The restoration work there is very impressive. Something that particularly impressed me is this: many/most restorations tend to look new. I can think of some Ross restorations in the central NC area that fit this mold. However, at Roaring Gap the restoration, and the greens in particular, look like they've been there since the beginning. Not sure how this was done, or if I'm seeing things, but it is fantastic.
That was our challenge at Roaring Gap. We didn't want to walk away from our Ross restoration feeling that it looked brand new? While we set out to reclaim the size, shapes, and dimensions of our Ross greens, we also wanted to retain the look, feel, and texture of our age-old putting surfaces, which had evolved naturally through the decades -- and had given our greens an old-fashioned, seasoned appearance -- a "look" that could best be created through time.
So, it was our preference to preserve these native turf mutations on our putting surfaces that had naturally evolved. Our green compositions consisted of a native blend of approximately 80% Poa and 20% Bent (and all the different hues, blends, and mutations within). We elected not to use one of the clean, new pure hybrid mono-stands of turf that had not "mottled" yet -- meaning that it would appear too sanitary and unblemished without any sense of yore. So Architect Kris Spence and Superintendent Erik Guinther agreed to "recycle" the native Poa turf blend rather than fight Poa on a new type of bent-dominant surface.
As a result, we stripped our current green surfaces and stockpiled the sod to the side for re-use after green re-construction. Because the new green perimeters were expanded 35% (or more in some cases) to their original footprints, and lowered 12" just above the surrounding grade, additional sod would be required. Guinther made certain of its availability by developing a 20,000 square foot green nursery, which he harvested from aerification plugs the preceding season. Because the nursery germinated from their native poa dominant green compositions that had evolved over 85 years, the turf supplementations during green expansion resembled that used on the rest of the course.
But to prevent the "new" germinated sod from visually clashing with the old native sod on the expanded perimeters, we decided to use the following strategy: The additional sod needed for green expansion on Hole 1 would be borrowed from the green sod cut from Hole 2. The additional sod needed for green expansion on hole 2 would be borrowed from the green sod cut from hole 3…. and so on. We kept borrowing from the greens ahead all the way down the line, until eventually, there wouldn't be anything left to borrow. At that point, the sod needed to cover the greens at Holes 7, 8 and 9 would be taken straight from the 20,000 sf green nursery. The rationale being that we didn't want to segregate a green with sods of different maturities, since it may be readily apparent to distinguish "old" native turf from "new" nursery turf, (even if it was germinated from the same core compositions), especially when placed right next to each other on the very same green. In the end, the "old" turf and the "newly germinated" nursery turf proved to be indistinguishable on separate greens. (We executed this process 9-holes at a time over two years.)
Today — not only have our original Donald Ross green forms been recaptured, but importantly, the old original putting surfaces have been preserved in the process, so in theory, they look authentic, or at the very least, unique and special. I documented the process on Hole 1 as shown below:
