Denver, Colo. – The members at Green Gables Country Club have gone without their golf course for 18 months. When it reopens for play over Memorial Day weekend, their attempts to recognize it may prove futile; the old course is long gone – replaced by an entirely new design from Toledo, Ohio-based Arthur Hills/Steve Forrest & Associates.
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Arthur Hills/Steve Forrest & Associates has refurbished more than 120 courses across the country, including U.S. Open sites Oakland Hills, Inverness, Congressional and Oakmont. Yet the exercise at Green Gables was something far more than a cosmetic, tournament-driven fine-tuning.
The old putting surfaces at Green Gables – recalled by superintendent John Madden as “flat little dimes with a bunker on either side” – have been replaced with 18 dramatic green complexes of varying size, shape and strategy. Where the old holes had two sets of tees, the new ones have five each – all in the classic, rectangular style typical of 1920s-era design. Several holes were rerouted and the nines were flipped. In addition, 300 yards were added and 400 trees came down, opening up views of the Rocky Mountains.
“This is a superb piece of terrain, but there wasn’t a single fairway bunker on the original course – that alone allowed us to totally re-imagine the look and strategy of the golf course, which we have done,” says Arthur Hills, founder and principal of Hills/Forrest. “It took a lot of intestinal fortitude for the membership to opt for renovation on this scale. We also recognize the level of trust they placed in our firm, but I think it’s obvious, to everyone, that it paid off. The members may not recognize it, but they’ll have no problem getting used to it. The new course at Green Gables features a tremendous mix of traditional features and timeless drama.”
The original nine at Green Gables, laid out by William Tucker, opened in 1929. James Haines added nine more in 1948. This vintage might have qualified the course as “classic,” but Madden describes the old 18 “featureless.” What’s more, its push-up style greens were failing. When the membership resolved to rebuild all 18 putting surfaces, it went a step further and authorized Hills/Forrest to author a comprehensive $6 million makeover. Work began in September 2003. The official unveiling takes place May 26.
Arthur Hills worked closely on the Green Gables project with partner and senior associate Chris Wilczynski, whose Colorado course resume includes the award-winning Ironbridge Golf Club in Glenwood Springs (2003). Wilczynski’s creative input ran the gamut, from off-course practical (expanded driving range, new short-game practice facility, totally reconfigured clubhouse/cart-staging area) to on-course strategic.
“Virtually every hole at Green Gables was open to reinterpretation, which left lots of room for creativity,” Wilczynski says. “The old par-5 5th (the new 13th), for example, has become two separate holes. It used to play up and over the crest of a hill to a green positioned quite some distance from a lake – too far to put the water into play; second shots over the hill were blind and awkward. So we moved the putting surface to the top of the hill, where we found a great natural green site with long views.”
The new 14th hole is a 223-yard downhill par-3 with a putting surface perched at the very edge of the same lake – with another great view.
“This new routing is a far more efficient, with better strategic use of the land and a better golfing sequence,” Wilczynski says. “We didnt move that much dirt when recrafting the golf holes. But with the fairway bunkering especially we were able to implement strategies that dictate new lines of play. The bunker strategy is pretty random: we varied their size to vary the look of each hole – the new 12th has one bunker, 200 feet long and 35 feet wide, while the 13th is dotted with multiple bunkers. But all the fairway bunkers set up these new angles of play. Each hole now has an angle where the bold line is rewarded.”
Green Gables was lengthened by 300 yards (the back tees now measure almost 7,100 yards) but Hills/Forrest also “shortened” the course with its multiple-tee scheme. Women were once obliged to play Green Gables at just under 6,000 yards. Now they can play it at 5,400.
The design changes at Green Gables dovetail with the significant agronomic and maintenance improvements implemented by Hills/Forrest.
“For example, a creek runs through the property here and it was eroding badly,” Wilczynski explains. “We worked with the Army Corps [of Engineers] to rechannel it and lay back the sides to stem future erosion. On the new 8th hole, this creek had run down the outside of the dogleg. Very penal. Now it’s on the inside of the dogleg – creating a nice risk-reward scenario from the tee – and it runs in front of the green, too. Another nice strategic change. And now that its banks are laid back, you can actually see the creek from a distance whereas you couldn’t before.”
Arthur Hills/Steve Forrest & Associates places a high priority on environmental sensitivity. In 1995, the firm’s design at Collier’s Reserve GC in Naples, Fla., became the first course in the world to earn Audubon International’s Cooperative Gold Signature Sanctuary status, golf’s highest environmental honor. Oitavos Golfe Quinta da Marinha in Cascais, Portugal became Audubon’s first International Gold Signature Sanctuary when it opened in 2001. Oitavos, host of the European PGA Tour’s Open of Portugal, remains the only course outside the U.S. to be so honored.
For the new fairways at Green Gables, Hills/Forrest, in consultation with superintendent Madden, chose a low-mow, drought-tolerant bluegrass that will endure the winter months better than the ryegrass mixes commonly specified in this mile-high climate.
“With the advances in low-mow bluegrasses, we can take our fairways down to bentgrass levels,” says Madden, who arrived at Green Gables in 1999 after stints at Winged Foot and Centennial in New York. “Architects like ryegrass because it stripes up so nicely but we all agreed the new bluegrass was the way to go here.
”It was a real pleasure working with Art and Chris,” he adds. “They’re flexible and take into account a superintendent’s perspective. And they’ve totally transformed this golf course. The course we had before was featureless. The changes they created here produced a real traditional character. Great green complexes. We’ve got some fly-mowing out here now, but that’s the sacrifice you make for a golf course with character.”
On the greens, Hills/Forrest went with Dominant Extreme bentgrass. Madden is confident the greens and fairways will thrive.
“For turf geeks like myself this region is the Valhalla of turf management,” he says. “The climate is fantastic. When you remove humidity from the equation, it makes everything a lot easier. Back in New York, you’re on chemical and fungicide programs from March to November. Out here, our disease pressure is reduced significantly.”
Green Gables had originally voted to close its golf course for redesign in May 2002, but acute drought conditions forced a postponement. Still, when the drought eased and the project was formally launched in late 2003, not every member would stand for 18 months without a golf course.
“We lost 25 members right off the bat, once [the project] was passed,” says Meyer, who notes that members (those who stayed) were assessed for one third of the $6 million price tag; the club took out a loan for the remainder. “In the end, the one thing we felt was, it was better to bite the bullet – to address all the concerns we had about the golf course at once – rather than spread the work out over years, and perhaps lose those members in a slow bleed.”
Wilczynski is confident that Green Gables will attract many more new members than it lost.
“We see this dynamic wherever we renovate older courses: Once we’re finished, word gets around and our client clubs are so much more competitive with other outstanding courses in the area,” he says. “Still, I really admire the membership at Green Gables for adopting our plan and recommendations. It was a big commitment. But it’s so much better to do it this way – to close the course and do the job thoroughly – than to try and maintain play during construction.
“The folks at Green Gables did it the right way.”