A few of the courses I have been given the responsibility of working on are mentioned in this thread so I think I should give a bit of insight into the process of restoration or renovation I took whatever you want to call it. Personally, very few projects are pure restorations, however, most of my projects contain a great deal of restorative work along with what most view as renovation.
The first step to all of my projects is the development of a Long Range plan, I haven't undertaken any significant projects without one. I perform an extensive search for documents including Ross plans, drawings, aerial photographs, ground level photos, underlying topo's from previous redesign projects, club notes and minutes. I interview older members who may have been around in the early days of the course and who may be aware of certain changes, I walk the course looking for remnants of green fill pads, bunker forms, old tees, I look at tree lines to determine old growth versus new growth etc. I dig around in bunker bottoms and faces to verify sand buildup, original depths etc., I take soil core profiles through the green and into sub-grades to determine original construction methods if they remain, I probe around the outer edges of fill pads and bunker forms to try and determine original dimensions, depths and character of these features.
I analyze old photos and aerials for comparison to the current course and the architects drawings in an effort to identify any discrepancies between aerials and the original drawings. In my opinion, old aerials are the most valuable piece of evidence aside from great ground level photos soon after the course was completed. I agree with Mike Y, old drawings can be very dangerous if you make the assumption that the original architect or construction team followed them exactly. From this process, I'm left with the job of trying to explain first and foremost what was originally designed and constructed, by whom and when. If and when this is established, I begin the design process of determining what gets restored, renovated, shifted, relocated, eliminated, re-instated, adjusted and so on. I establish my preliminary goals first without input from the membership then I share them with the club and begin open discussions between myself and the focus groups of the club. Lets compare Sedgefield and Mimosa
Sedgefield CC was designed by Ross in 1924, opened in 1926 as part of a planned 36 hole golf, equestrian and hunting lodge in the country between Greensboro and High Point NC. The Blue course remains today and three holes of the Red course were built in 29 but abandoned due to the depression. At some point residential took over the hunting grounds between the holes and there is evidence this took place mid design and construction of the blue course. More on that later. The golf course was renovated by Ed Connors around 1988 including rebuilding the greens as they were being mown and the greenside bunkering as it existed. Fast forward to 2006 I was hired to develop a Restorative Long Range Plan. Here is what I found to back up the recommendation of the plan.
Aerial Photos of the course dating to 1938, we had several very clear aerials from multiple angles of the entire course and individual holes
Copies of Ross Hole by Hole drawings with notes
A 36 hole routing plan by Ross
Ground Level photos dating to the 30's of some bunkers and greens
Old fill pad forms still present
Old bunker forms evident in some locations not in others shown by the aerial
I spoke with a gentleman who carried the stakes for Mr. Ross at age 7 when he staked the course years earlier
Even with all of this information, there were significant discrepancies in bunkering between the Ross drawings and the aerials. During a meeting, I was handed an old cardboard folder holding a complete set of 18 x 24" white line blueprint drawings of each hole, when I took them outside the sunlight revealed red, yellow and lead pencil markings and notes on the plan that clarified every discrepancy between the aerial and the plans in Mr. Ross handwriting. The plans were the set he carried around the course on his visit to the project. On these drawings, Mr. Ross added bunkers, removed others, adjusted and or changed the design of the greens etc, it was these drawings we used to measure the fill pads that remained, they were exactly to the scale of the drawings.
These plans and the aerial photo's that matched the notes was the guiding force behind the plan and the restoration of the course.
The greens were restored to their original size, shape and orientation based on the information, a select few greens were softened in the back half only to the point of reclaiming the use of these areas but we maintained enough steepness to preserve the original design and playing characteristics of the greens. I relocated the 18th green back 31 yards and redesigned the short par 5 greens on holes 5 and 15 to provide a better challenge on and around the greens for the third shots.
Greenside bunkers were restored to their original positions, shapes, sizes and depths based on the aerials/drawings, I removed around 15 greenside bunkers and restored the articulating corners that originally existed, I left a few greenside bunkers where appropriate for the modern game and I shifted the fairway bunkers to modern distances etc where I thought the landforms allowed. Ross notes and drawings were used to determine depth of bunkers.
Sedgefield has 15 original greens as built by Donald Ross, 2 completely redesigned greens in original locations and 1 new green in a new location.
Mimosa Hills, Morganton NC
All 18 Greens are on the original fill pads and were cored to their original size, dimension etc.
The green contours were sharpened and defined to match the drawings and what was in existence or evidenced by the photos.
All Greenside bunkers were restored by removing sand buildup to delineate the original clay construction beneath them on the sides and in the bottoms. It was a very simple process. The greenside bunkers are original and reflect the bunkers that Ross construction team built. This is verified by many old aerial and ground level photos of the course from the 30's, as well as, Ross's routing plan and hole by hole drawings/notes. The fairway bunkers were restored in the same fashion as the greenside bunkers, I added one bunker to the string of pearls on the left side of the 5th hole and flip flopped a bunker on the 1st hole, brought back an old bunker on the 10th, other than that it was a straight dig out, clean off the build up and restore the faces. The course had several different style of bunkers including sunken pits with raised irregular surrounds, pot bunkers cut into the faces of up slopes / hills, sand pockets in the tops of mounds. I think there were 13 or 18 bunkers that were previously removed that the club would not allow me to reinstate. Mostly it was financial but some of it came from Billy Joe Patton objecting to a small degree.
At Mimosa I had Ross field drawings and notes with his revisions drawn on the plans
I had the original routing plan drawn by Walter Irving Johnson
Great aerial photos
ground level photos
original fill pads intact
most of the original bunker forms intact
Restoring Mimosa was a very straightforward project that was guided by the original course buried beneath 75 years of sand buildup.
David Madison, your comment that Sedgefield, Carolina and Myers have a sameness surprises me, they couldn't more different in my opinion. Sedgefield has one of the most unique set of Ross greens I have ever seen, vastly different than the other two courses. Bunker faces similar maybe, but routing, bunkering and green designs determined by the unique ground they sit on.
I hope this gives you some perspective into the process I go through, until next time.