Golf course architect Bill Bergin completed work on the newly refurbished Chattanooga Golf and Country Club – a Donald Ross design – in late October.
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That’s a popular sentiment around the historic course these days.
“What Bill has done here is just phenomenal,” says head professional Bruce Etter. “This is better than we even envisioned.”
“Outstanding,” says superintendent Jeff Hollister.
According to Bergin, his design philosophy is to build courses that are challenging to the better player and playable for the high-handicap player. When Chattanooga’s course rating came back from the Tennessee Golf Association, they clearly showed Bergin had accomplished his goal.
The par-71 course has a rating of 73.6 from the back tees and a slope rating of 133.
“For a 73.6 course rating, that’s a fairly modest slope,” Bergin says. “Our course ratings, which are based on the scratch player, are generally fairly high. However, our slope ratings are much more modest in relation to the course ratings, and slope is based on the average player. That lets you know for the average player our golf courses are pretty user friendly, yet for the better players they’re challenging. That’s exactly my goal on every piece of property that I work on.”
“What Bill has done,” Etter says, “is make the golf course harder for the back-tee players and easier for the front-tee players.”
Bergin did that by giving players options. In some cases, he had to work to find those options, given the small piece of property upon which the golf course sits. For instance, on the new No. 11 hole, formerly a par-3, Bergin pushed the tees back to 300 yards and came up with a risk-reward short par 4. The elevated back tees offers views of the property, plus mountains, the river and downtown Chattanooga, that were previously unseen. The same is true of No. 17, a 325-yard par 4.
All along the course, greens that were formerly too severe to accept the shot required of them have been flattened out a bit, but are no less challenging.
“I prefer greens with gradual movement, sometimes in several different directions,” Bergin says. “I call it equal opportunity golf; subtle contouring requires a greater understanding of the nuances of an individual putting surface.
“Today you see too many large multi-tiered greens, which favor the better player who is more apt to control his approach shot and is capable of hitting to the proper level, leaving a flatter putt,” he adds. “Tiered greens present a situation where the average player is punished unduly, resulting in long awkward putting or chipping over ridge lines. Ours is a simple philosophy: hard par, easy bogey.”
Work began on the country club last January, and the course reopened earlier this month. There is still a grow-in period that will allow fescue-framing areas to reach about knee high and the Bermuda fairways to fill in and flourish, but the course is generally going to be ready to offer its new challenges right away.
“This one’s got the look we wanted ahead of when we wanted it,” Bergin says. “But I can’t wait to see it two years from now, when all the grasses have grown in. It’s beautiful now. It’ll be even more so then. The spirit of Donald Ross is alive at Chattanooga Golf and Country Club.