I have been just lurking on this post allowing Steve and others to chime in about their home course. I had the opportunity to play LuLu Master's weekend and the place looked great. Todd really turned the place around following construction. Any areas lagging behind seemed to be more a condition of trees than anything else. Yes, there is definately more tree removal needed, however with such a small tract of land coupled with roads and housing surrrounding all borders the removal of trees is a very delicate issue. Safety must always trump other issues on the course. As for the mounds, we (Forse Design) would love to see a whispy, sparse planting of fescues. However, as with many restoration jobs, the window of opportunity is limited. Often times courses are not closed, play continues and the ability to close a hole (allowing for seed to establish and grow) is rare. In addition to member inconvenience we must also think of construction timing and sequence. A number of the mounds at LuLu (holes 8, 18, 16 & 10) were in the final holes during construction removing any consideration of seeding. I believe there was talk of seeing the mounds but it became an issue of time. Membership desire is also a big factor. There have been comments about the difficulty of the bunkers at LuLu, throw in deeper thicker grass on the mounds and the average player, senior, junior and lady golfer would not enjoy the game.
LuLu is such a great golfing experience, a unique course in a region of long, flowing Flynn-like courses. The same weekend we played LuLu we also played Mannies, Lancaster and Stonewall. The variety was inspiring. To play Mannies and LuLu on the same day was a great lesson for an architect.