Restoration Timeline: Philly Cricket's Wissahickon course (Tillinghast / Foster)

[Bill Shotzbarger]

wow

[Mark McKeever]

An updated look at hole 16 from the tee.  No more aiming up the left side and swinging for the fences!

[Powell Arms]

Another view of 15 from the right of the member's tees with the hillside waiting for fescue. (The two sets of forward tees are in the foreground)

The hillside is now a great feature framing 12-17.




Whoa, when you pull into the parking lot and see this truck, you know it is serious!

[Mike_Trenham]

Was that truck there for the willow trees, please say yes.

[Powell Arms]

Was that truck there for the willow trees, please say yes.

A substantial pruning, among other tasks.

[Powell Arms]

The final pieces of work are wrapping up, with final shaping if fairway bunkers complete and the rough sodded. The sodding of the rough was not in the original scope. It was added at the end to take advantage of cost savings we achieved in the base project. This sodding avoids the competition of poa in the rough with the seeding, which had been the base plan.

The course looks great. Now we just watch grass grow until late May of 2014.

Here's a look at the Great Hazard on 7 this morning.  

[Powell Arms]

A slightly different look at 15, with the high bluff that had been OB now exposed. It is being sodded with fescue today.





Top down approach



Great backdrop for holes 12-17 (14 green in the foreground)

[Dan Herrmann]

You guys are so lucky!

[Nick Church]

Thank you, Mr. Arms.  I've really enjoyed watching the progress.

[Powell Arms]

It has only taken 7+ years to get lucky, Dan!

Nick, glad you're enjoying following along. It has been an awesome 3 months of sitework.

[Powell Arms]

Below is a link to a YouTube video that is a hole-by-hole montage of pre & post restoration photos of Wissahickon.

Wow!!!  Grand re-opening slated for May 23, 2014

http://youtu.be/5-LVDNVrMKs

[Powell Arms]

And for those in Philly, "Inside Golf" on Comcast SportNet has a full 30 minute episode on the Wissahickon restoration to air Sunday, 10/20 at 7pm, repeating Mon @ 4:30pm, & Wed @ 11am.

[Ed Brzezowski]

Tremendous work by your club on this project. The area is richer because of what you folks have done, I hope I can rally the support you folks did for our  renovations.

[Powell Arms]

The entire 30 minute episode of "Inside Golf" is now available on YouTube:

http://youtu.be/aMzr8-Yo8Ks


Ed, please do not hesitate to give me a call anytime to discuss our learnings in greater detail. It took a lot of effort from a lot of people to build a solid concensus. That includes a lot if patience from Keith Foster to wait 5+ years from master plan to construction.

[PCCraig]

Powell,

Congratulations on the completion of work. Everything looks incredible!

[Powell Arms]

The links below allow you to get a more detailed look at the before and after photos at your own pace, as opposed to being embedded in the youtube video referenced in post 212 above.

http://philacricketgm.blogspot.com/2013/10/before-and-after-powerpoint.html

[Powell Arms]

Tremendous work by your club on this project. The area is richer because of what you folks have done, I hope I can rally the support you folks did for our  renovations.

Ed, the postscript to Brad Klein's Wide Open Fairways, entitled "A Restorationist Manifesto", is pretty close to the process we faced, with static inertia and resistance and then momentum.  The process was given a huge boost by demonstrating the health that would be achieved with tree removal and then adherence to a master plan developed by a credible third party (Keith Foster, in our case).  The master plan allowed for pricing and direction.  It also allowed us the time to ask why features were removed over time, recognizing that not every change over time was necessarily the stereotypical bad decision by a prior greens committee.

[Mark McKeever]

On Saturday morning, the club hosted a grand tour at Wissahickon that brought out a large group of members to view the changes and hear the thoughts of Jim Smith and Dan Meersman.  It was a great event that I believe added even more excitement on top of what is there already.    

[Charlie Gallagher]

     It will be interesting to see how it plays; it looks fabulous and I bet as it matures it will become even more appealing.
     When will it be resloped and course rated? I'm going to guess from the back it is going to slope in the low to mid 140's and the course rating is going to be well over its par. In it's pre restoration iteration it was a solid test, it will be substantially tougher now, especailly on the front nine.
     The project was obviously well thought out and Mr. Fosters execution of the plan looks first rate.
      I played another Foster restoration, Eastward Ho, 5 weeks ago. If Wissahickon comes out anything like that, the membership is indeed lucky.
   Powell, thanks again for your extended tour of the work. You did a superb job of keeping us posted.

[Bob Harris]

    It will be interesting to see how it plays; it looks fabulous and I bet as it matures it will become even more appealing.
     When will it be resloped and course rated? I'm going to guess from the back it is going to slope in the low to mid 140's and the course rating is going to be well over its par. In it's pre restoration iteration it was a solid test, it will be substantially tougher now, especailly on the front nine.
     The project was obviously well thought out and Mr. Fosters execution of the plan looks first rate.
      I played another Foster restoration, Eastward Ho, 5 weeks ago. If Wissahickon comes out anything like that, the membership is indeed lucky.
   Powell, thanks again for your extended tour of the work. You did a superb job of keeping us posted.

The 2014 GAP Rating schedule has not as yet been released, but I'm fairly certain that PCC Wissahickon will be rated next Spring.  

[Powell Arms]

Charlie, without speaking to rating, I think the course will play 3-4 shots harder for three reasons.

First, hazards off of the tee are now in a position to catch a good drive that is offline. Before, a well struck drive cleared most first shot hazards. So now, you duff a drive, you can recover, but with a longer second. Which brings us to the second reason.

The greenside bunkering is deeper and the entire green complexes now function as units, as they did originally. So a miss on an approach is probably a stroke. Greens are 20-30 percent larger, and that brings us to reason three (or maybe reason 2.5).

A missed approach could still be a green in regulation, but just hopelessly out of position so that a two putt is a challenge.

These three reasons have nothing to do with the length of the holes. From the restored championship tees, the course will measure approx 7,200 yards, par 70. Good luck back there.

[Mark McKeever]

Powell, I think the lack of collars on the greens will have an impact on scoring as well.  There are going to be hole locations that can be cupped thanks to the fact that the green goes right up to the rough.  From the fairway, some of the tucked pins are going to appear absurd, but will be completely playable when the player reaches the green and sees where the pin is located.

In addition, the lack of collars on the fairways will have a huge impact if the course plays firm and fast.  There are a lot of holes with sloped landing areas, and it will be very easy for golf balls to nestle up against the primary cut creating some headaches on approach shots.

Mark

[John Burnes]

Hey Powell-

In the ppt. link, #7 approach (after) appears to have church pew like bunkering.  Is that true or am I just seeing things?  Also, is it original or just a nice new feature?

Link here:

http://philacricketgm.blogspot.com/2013/10/before-and-after-powerpoint.html

[Powell Arms]

Hey Powell-

In the ppt. link, #7 approach (after) appears to have church pew like bunkering.  Is that true or am I just seeing things?  Also, is it original or just a nice new feature?

Link here:

http://philacricketgm.blogspot.com/2013/10/before-and-after-powerpoint.html

John,

Good eye.  There are church pew bunkers that have been restored to the bunker fw right. That bunker runs from about 110 yards out to 40 yards out from the center of the green.



The feature was not there in 1930, but was in 1938.

1930




1938





 it is interesting to see that a lot of bunker detailing was added in that period of 1930-38.

[Mark McKeever]

Those frilly bunkers are certainly cool and different!  They look very Tilly.   

Mark