Bobby Weed

[Chris Moore]

Bobby Weed recently renovated our golf course (New Orleans Country Club, which unfortunately sat under saltwater for the last two weeks) and did what I think was a good job with a difficult piece of property.  We chose him primarily because of his work on a course in Florida with similar topography (the Univ. of Fla. course, I think, or it may have been Timuquana)  The drainage work he did was stellar; our course is usually playable and somewhat firm within a couple of hours after even a serious t-storm.  Before his renovation, a hard rain produced a week of soggy conditions.  The tree-clearing project was well done as well, except for a few large live oak trees which no one would let him touch.  He is set to do the renovation of the courses of City Park, one of which was the former host of the Greater New Orleans Open for the PGA Tour.  

I am interested to hear opinions of my fellow GCAers on Weed's work.  Hopefully I can post a profile of the course when it recovers from Hurricane Katrina.

[Craig_Rokke]

SI-Golf Plus did a series of articles chronicling Weed's
project at U  Fla. I was impressed.

Locally speaking, I've heard  good  reports about his
renovation work at White Manor, though I have yet to see the course.

I have played Glen Mills 3 or 4 times, and feel that it is very good, in particular the front 9. The back 9 routes
through some more challenging portions of the property.
Some publications have it ranked quite high in Pa, and
from a public course standpoint, I don't know that anything I've played in Pa is measurably better.

[Jason Topp]

I really like the one Bobby Weed course in the Twin cities - Stoneridge.  Fast and firm, wide playing corridors, interesting decisions when playing the holes, great par threes and very walkable.  He put in very rough edged bunkering, but it seems to me that the look is eroding a bit due to maintenence practices.

[Lawrence Largent]

I live very close to the Olde Farm in Bristol, Va which won best new private a couple of years ago. He did a great job with the bunkering they look very much like the bunkers at Merion. The par 4's are really good some short and some long with nice wide fairways with great playing angles. He did a great punch bowl green on the par 4 5th with a center line bunker in the fairway. The only problem I have with the course is that it normally plays way to soft because Weed intended it to play hard and fast like a links course should. The par threes are really weak the par 3 12th to me is the only par 3 that fits in with the rest of the holes. The finishing par 5 18th is really a weak finishing hole also.

[michael_j_fay]

Bobby did a wonderful job at Timuquana both from an Architectural and Engineering poit of view.

His drainage work was extremely well executed on a difficult piece of property. It is especially good considering that the course had just been informed that the Air Force Base next door was sending over 150,000 gallons of effluent every day.
The course is just above the water level of the St. John's River which runs behind the clubhouse. When I last played it Timuquan was playing dry and fast.

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

I have not played New Orleans CC as yet. Yes the course was under water but I am not sure of the salinity since the water came from the Lake. I have looked at it and it looked ok. It was a renovation period withno attempt to be anything other than that. The only thing wrong with the site is how little land he had to work with to lengthen holes. The drainage was improved and really needed to be. I hope to go down in a month to check it tree damage and the impact of the standing water.

[Chris Moore]

FYI:  Lake Ponchartrain is brackish.  Any idea how long grass can survive under saltwater?

[Jason Mandel]

Chris,

Bobby Weed re-did my home course up here in Philadelphia, White Manor.  Bobby and Scot Sherman did a great job giving life to a dying old course.  There has been a lot of discussion on here about White Manor, try a search on it.  I'd be happy to go into detail about the project with you at any time.

Our conditions now are certainly a 1000 times better than before.  

I actually saw Scot and Bobby last week and Scot didn't seem to optimistic about New Orlans CC survived the hurricane.  He said that although only about half of it was flooded, it was now being used by I think the military to fly planes or helicopters in and out of.  

He also said that they had no idea what was going to happen to the project they were working on for the city/state but they weren't too optimistic at this point obviously.


Jason

[rgkeller]

Weed did not remove enough trees at Timaquana and by a considerable amount.

[BCrosby]

I agree with rg about Timuquana. I got the sense that there were things left undone. Is Weed due for a return visit?

I like very much what Weed did at Ponte Vedra. Especially to the two par 5's on the back and the 17th. I suspect his changes didn't have much to do with Herb Strong's original design (I hope I am wrong about that), but all three holes are now vastly more interesting.

Bob

[Mike_Young]

Weed did not remove enough trees at Timaquana and by a considerable amount.
 

