Palmer team to begin Teton Pines renovation project in April

Teton Pines Country Club & Resort in Jackson, Wyoming, has appointed Arnold Palmer Design Company for a golf course renovation project.

The first phase will focus on the front nine, with contractor Ridgetop Golf Construction beginning work in April.

“The catalyst for the project was the bunkers, the liners were 10 years old and starting to breach the sand surface,” said Thad Layton, senior architect at the Palmer firm. “Adding a new, heavy-duty liner evolved into a conversation about bunker styles, purpose, locations, sizes and maintenance. The plan calls for an overall reduction of 25 per cent of the sand area, which should create more avenues for play and a more interesting golf experience.

The project will also include fairway expansion, tree removal, rebuilding the driving range and the introduction of a “robust” native grass palette. The designers will also rebuild the seventh, tenth and fifteenth greens.

“We proposed rebuilding the green complex on ten to create a clearer risk-reward proposition,” said Layton. “The realigned stream and smaller green should foster more thoughtful play all the way back to the tee.

“The fifteenth green has a severe cross slope and agronomic issues due to the adjacent aspens. The plan is to remove the aspens and rebuild a larger green with more pinnable areas and a flanking bunker to guard the right side of the green in the absence of the trees.

“At sixteen, the work falls into the restoration category as there were bunkers previously fronting the green that we thought would look great and better define the target if we added them back.”

Work will take place on the seventh hole too. “The seventh green is guarded by a lake that isn’t visible from outside of 200 yards,” said Layton. “Since we couldn’t change the elevation of the water, we discussed a number of options to signal the location of the hazard, settling on the addition of a boulder wall around the green. This provided an opportunity to expand the green to create enticing new pin positions to tempt more aggressive play from further out.”

A second phase of work, on the back nine, is planned for spring 2022.

This article first appeared in the January 2021 issue of Golf Course Architecture. For a printed subscription or free digital edition, please visit our subscriptions page.

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