Brunswick CC- 9th Green Restoration (photos)

[J_McKenzie]

Thought it might be interesting to share the following photos documenting the progress of the 9th hole restoration at Brunswick CC.  Please note the fairway bunkers in the foreground, the mounds around the green and the oaks in the background for reference:

This first image is from a postcard dating back to the early 40's.  BCC opened all 18-holes in 1939.


This second image is taken from a similar angle and shows the 9th green after it was scraped down to the black soil layer (original green surface) and shaped to original grades based upon Ross' sketch/plan. Photo taken in November 2006.


This third image is after the green has been cored out and drainage installed.  The original greens were push-up (no drainage) and constructed with a sand base capped by 8 inches of a heavier soil material (the black layer).  Our guess would be that the heavier soil was added to help retain moisture in the green surfaces.  Certainly different than today's recommended green specifications, but they held up fairly well for 68 years.  Photo taken earlier this month  


This final image was taken today and shows the green after mix has been added and roughly floated in.


I'll try to add more pictures of this green as things progress.

John

[wsmorrison]

Great stuff, John.  Thanks for taking the time to post these step by step photographs.  Very informative.  Best of luck on the project.

[TEPaul]

That is just great stuff. I love that.

J MacKenzie, Davis, Mark, Paul and all the people at Love Design, you guys should be very proud of yourselves for this particular project, all things considered.

All I can say is I feel bad for you guys with the distance from your office to the project. I hope the commute ain't wearing ya'll out.

[TEPaul]

Paul:

Where is the bump in the back center and and the bump in the back right of the green? I don't see them or not enough of them but maybe it's just my eyes. No time to try to get modern and tie them into the surrounds. Make 'em pop man, just like Don did back in the day!!  

Davis---when you win your next one any chance you'll donate a cool building like that one behind the 9th?  If you do I promise I'll contribute a great wooden bar with a brass rail we can all hang on.  

[Craig Disher]

John,
Check your email.

The postcard reminds me very much of another Ross course that was built in Melbourne, FL. I played there in the early 1970s and didn't understand what was going on with the crazy mounds throughout the course. The clubhouse even looked similar. Sadly, the county bulldozed it in the mid 70s and replaced it with something a little more "modern."

[TEPaul]

Craig:

Did you find anything not previously known from the air on Brunswick?

Brunswick Georgia all my life is like one of those great old songs from my past that takes me fondly back to a particular time and place I'm so fond of remembering--sometimes maybe like some great gal from my past. Only thing is, with Brunswick Georgia the thing that takes me back fondly ain't no great old song from my past, it's the smell of that paper plant!  

[Craig Disher]

Tom,
What the postcard confirmed for me (again) is that the aerials, no matter how good, don't tell the whole story. John's in the enviable position of putting together all the information from the aerial, drawings, and ground level investigation. I'm looking forward to seeing the result and learning if the aerials were any help.

It was all new to me so nothing was previously known - I'd never seen Brunswick CC before but I do know paper plants.

O/T - when I drove from Pinehurst to Myrtle Beach last month, I saw hundred of farms growing cotton - a sight I hadn't seen in 30 years. Anyone know why cotton was the crop of choice this year?

[TEPaul]

" I saw hundred of farms growing cotton - a sight I hadn't seen in 30 years. Anyone know why cotton was the crop of choice this year?"

Something just came to mind but I ain't touchin it--not even with a mile long pole.

[Dunlop_White]

John,

Looks good!

Tommy has a good observation.....where's the hump in the back center of the green, and where is the bump in the back right of the green? Are they there, but much "softer" now, or did you decide not to recapture them at all?

Dunlop

[paul cowley]

TomP and Dunlop....the mounds are there as they always have been. If you look back at the postcard you will see that the photo angle was taken from a higher elevation than the present photos, which were taken from ground level.

These mounds are distinctive and indicative of Ross's simplistic but very effective way of creating interest and challenge on a very flat site....all by moving a minimal amount of earth while creating 18 very different raised fill pad greensites.
I say raised pad because they really shouldn't be called 'push ups', as there wasn't any earth available to push up. I doubt there is more than five feet of elevation change over the entire site and the fill required to build the green sites was all from excavating down [borrowing]. I can't imagine Ross built on sites that were any flatter.

Maybe now that the world is brown and leafless up yonder, a few of you wander down hereabouts to see for yourself what a great job these guys are doing.
I have evidence that Wayne Morrison has already been here, [not nessessarily by choice]....at least he should be able to find his way back   with the help of a competent navigator .

[BCrosby]

Does anyone know if Ross oversaw the constuction of the course?

Bob

[J_McKenzie]

As Paul mentioned, the mounds are there and visible in the above photos- if you look closely at the last photo you can see the greens mix working up into the back right mound and a piece of drainage pipe sticking out at the base of the back center mound.  We have not attempted to softened them, I just think the photos seem to flatten the contours and the dark grey/brown color of the soil tends to blend in with the background.  

Here is a great photo from 1949 that happens to show the very two mounds being discussed.  I guess there was not a collar rule back then, but they must not have allowed shorts.


Dunlop,

Please be sure to give me a call the next time you are down this way.

John

[J_McKenzie]

Bob,

We researched through the local newspaper and found that Ross did visit the course while the present-day back nine was under construction.  This was the nine that he was originally hired to design.  It was during this construction visit that he also redesigned the already existing nine holes (the current front nine).  The existing nine holes played as a short par-32 course, with no hazards and featured sand greens.  Ross redesigned this nine by adding length, hazards (both sand and water) and by creating four new green sites.  He did utilize five of the original green sites, however he completely redesigned the complexes and built the new greens on top of the old sand greens.  The sand greens are shown as squares within his green sketches as shown below:


The dates on the Ross sketches and on his nine hole redesign notes verify the newspaper's account.  We could not find any record of Ross coming back after this visit and we assume he did not see any of the construction on the redesigned nine.

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