Longer doesn’t always mean tougher

As an architect, there’s nothing more rewarding than hearing from golfers about how much they like your golf course. It’s especially rewarding when it comes from golfers of all levels. When the best golfers play your course, architects also are interested in seeing how it stacks up and whether it provides a fair, stern challenge.

Michael Benkusky redesigned a pair of courses operated by the City of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

I’ve been fortunate to have a quality amateur tournament played on two of my courses each year. While working at Lohmann Golf Designs, I redesigned two courses in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, which is next door to my hometown of Marion. The two courses are Jones Park and Ellis Park and are owned and operated by the City of Cedar Rapids.

Jones Park was a nine-hole course that sat on 110 acres. It was a good course but wasn’t generating the revenue the other 18-hole courses in the area were. So we decided to reroute the golf course and add nine holes. Because this course sat in a flood plain, we also added 10 ponds to the site to help with drainage. The new, 18-hole course (6,009 yards, par 70) immediately began increasing the city’s revenue.

Ellis Park was the oldest of the city’s courses. The first nines holes were built in the 1920s. It sits on 150 acres and has a ‘newer’ nine that was added in the 1960s by William Langford. These two nines were complete opposites with the new nine being long and wide open and the old nine being tight, hilly and unsafe. The old nine also played to a par 35 with one par 3 and eight par 4s. Our goal was to create a safer, more playable nine holes to complement the newer nine. We finished with a 6,665-yard, par-72 course.

The Cedar Rapids City Am is played on three courses – the last two days played at Jones Park and Ellis Park. After the second round, the field is cut to the low 60. In my research to see how the course played for these competitors, I came to an interesting conclusion. The scores in relation to par were higher at the shorter Jones Park then at Ellis Park. The following explains my research.

Here are the average scores for those two courses.

The top 10 golfers averaged +0.70 over par at Jones Park, and they averaged -0.60 under par at Ellis.

The top 20 golfers averaged +1.57 over par at Jones Park, and they averaged +0.95 over par at Ellis.

All 60 golfers averaged +4.75 over par at Jones Park, and they averaged +4.85 over par at Ellis.

In today’s golf market, we all think making golf courses longer is the only way to make it harder and keep up with today’s technology. We see that everywhere from our local course to PGA Tour stops. Not all courses have this option and management of some courses believes they can’t compete and survive. This is one case that proves you can stay competitive with a shorter course.

Length has its advantages, but it also has more disadvantages. Longer courses need more land, require higher budgets to maintain that additional land, and slow down play because players tend to play a course that’s too long for them.
If you think adding tees is the only way to go, think again. Adding design strategy and creating risk and reward holes will do more for making your golf course more interesting, more enjoyable and more profitable than adding a few yards.

Jones Park is designed for your average, everyday golfer. It’s not tricked up, requires thinking over power, and is a well-maintained, municipal golf course. It’s a course that’s enjoyed by the best golfers and frequented by beginning golfers. It’s a golf course for everyone.