Rg,
How do you know BW did not remove enough trees??  I would wager a committee stopped it.
Mike

[michael_j_fay]

When I walked the course with Bobby Weed in the mid 90's before the work was done there were 13 dog-legged holes on it. This included one of the par three holes.

An old aerial that was found in the clubhouse showed that the course had two dog-legs back in the late 20's.

It was easily apparent which trees belonged to the 1930',1940's. 1950's, 1960's, 1970's and 1980's tree planting programs. Usually they started on one side of a hole or another and just forced the hole to be played around the corner. I believe that two of the original greens were lost to this lunacy.

Like many other courses there was a lot of resistance to tree cutting from the membership. Bobby cut subsatntially           ( I believe that the number was about 1500) and that was a hell of a lot of lumber for 1996. I agree that there are too many trees on the course today but it has come a long way.

[rgkeller]

And now only 5000 trees to go at Timaquana.

[Bill Shotzbarger]

SI-Golf Plus did a series of articles chronicling Weed's
project at U  Fla. I was impressed.

Locally speaking, I've heard  good  reports about his
renovation work at White Manor, though I have yet to see the course.

I have played Glen Mills 3 or 4 times, and feel that it is very good, in particular the front 9. The back 9 routes
through some more challenging portions of the property.
Some publications have it ranked quite high in Pa, and
from a public course standpoint, I don't know that anything I've played in Pa is measurably better.

Number 11 is a great short par four. After four rounds I believe I made par only once.

[mike_malone]

I spoke with the super at Glen Mills today. They will probably move the #11 tee closer to the #18 tee. I believe they will elevate it to give you a look at the small landing area. -I think this may help. He is well aware that the hills that frame #11 and #17 are just too close together to have enough width for two holes, particularly with an environmental area separating the holes. I look forward to their solutions here.

  I think these two holes are a little goofy now--no place to hit the drive on #11 and no place to hit the second shot on #17 , but certainly understand the constraints under which they were operating. The overall course is marvelous.

[Craig_Rokke]

Bill-

That approach at #11 is a tough one. A decent hole, but I personally like some of the others better.


The flow of the first 4-5 holes at Glen Mills is excellent,
and really gets me excited about playing there.

There are also a couple of short par 4's that I like. #12 is
driveable under the right conditions. I also like the testiness of the 325 yard # 8's uphill approach to a shallow, shelf of a green, with the tower in the distance.

The greens and bunkering are  well done at GM. I would even go so far as to call a couple greens pretty bold, such as the
one at the par 3 7th.  # 15 I believe has a pretty cool biarritz-type green, and #14, the redan, is a good one shot hole.

Any word on further development of the land across the street? A plan existed a few years back to make a 2nd 18, but
I have not heard anything since.

[Craig_Rokke]

Mayday-

I agree with the plan for 11. A little bigger landing area, or at least a better view of it could help.

[mike_malone]

They may build a 19 th hole at Glen Mills to enable them to work on #17 while still having 18 holes.


    I wondered about a radical idea on #11-#17-- Can you cover over the environmental area , still let it flow, open up some random areas as hazards but add significantly to the playing area?

[Kelly Blake Moran]

I agree with rg about Timuquana. I got the sense that there were things left undone. Is Weed due for a return visit?

I like very much what Weed did at Ponte Vedra. Especially to the two par 5's on the back and the 17th. I suspect his changes didn't have much to do with Herb Strong's original design (I hope I am wrong about that), but all three holes are now vastly more interesting.

Bob

[BCrosby]

KBM -

PV's original Strong design was "softened" by RTJ in the '50's. (It is unclear exactly what RTJ did because it is unclear as to what exactly Strong's original PV looked like. Old aerials would tell the story, but I haven't dug them out.)

The 13th and 14th were uninteresting par 5's for many decades (I first played PV in the early 60's). Weed brought a creek back that cuts diagonally across the 13th fairway and that skirts the right side of the 14th green, both very nice changes, imho. On the 17th Weed opened up an alternate fairway which was never used before but clearly designed to be there. It is now a terrific par 4 with lots of width and options galore.

My guess is that the prior, duller versions of those holes were RTJ's work. Whether Weed attempted to restore Strong or just made changes, I don't know. But the result is three much better holes.

I hope that clarifies my garbled post.

Bob