Jefferson City, Mo. - The course has closed and the clock is ticking here on an aggressive, three-month greens-renovation project overseen by Lohmann Golf Designs at Jefferson City Country Club.
Plans are to rebuild all 18 existing push-up greens to U.S. Golf Assn. specifications, then replace the aged Penncross bentgrass and poa annua turf with modern A-series bentgrass, the current state-of-the-art. At least nine greens will also be relocated and recontoured to improve playability and increase cupping space.
Architects Bob Lohmann and son Matt Lohmann, who assisted with the design and will serve as project manager, will also improve green surrounds and greenside bunkers, reroute several fairways and add about 15 new tees. These improvements will help stretch the private layout to roughly 7,100 yards from the tips.
“The greens are Job 1,” Matt Lohmann explained. “Push-up greens like these are exactly that: putting surfaces that were formed decades ago by simply bulldozing dirt into a pile. There was no real drainage capability built in, no sort of soil profile created to assist with that drainage and promote sound root growth. Eventually, these greens just give out and need replacing. For Jefferson City, now’s the time.”
The new drainage and upgraded USGA greens will help move water off the course and get players back on the links much quicker following heavy rains, according to head superintendent Jim Poetker.
“With native clay sitting below the top 4 to 6 inches of sand we’ve built up over the years, it can take two to three days for the greens to return to normal after a major storm,” Poetker explained. “The new greens should make a huge difference in getting our members back onto their course, which we are bringing into the 21st century really.”
In Jefferson City, the course closed to member play on July 7. The early focus will be placed on rebuilding the greens because the construction timetable calls for seeding the new putting surfaces by late August, giving them an opportunity to become fully established heading into winter, and keeping things on track for an anticipated June 1, 2009 reopening, Matt Lohmann explained.
Fairway alterations and the renovation of tees, approaches and green surrounds will follow. As sod will be laid down in those areas, time is less of an inhibiting factor. Construction should be completed by mid-October.
The biggest challenge at Jefferson City, will be working around the existing irrigation system while installing additional drainage, the younger Lohmann continued. A longtime member of the maintenance crew has been very helpful in delineating the existing irrigation system — important information for construction workers as they dig into the playing surface.
Matt Lohmann is making a cameo Midwestern appearance on the Jefferson City project. He normally runs the East Coast office of Lohmann Golf Designs and its sister construction division, Golf Creations, out of Arlington, Va., having recently joined his father’s firm after spending five years working for Wadsworth Golf Construction. He was project superintendent on four separate projects for Wadsworth, the last one being Harbor Station, a Nicklaus Signature Design in Dumfries, Va.
The new putting surfaces are part of a multi-faceted master plan Lohmann Golf Designs has developed for Jefferson CC, where the original nine dates back to 1922 and a Larry Packard-designed second nine was added in the 1960s. This phase of the master plan will cost roughly $1.5 million, with additional fairway bunker work anticipated for 2009.
“Prior to selecting Lohmann we did our due diligence, checked references and played a couple of the company’s courses near Chicago,” said club president Mike Winter. “We were very impressed with the quality of Lohmann’s work and attention to detail. The company has been easy to work with, extremely helpful and patient with our members.”
For their part, the course architects at Lohmann Golf Design feel their selection to redesign Jefferson City CC may have been somewhat inevitable, even fated, given the name of the community before it was changed to Jefferson City and designated the state capital in 1821.
It’s previous name: Lohman’s Landing.