Golf Course Architecture - Issue 64, April 2021

68 North course. Before he passed away in 2016, Cupp recommended long-time friend Rees Jones for the project. Keen to preserve the essence of Cupp’s original design for the North course, Jones and his associate Bryce Swanson evaluated the property with Cupp’s son Bobby, and also used Cupp’s hole-by- hole notes to help guide their plans. The immediate priority was to reconsider the greens. The problems were three-fold; they were not running consistently, were not very receptive to long, low approach shots that many of the members were required to hit to reach the putting surface, and they had lost some of their original size. Jones and Swanson designed new greens with more subtle movement and added new hole locations. “We went for more open entrances and made sure the greens could hold the high percentage of low shots being hit into them,” says Jones. “The transitions are more of a long, consistent slope, that really complement Bob’s original design.” “Given that rebuilding a green means it closes for a period of time, it made sense to evaluate the other components like playability issues, and what we found was that certain holes or situations were quite difficult,” says Swanson. As well as restoring bunker lines, some greenside bunkers were replaced with closely mown chipping areas. Fairway bunkers were re-evaluated too, with some relocated or removed entirely. “In terms of style, we kept everything very much in the fashion of what Bob did,” says Swanson. Work on the North course was completed in 2017, and convinced the membership to “unleash” Jones and Swanson on the South course in the following year. “The club wanted to make it different to the North, so our bunker style is a bit of a change in character to the original – there’s more movement in terms of how we shaped them,” says Jones. The greens would see a marked contrast in style from the North course, too. Jones and Swanson introduced more internal contours, with the rebuilt greens typically having a variety of levels and distinct pinnable areas. Now with two successful renovations under its belt and members enjoying those changes so much, it was a natural step for the club to ask the Jones team to look at its third course. While its location and the fact it had been laid out by a different designer meant it already had different SHADOW WOOD CC The Jones team has worked to ensure the Preserve course caters to golfers of all skill levels. The par-three sixth, for example, is over 200 yards from the back tees, but just 100 yards from the front, where the angle of attack provides an open entrance to the green “ This has been a ‘triple play’ and if we had not been successful on the North, the club would still be sitting on the other two”