Sorry for the delay in responding but it has been a little hectic. In any event, Jeff Mingay is better qualified to describe the work as he is the architect. I can supply a little background as I have been on the Committee since 1992,serving as Chair for 10 years and as Club President for 2. I am currently the eminence grise on the Committee which has 2 younger and dedicated Chairs.
Briarwood f/k/a Briergate is a 1921 C.H Alison design. It was originally a private course but in the depression it failed. After a series of legal proceedings which likely would only interest a legal nerd such as me, the course was owned by RB Harris.
At the time it was built, Briarwood was considered a long course stretching to more than 6700 yards from the tips to a par of 71. The front 9 was largely treeless while the back contained a significant number of large oaks. There was no water Harris had the good sense of leaving the routing largely intact with the exception of 18 which was a challenging dogleg right to the northern edge of the property. He turned it into a dogleg left and shortened it in order to create a practice tee. Harris also planted a number of Hawthorns on the front nine, repositioned a couple of tees, and removed and/or reduced the size of some bunkers and some greens. He left few records; all of this has been put together from aerial photos and some oral history.
In 1958 Harris leased the course to our founding membership and in the mid-60's, the club convinced him to sell the property. A nearby club, Thorngate, never bought their property and after Harris died, the property was sold to a developer as a means of paying estate taxes. When the lease ended, the clubhad to move and the Ivanhoe Club was borne
In 1960 the club hired Paul Voykin as superintendent, a position he held for 48 years. PV was a leader in naturalizing golf courses initiating wild areas in lieu of maintained grounds long before it was fashionable. But at the insistence of numerous committees, the Club set out to beautify the front nine with tree plantings. While it never got completely out of hand (ask Tom Doak) it reduced both vistas and shot options. Then, as was the fashion after Kemper Lakes was built, the Club hired Dick Nugent to modernize some holes. While the young Jeff Brauer was tangentially involved, Nugent's key assistant was Bob Lohman.
The Club had already added a pond between 10 and 18 to serve as the reservoir for irrigation. That was well done as it created some risk reward on the drive. Our par 5 third, which played to an uphill green was bordered by a swampy area. The county asked permission to drain a major road on to the property. The club agreed provided that the county turned the swamp into a pond and built a new green behind the pond at Nugent's direction. The result was a dogleg par 5 with a dramatic approach over water. Unfortunately, the green was completely out of character with the rest of the course and an out of place beach bunker was installed. The old green is now part of a short game practice area.
Thereafter Nugent/Lohman altered 5 more holes without any significant routing changes. The par 3 11 was a classic short to a volcano green. Several members had played the new Blackwolf Run and were enchanted with the Pete Dye greens. So at their behest, the hole was lengthened, the approach angle was changed, a rectangular pond was constructed and a green full of humps and bumps was constructed, some of which ran off into a bunker.
On our par 5 13 they built a small pond short and right of the green. It is a 41/2 so the idea was to penalize those who went for the green in 2 and failed.
14, a short par 4 dogleg right with a green sloped sharply to the right boundary was completely altered into one of the worst short par 4s I have played' The hole was straightened and a wide but shallow green was placed atop of a rise with a fall off to out of bounds In front of the green, near the highest point of the property, a narrow rectangular water hazard encompassed the entire width of the green. Only a short iron was sure to hold the green. Thus at 370 yards, the hole was effectively a 3 shot par 4 for a significant number of players as there was no way to use the ground on the approach.
16 suffered a similar fate. A relatively straight, longer 4 featuring 2 prominent fairway bunkers with a green tilted to the right, again near the boundary, was turned into a dog leg left with a catcher's mitt green. When it became too easy to ignore the dog leg, the committee (before my time) planted trees to block the dogleg. Again, the problem for the shorter hitter was that they could not hit it far enough to get around the trees and the trees were too tall to allow a second shot to reach the green.
Finally, on 17 they slightly elevated the green and replaced it with one out of character along the lines of 11.
In the spring of 2000, we were hit with a microburst which destroyed over 250 trees and left us in shambles. We were playing in about 8 days but work had to be done. I was the incoming President and tasked with heading up the project with the help pf a committee. My friend Tom Doak was busy on some project in Oregon so we interviewed several architects and selected Mark Mungeam. He did a fabulous job on a limited budget. Over the objections of those who view a course as akin to an arboretum, we removed about 80 additional trees. On 11, the water hazard was naturalized and a new green, in keeping with the original style was constructed. 14 was remodeled. Given the members liking for the look of water, the hazard was moved to a low point near the boundary. The green remained on the high point of the property and was built to resemble a reverse Redan, albeit on a par 4. The water hazard served the function of the Redan bunker. On 16 the trees were removed, the dogleg left was made less severe, the fairway bunkers were restored at the corner of the dogleg, and the green was repositioned and rebuilt. Alas, we did not have the money to blow up the greens on 17 and 3. In addition, all the bunkers were rebuilt.
Fast forward some 20 years. We have proceeded with additional tree removal and the creation of additional natural areas which are largely out of play. The bunkers have not been rebuilt and need drainage. Given the significant amount of work involved, it was determined that we hire an architect and consider an updated long range plan. After an interviewing process, the Club selected Jeff Mingay. Jeff has been a pleasure to work with. He became acquainted with our history and was highly impressed by earlier aerials. While the Club does not have the stomach for a full restoration, a plan has been proposed to recapture much of the Alison that has been lost, We are starting with a complete renovation of the bunkers and yes, Better Billy will be installed. To reduce maintenance, some bunkers will be eliminated or reduced in size, but some that disappeared will reemerge and the Alison style will be respected. Fairway bunkers will be repositioned to allow for equipment changes. Fairway lines will be altered and some trees will be removed. Unfortunately we have lost some of our oaks to age and the three lined hickory borer. The 11th will be altered to try and restore some of its volcano characteristics. Other projects such as rebuilding 3 and 17 greens will wait until we have digested the cost of this project.
All in all an ambitious project where an amateur like me can watch daily as I did in 2001. I hope this helps and I will try to answer questions. I hope that Jeff chimes in to correct any errors.