Grassing is complete on the redesigned PCC, and grow in is well underway. Jerry Pate's design team has done a terrific job reworking the course to greatly improve drainage and bring the course into the 21st century. The old course, with one nine built in 1902 and the second in 1925, was very flat, close to sea level on Pensacola Bay, and became more and more mucky over the years. After heavy rainstorms it became impossible to send out carts, which is a problem in the high heat and humidity of Gulf Coast summers.
Hurricane Ivan finished the job, downing over 3000 old pines and ancient oaks, and flooding large parts of the course in September 2004.
Pate's redesign included digging several large ponds and turning all the soil on the site, to get the sand from underneath and in the pond excavation, on top of the fairways. The course will be several hundred yards longer but will play about the same because the new sand-based fairways will play much firmer.
Check out the club's new website for a hole-by-hole tour:
http://www.pensacolacountryclub.com/course.phpThese photos were taken after shaping was complete but before the fairways and greens were grassed, so the sand is easily visible. Those who have played the course will be shocked by the absence of trees, but Pate's team used what was left to great advantage.
Some highlights include the long par 3 #7, with reverse Redan shaping and a Biarritz swale in the green surface. #8 used to be a dead flat short par 5 with fairway bunkers left and right and a muck-filled ditch in front. Now there is a Principal's Nose bunker complex in the middle of the fairway which blocks the view of both green and lay up area, with a pond guarding the green left. #18 is a 160 yard par 3 between the clubhouse site and the bay, with nice elevated green and nothing to stop a ball out to the right from bounding down into the bay! #3, #5, #10, and #16 are good looking short par 4s, while #2, #9, #13, and #17 will be difficult par 4s.
The green contouring will be very interesting, with several fall away greens and some strong ridges. The greens will be old reliable TifDwarf, and will not be overseeded in winter.
Jerry Pate and lead designer, Steve Dana, were aware of my passionate love of classic golf design, and I think humored me at every possible opportunity, including the reverse Redan, Principals Nose, and square tee boxes. I'm getting very excited.
I hope to host a gathering of southern GCAers and anyone else interested in escaping colder climes, come spring. It should be fun.
