[A.G._Crockett]

Cape Fear CC in Wilmington, NC, will be closing Nov. 1 for renovation/restoration work to be done by Kris Spence of Greensboro, NC.

A Ross course that has been altered extensively, the club possesses the original Ross drawings, which are framed and posted in the locker room.  It was a treat to get to look over them, and as I understand it, Mr. Spence will work off of these drawings as much as possible, restoring or removing bunkers, and restoring green contours.

Because the original 10th hole was long ago turned into a parking lot/putting green, a complete restoration is impossible, but plans call for the original 18th to be recreated, and a new par 3 to be constructed, with the current 14th and 15th holes abandoned.  These holes were not part of the original routing of the course.

In order to accomplish this, the current 13th green will be shifted slightly to the right to make room for the tee to the new par 3 14th (160 over water from the back).  #15 will be the par 5 current #16, #16 will be the long downhill par 3 that is currently #17, and the current 18th will have two fairway bunkers added and become #17.  The new 18th will be a 320 yd. par four that with the green behind the clubhouse as it had originally been.  

Additionally, most of the cart paths around the course will be removed, except around greens and tees.  My understanding is that the course will reopen in the fall of 2006.

[Tom_Doak]

AG:  We had done a plan to accomplish all those things about five years ago, and Bobby Weed's company did a plan before ours, but it kept getting deferred until we were just too busy to follow through.  

Glad to hear they will finally do the work.  However, if Kris is putting a par four in there behind the clubhouse, I hope his liability insurance premiums are up to date, because I didn't think there was room for it!

[A.G._Crockett]

I didn't realize you had done plans there as well; I knew about the Weed version.

As to the new 18th, if I read the plans correctly, it'll only be 320 from the tips.  However, as you know, OB runs right along the right side of the current 18th, and the 1st tee is just beyond the putting greens, so it will indeed be a squeeze.  There is also a small family cemetery to the left of the current 18th, so no room there.  That is one of two family burial grounds on CFCC, which has to be near the lead for that sort of thing!

I get there once a year in July to spend the day with my college roommate, who is a long-time member, so I'll look forward to seeing the product in the summer of '07.  Maybe next July he can get me a peek at least at the new 18th.

[Kris Spence]

A.G. you are correct that Cape Fear will close in November, I am very excited to be working with the club in renovating and restoring the course.  As Tom stated, we prepared the third of three plans and benefited from better timing I think.

I specifically asked the club not to show or discuss the previous plans so that my initial ideas and recommendations would not be swayed and also I was very interested in seeing how similiar they would or would not be.  I never did see the Weed plan or hear any discussions about it but did see Toms plan following our initial submission.  Our plan and Toms plan had quite a few similiarities primarily because we both were working with the original drawings as much as possible.

A.G., You mentioned several holes that I can provide a bit of clarification.

The13th green is being returned more to its original location nearer the hazard on the right.  This will provide the additional space needed for the new par 3 14th hole which will replace the old 10th hole.  We are going to relocate the pump house farther down the dam and build a new greensite into what is now the lake.  The shot will play over land, it is not my intention to bring the lake into play.  This allows for the 15th to remain a short to medium length par 5.

Tom is correct in that bringing a par 4 in behind the clubhouse is tight.  In order to provide additional room for this hole, the #2 green site will be shifted to the right slightly into the current maintenance area, which is being relocated  behind the practice area.  We will recreate the 2nd green per the plans in the new site along with the approach bunker that was removed.  We will also plant substantial trees between the new 18th tees and clubhouse for protection and to mask the sheer size and scale of the building.  

As you already know, Cape Fear is located on a very nice piece of property with great potential.  It is unfortunate that they chose to eliminate holes or alter the course design, however, clubhouse expansion and a growing membership requiring more family friendly facilities will do that.

My goal is to restore as much of the original course as possible especially the green complexes, surrounds and angles.  We will update some of the fairway bunkering for modern play, restore many of the original bunkers, add or shift a few bunkers to update the course for modern play, add a select number of tees to return some of the upslopes and ridges back into play and remove additional trees for better agronomics and playability.  Tom and Bruce Hepner assisted the club in tree removal on several holes with is making our job easier, they love their trees in Wilmington.  A new irrigation system will be installed along with extensive subsurface drainage under select fairway areas and approaches.

The end project will restore the golf as intended by Mr. Ross and produce a par 72 course at just over 6,800 yards from middle of back tees to middle of greens. I am very much looking forward to spending the winter near the coast.

[A.G._Crockett]

Kris,
Thanks for the clarifications on Cape Fear; I get a real sense of your excitement about the project!  As to the love of trees, I remember several years ago that some trees were removed, and I think it took aerials from the 40's or so to convince some of the members that if a pine tree interfered with play from a fairway bunker, it was probably a safe assumption that the pine tree shouldn't be there!

I didn't realize that the green for #2 would shift; that will make it a more interesting hole anyway, I would think.

If you are comfortable answering this, I have a question(s) about the original drawings.  Have you had the opportunity to work with a similar set before?  These seem to me to a wonderfully detailed set, but I don't have much basis of comparison really.

I'll look forward to seeing your work. Congratulations in advance.

[Brock Peyer]

Wow, you guys have my imagination going crazy.  I was an Assistant there for 2.5 years in the early 90's and love the course, unfortunately, I haven't played it in almost 9 years and haven't seen it since they finished the new clubhouse.  It's a shame that the old #10 is gone but is exciting to here that the old #18 is coming back.  The new holes were imported straight out of Myrtle Beach.  I have always thought that they might be a good location for a short course or practice course but they never fit with the design.  I can't wait to hear more and see the finished product.  I am sure that Walker Taylor can provide some info.

[hhuffines]

Kris,

I am excited to learn you are doing the work at Cape Fear.

