A series of renovations designed to make the course more playable for members have been completed at the Concession golf club in Florida.

The course, which was designed by Jack Nicklaus’s firm in collaboration with Tony Jacklin, and named in honour of Nicklaus’s gesture in giving Jacklin a putt to tie the 1969 Ryder Cup, opened in 2006 to much acclaim, but a number of commentators remarked on its difficulty (read GCA’s review of the course). The Concession changed hands last year, when its original developers were bought out by a local consortium.

Nicklaus and Jacklin visited the course this March, along with new owner Bruce Cassidy Sr and lead architect Chris Cochran, and concluded some improvements were needed to make it more forgiving in a few landing areas and certain pin placements. “We need to make the course more playable for the members,” said Nicklaus at the time. “The contours of the greens have to be softened and the troughs on the greens that have developed through natural drainage have to be filled.”

As part of the improvements, five new tee boxes were constructed, a new set of gold tees was added between the blacks and the blues, some palmetto trees and foliage were removed and a couple of bunkers were modified.

“The changes were strategically designed to make the course more playable for members while maintaining the challenge for the lower handicap golfers,” said Cassidy. “Now that the changes are complete, I can say that we definitely accomplished that.”