside bunkers have been reshaped and some new ones have been added. Green surrounds have also been renovated, while irrigation work has been carried out on holes 14 to 17.

“Our Palmer course has a rich history of hosting professionals and celebrities as well as being a member favourite,” said Ben Dobbs, executive director of PGA West. “The course has an amazing design, and the improvements we made last year will make it even better and more enjoyable for our PGA West members.”