However, I am really excited about your work at Bentwinds,
down near Fuquay-Varina.  I drove through there last week
and it looks like you are adding lots of character, especially
around the green sites.  Now that Raleigh CC and Carolina
CC have been renovated its great to see you working on this
little country favorite.

Can you elaborate on what youre doing there in terms of
length and how it will play?  

Thanks very much!

[A.G._Crockett]

Wow, you guys have my imagination going crazy.  I was an Assistant there for 2.5 years in the early 90's and love the course, unfortunately, I haven't played it in almost 9 years and haven't seen it since they finished the new clubhouse.  It's a shame that the old #10 is gone but is exciting to here that the old #18 is coming back.  The new holes were imported straight out of Myrtle Beach.  I have always thought that they might be a good location for a short course or practice course but they never fit with the design.  I can't wait to hear more and see the finished product.  I am sure that Walker Taylor can provide some info.

Brock,
IM'ing you was on my to-do list when I got back from Wilmington, but I hadn't gotten around to it.  Glad you saw this thread, and I know this is exciting to you.
BTW, Don Cooke and I played on a day that was 103 degrees, with a 110 heat index.  We only played 18, and we rode, both firsts for our yearly get together.

[Brock Peyer]

AG, I know those kind of days at the Fear, I won't tell anyone else that you rode but I bet that you were able to play in 3 hours or less.  This post got me thinking about the Fear last night and got me thinking that I need to get over there and play before it closes.  There has been talk about it for years about restoring and I am glad to hear that they are following through.  Please keep me posted if you hear anything about it.

[A.G._Crockett]

Don told me that from the time he parked his car the staff was encouraging him to ride, which he NEVER does.  They apparently didn't want to be faced with a CPR decision on two relatively old, and totally unattractive dying walkers.  

There were some spots back in the trees (11 green, 13 green, etc.) that were HOT!

[jim_lewis]

Tom Paul mentioned George Bayer on the Oakmont thread and now the subject of #18 at Cape Fear comes up. One of my first and favorite memories of PGA tournament golf involes both. In 1959 I attended my first PGA tournament, the old Azalea Open at Cape Fear. It was a regular tour stop at the time, and I seem to recall that the total purse was $35,000. Art Wall won that year. He also won three other tournaments, including the Masters, and was player of the year.

At the time, #18 was a dogleg left with a pretty healthy stand of trees on the corner of the dogleg. George Bayer was by far the longest hitter of that period (Nicklaus was still an amateur), and a large gallery followed him to see his big drives. I'll always remember that he amazed the gallery when he teed it up on #18 and aimed left over the trees on the dogleg. He landed in the greenside bunker (Sunday round), but I was told that he had driven the green in an earlier round.  I don't remember how long the hole was then, but I do remember that his tee shot was amazing.

About 40 years later I returned to Cape Fear and was shocked to see that #18 (and #10) did not exist anymore. Instead a huge new clubhouse and parking lots had obviously taken priority over the course. Plus, the greens looked exactly like the John LaFoy greens at the Florence CC, not bad, but not Ross. I saw the list of recommendations that Tom Doak had made, but I had little hope that they would ever me implimented. It appeared to me that the club was more interested in having a grand clubhouse that having a great course.

I am very thrilled to learn that somebody was able to convince the membership to do all that can be done to restore the course. I'll bet Walker Taylor IV deserves a lot of credit.

[John Shimp]

Great to hear about more Kris Spence work in NC.  He is currently in the process of building 2 new holes on my course Carolina Golf & Country Club in Charlotte.  The 2 holes will be the new 17, 18 and will replace the original 1 and 2 to allow a practice facility to be built there.  Kris also created a master plan for the club, but the bulk of it has unfortunately not been implemented.

[Walker_Taylor]

Ran,
Congrats on finally getting a feature interview with yourself! You have a great family, in blood, and in the golf world. By the way I would like our match at the Wilmington GC (Muni) reviewed by your committee.

To all Ross Fans and Cape Fear CC fans,
The work here is finally underway under Kris Spence's watchful direction. He has roughed in about half of the greens and greenside bunkers. It is a wonderful, sandy site. Any time we have had rain, his crew is back working in about thirty minutes, thanks to the sandy soil. It is going to be terrific. Will try and post some pictures that I took today. (Dunlop, help!)

Cape Fear is being done in large part to folks, like Ran (and Ron Prichard, Bobby Weed, Tom Doak, Brad Klein, Pete Jones, and Mike Fay), who came here four or five years ago to see the Muni, and later gave a talk to the Men's Golf Association at CFCC. Ran, I think it will be worthy of a profile but you'll have to come back to see for yourself.

I would tell more about what's going on here... but as was said at a friend's eulogy yesterday, "many a great story has been ruined by an eye witness."

[A.G._Crockett]

Any rough estimates now of a completion target date?

[Nathan Cashwell]

Walker's right, we got 9 green complexes roughed in and will start draining them tomorrow.  This sand is a dream, I wish we had it on all of our projects.  It's coming along beautifully, the excitement around here is palpable.

John,
As I'm sure you have noticed that work is proceeding at Carolina.  I am actually looking at the master plan right now.  I stopped through there about a week and a half ago and the two new holes are looking great.  We can't wait to get the rest of the project under way.

Nathan

[Dunlop_White]

Fantastic!

I just did a ride-through this morning and was truly blown away with this restoration effort.

The bunkers are strong -- with nice contours and depths.

The greens are also very good -- They've recovered some great pins -- some with good back-to-front pitch which flip up in the corners --

Square tees, path removal, some modest tree work (though they need to do a fair bit more)

Hole 14, a new short par 3 with great perimeter bunker work and a diagonal two-tier green, looks terrific.

All-in-all, very good!

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