GREENSBORO COUNTRY CLUB GOLF AND GROUNDS MAINTENANCE: Irving Park Range Restoration Finally Underway

After months of delays, the construction crew from Medalist Golf finally arrived on site this past week to begin the process of putting the Irving Park practice area back together. While the shaper has been here several weeks the 4 man crew responsible for constructing the features, installing new drainage and irrigation and finally re-grassing the area arrived last week and have been making steady progress.

SOME NOTABLE CHANGES

The club did retain the services of Golf Course Architect Keith Foster to aid us with the new design of the entire area. A committee that consisted of Mark Davidson, Rick Ramsey, Ralph Allen, Kevin Gunter, David Egerton and staff members has worked along side Keith to reexamine the use of the area, the spatial layout and the flow of traffic. In the beginning all options were put on the table. Some of the options that were considered were to go back exactly like before with a path between the green and tee and a path from 18 back behind the practice tee. Another option that was considered was to convert the range area to a large and mostly flat event space. A third option was to flip the first tee to the right side and the practice green to the left side. A fourth option was to convert the range area into a short game area but concern for safety did not allow that design to proceed. In the end, the option that everyone agreed worked best with the reduced space that we were left with due to the clubhouse and pool expansion was the one we decided to put in place as outlined below.

NUMEROUS CHANGES

Practice Green Size and Useable Area has Increased Significantly - The old green was around 4,500 sf with about 50% of that deemed usable. The new green will be 6,200 sf with around 95% of the area useable for practice putting gaining the club around 4,000 sf of extra useable putting surface.
Cart Staging Area - The cart staging area will be shortened but widened and limited to the area just behind the new first tee.
Practice Tee - The practice tee will be 8,400 sf and include 12-13 artificial mat hitting stations behind the tee.
In addition to the steps that lead to the lower practice tee a walkway will be shaped out around the practice green for easy access.
The range itself will measure 140 yards from the front of the tee to 155 yards from the hitting mats.
The range will be widened by removing the path currently going up the right side of #1

COURSE RESEQUENCING AND CART PATH ADJUSTMENTS

Hole Resequencing

Hole #1 stays the same - Cart path will be located on the left side of the new tees. We will be experimenting with a limited path design on this hole. The new path will end just on the other side of the creek and won't pick back up until closer to the green.
Hole #2 will be current #18 - Paths will be added
Hole #3 will be current #16 - Path will be added
Hole #4 will be current #17 - Path will be added
Hole #5 will be current #2
Hole #6 will be current #3
Hole #7 will be current #4
Hole #8 will be current #5
Hole #9 will be current #6
Hole #10 will be current #7 - Better for #1 and #10 starts.
Hole #11 will be current #8
Hole #12 will be current #9
Hole #13 will be current #10
Hole #14 will be current #11
Hole #15 will be current #12
Hole #16 will be current #13
Hole #17 will be current #14
Hole #18 will be current #15 finishing in the parking lot at the clubhouse
Snack/Restroom house will be situated on new hole #5 and New #13 (old #10)
New Par - Front 9 par 34 Back nine par 37 (inverse of current layout)