Tom:
Just decided to post it here (again) for your perusal:
BEVERLY COUNTRY CLUB
GOLF COURSE
LONG RANGE MASTER PLAN
The Beverly Country Club membership is blessed with a wonderful, well-maintained Donald Ross golf course! We are proud of our national tournament history and our own Club tournaments and traditions. We are recognized as having one of the best tests of golf in the Midwest. And most important of all, every one of us is fully challenged each time we “tee it up”.
So why make changes?
Even though most members are satisfied with the course and the conditions, there are a number of “not so obvious” playability (shot strategy, fairness and challenge), maintenance and design issues that should be addressed. The Long Range Master Plan Committee has spent the past three years studying these issues and projecting the effect these issues would have on the future of the course and the future of the Club if not addressed.
We do not claim to be experts but we care deeply about the golf course. We believe in its current form, it falls short of its “real potential” and we have sought the advice and counsel of men who are the experts.
Both Ron Whitten, Architectural Editor of Golf Digest and Bradley Klein, Architectural Editor of Golfweek and Editor of Superintendent News were invited to tour the course and provided their observations and recommendations. Their inputs mirrored our list of issues.
In 1999, the Committee invited more than 20 architects to discuss a Master Plan and at least six architects toured the course with the Committee. Surprisingly, every architect identified the same basic issues at Beverly…squaring of tees, re-establishment of green pads, poor bunkering and weak turf conditions due to too many trees. After much discussion and many meetings, the Committee felt Ron Prichard was the best architect for our course. In the summer of 2000, Mr. Prichard was retained to analyze the issues and the state of the golf course and to make his professional recommendations.
Later in 2000, a comprehensive Golf Course Maintenance Research Study was mailed to the entire Beverly golfing membership. The survey results confirmed that most of the same course issues were also of concern to the majority of responding members.
In the summer of 2001, after many visits and hundreds of hours on the course, in meetings and in research, Mr. Prichard submitted a comprehensive series of design and improvement recommendations. In examining Mr. Prichard’s solutions to our issues, we were led to consider and more deeply appreciate the very design foundation of the course.
Rather than addressing problems on an individual basis, we have decided to pursue an overall design concept that will properly unify all the necessary work and re-establish a consistent, classic look and feel to the entire course. The plan will also eliminate the “stops and starts” and “knee-jerk” course modifications by future, well- meaning Grounds Committee and Board of Governor members as the plan will be incorporated into the by-laws of the Club.
This Long Range Master Plan concept has received the unanimous support of the Board of Governors and will be submitted for the approval of the membership in the summer of 2002.
As Mr. Prichard outlined in the preface to his plan… “The purpose of this Long Range Master Plan is to record the steps and methods which can be adopted and implemented to improve the agronomic quality (health) of the golf course, and to
illustrate and explain the work required to re-establish the classical playing character the master golf architect, Donald Ross, intended.”
We hope you will give careful consideration to this plan. It creates a pathway of care for our golf course that will ensure its viability and its unique pedigree for decades to come and will re-establish the
Beverly Country Club golf course as one of
the truly great classic courses in the country.
All interested members should read Mr. Prichard’s plan in its entirety (more than 100 pages). Copies of the complete plan are available in the Club office as are documents containing detailed descriptions of the work to be done on each hole.
We have also developed the following questions and answers, which cover the rationale and many of the details and specifics of the plan.
Why do our teeing surfaces need attention?
1. Most of our tees have lost their
shape over the years due to varying
maintenance practices and in many cases, the settling of the ground. They were originally square and should be returned to that state.
2. Many of our tees are too small
and/or too narrow to “spread the wear” and to change the “personality” of the hole from time to time as Donald Ross intended.
3. Many need to be realigned
properly and a good number require re-
grading and leveling.
4. Our forward tees do not properly
serve the people who use them. The lack of space and their poor condition contribute to the reluctance to play from there. In general, they are entirely too small, poorly positioned and on some holes, non-existent.
Why should we do anything to our great greens except keep ‘em fast?
1. Over the years, due primarily to
mowing practices, our putting surfaces have shrunk in size. Priority must be placed on reclaiming the lost putting areas and the lost pin positions originally created by Donald Ross.
2. The green expansion program will
enhance shot-making demands, reduce wear
and tear on the green surfaces, and improve the visibility of putting surfaces which currently require “blind” shots from many fairways (#5 for example).
3. Expansion of our green surfaces
began in the fall of 2001 on holes #5, #9 and #17, with excellent results and very positive membership response.
Why are we considering changes to the fairways?
1. Donald Ross believed in providing
generous fairways so that golfers of all skill levels have a chance to set up the proper angle for the approach shot to the green (depending upon the pin position).
2. To a very large degree, we have
lost many of these strategic and shot-making options at Beverly because players are forced to follow a fairly narrow, straight path from tee to green.
3. Mr. Prichard’s plan will “give us
back” many of the options and shot choices we currently lack. Although many of the fairways will be expanded and appear wider, they will not necessarily “play wider”. With the addition of other strategic elements and slight fairway routing changes, we will gain multiple routes to a hole. However, each day, depending upon the pin position, there will be but one optimum route. “Straight down the middle” will no longer be the best way to play every hole at Beverly.
Why has reforestation created the need for a tree management plan?
Aggressive tree planting by well- meaning individuals over the past 60 years has significantly impacted the agronomic health of our playing grounds and has eliminated many strategic elements of play.
1. Our trees will continue to grow
and spread, further restricting the width of our fairways and “closing off” more and more strategic lines of play.
2. The density of the tree canopy in
certain areas is also seriously jeopardizing the health of the underlying and surrounding turfgrass areas. Insufficient sunlight and inadequate air circulation will continue to create stress on the golf course turf and in many cases, these deficiencies will promote the spread of turfgrass diseases.
3. The tree management plan will
provide for healthier turfgrass, the elimination of double-hazard situations (which bring both trees and bunkers into play on some shots), the recapturing of lost playing corridors, and a reduction in the competition for water, nutrients and space which now endanger our most important specimen trees. Mr. Prichard’s tree management plan calls for the ultimate removal of 193 of our more than 2,200 trees.
Why are all our “new” bunkers part of the plan?
1. Our green-side bunkers were re-
done seven years ago and will require
significant work (sand replacement, drainage replacements, re-facing, etc.) in the next few years. The fairway bunkers were re-done less than three years ago.
2. The Golf Course Maintenance
Research Study indicated that the
membership was less satisfied with the bunkers than any other part of the course. The majority of the responding members were not satisfied with the bunkers’ playability and the consistency of the sand.
3. Mr. Prichard’s plan calls for the
modification and minor repositioning of most of the sand bunkers on the golf course. In conjunction with the putting surface expansions, the green-side bunkers will be restored in a manner which will situate these hazards closer to the green surfaces. Average players will no longer be forced to carry many yards of bluegrass rough between bunker edges and the green collars. Additionally, skilled players will find pin positions which will be cut closer to the bunkers than before. This restoration work will call for greater skill when playing to our greens and will place a new premium on bunker play. Some original Donald Ross bunkers and a few other new bunkers will be added and some bunkers will be eliminated, as reflected in the overall plan.
4. The Committee believes the
bunker plan will resolve most, if not all of the current membership criticisms and complaints and will help re-establish the original beauty of our classic Donald Ross golf course.