Scioto Country Club in Columbus, Ohio was the top winner in the private club division of Golf Inc. magazine's fifth annual Renovation of the Year competition.
The winners and finalists in the competition will be honored at the annual Awards Gala at the Golf Inc. Conference at the Doral Resort in Miami on April 21. All the courses recognized will be featured in the March issue of Golf Inc.
Architects for the Scioto redesign were Michael Hurdzan, Ph.D., president of Hurdzan/Fry Environmental Golf Design with significant and valuable input from Jack Nicklaus. “Scioto was Jack’s home course during his childhood”
says Hurdzan, “so he knew every nuance of the golf course, from the original Donald Ross greens to Dick Wilson’s remodel. He had more than 50 years to think about how to make it better.” Topp Shape was the project contractor.
Entrants were evaluated anonymously on four criteria: how well the renovation achieved the overall project goal, course routing, improvement of the course, aesthetics, and improvement in playability and maintainability.
Judges for the competition were Michael Seabrook, director of operations for Bonita Bay Club and New Leaf Golf Management, Clyde Johnston, principal of Clyde Johnston Golf Designs, and Allen MacCurrach III, c.e.o. of MacCurrach Golf Course Construction.
“I am both pleased and humbled to have collaborated with Jack Nicklaus on
the remodeling of Scioto Country Club,” Hurdzan says. “I grew up
in Columbus and have always been in awe of this great Donald Ross design and Jack Nicklaus. To win this award, and to have worked with the game’s greatest golfer on his home course has truly been an honor and a pleasure.”