Great to see such interest in Davenport C.C. This course is so worth a visit as photographs and descriptions cannot convey the genius of the routing upon such great topography in an area where many might think the course will be relatively flat and uninteresting. Alison's use of the land provides such great variety with majestic views, flat holes, elevated tees, fairways with heaving ground where one side of the fairway is nearly 30' below the adjoining side (7th hole), elevated tees and greens, sheer rock faces within view and play. The greens until the renovation had remained relatively untouched (holes 1, 9 and 18 had been modified and the 2nd and 12th holes were relatively benign). The club had done very little top-dressing through the years and the greens were suffering because of the lack of sand. The course was overgrown with trees. The 1st hole had been rerouted to fit in the DR and was now sitting on a narrow corridor with a hillside to the right and a fall-off to the left. The hole felt awkward in its repositioning. The 18th hole was also modified and rerouted much further from the clubhouse and played over a stream on the low portion of the property. Bunkering included some of the original hazards and many "new" bunkers added over the years. Many original bunkers had been removed or rebuilt in a more modern appearance. Others were covered over.
The project entailed the rebuilding of the 1st, 8th, 9th, 12th, 17th and 18th greens. All bunkers were rebuilt, some eliminated and many original bunkers reinstated. All greens, because of the lack of top-dressing, were capped with 6-8" of sand. We utilized laxer scanned images from Scott Pool to assist with maintaining the integrity of the original contours. Fairways were regrassed as well as rough (25 - 40') from the edges of the fairways. All fairways were expanded, some regraded. All tees were reconstructed, some removed and many added. The tree removal was extensive and continues with each passing winter. Davey Tree was on site at the beginning of construction with 5 crews present. The burn piles for the removed trees were rather large.
This was a team effort of epic proportions (for a renovation project). The club put their faith in us to help lead, but so much of it came down to the efforts of the clubs staff and especially the work of Dean Sparks. Dean had been a superintendent who spent many years working with Pete Dye. He was looking to travel less and reestablish his home near Davenport. His ability to manage so many moving parts was key to the overall success. This project started during the last week of July 2014 and was substantially wrapped up just after Labor Day. The bulk of the remaining work was clean-up and grassing. Landscapes Unlimited threw everything they could at the job to meet the schedule and exceeded all expectations.
The only downside to the whole project ended up being the weather. Just after the last seed and sod when down the rains came, then Winter, then a cold wet Spring. Things were really lagging behind in the Spring/Summer of 15. It wasn't until the Fall of '15 that the course began taking shape.
Ron and I were not 100% sure what we were going to do with the bunkers even after having our 1st visit for construction. We were sitting apart at the airport after the visit talking about bunkers. I texted these two photos to him when sitting a few feet apart. Once we had the photos, we were off and running.
Plan of course
2012 Aerial Photo
1937 aerial photo
Hole 2 - Before/After
Hole 7
Hole 8
Hole 9
Hole 12
Hole 15
Hole 18
