73 Photo: Vaughn Halyard The sixteenth hole now has an alternative green (in the foreground, playing left of the original), built in homage to the lost original double green on the first fairway bunkers. “What I observed in the day or so after my return following the derecho was that even though most of the architectural features, in particular the bunkers, were still in place, the scale of the bunkering was that it no longer had the proper visual impact on players,” he says. “Although the members I discussed this with might not have had the experience to spot this, they trusted me to provide the answer and do what I felt best. My response was to rebuild and expand almost every hazard, with the primary attention being to fairway bunkering.” Compare the post-2015 photos of Cedar Rapids with today’s course and this is easy to see: the fairway bunkering is massively larger, and hence in sync with the much larger visual scale that is created by the far more open property. Cedar Rapids is now a course of long views, in a way that it never previously was, and so the new hazards make visual sense in a way they never previously would have. In addition, the fairways were widened – again to match the new visual scale of the property, and a second, alternative green was built for the sixteenth hole, a homage to the lost original double green on the opening hole. Prichard provided the club with drawings of the new hazards and compared them to the previous ones. Naturally, the excavation of these radically larger bunkers created a substantial amount of fill material, and finding a way to use this was an important part of the project. “We added some long angular mounding where it fit and created additional meaningful obstacles which captured wayward play,” the architect explains. The course’s infrastructure has also been significantly improved, enhancing its ability to get rid of water in the event of a flood. Although the project was not, in essence, restorative, it would not be a Prichard job without trying to put something back. The green of CEDAR RAPIDS
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