Jeff,
The work being done at St. Charles CC will not be a true restoration. The club made some serious alterations to the golf course a few years ago, most notably to the Mackenzie nine. I do not think the club is even considering spending more money to undo what was done to prepare the course for the Senior Tour's Canadian Open. In an effort to lengthen the golf course, a new back tee on #7 was built atop of the old 3rd green, a nice little sub 300-yd par 4. Sadly, the Senior Tour officials didn't feel like using that back tee during the tournament, and a good hole was replaced by a mediocre one (maybe it'll grow on me!). Jack Nicklaus was quite critical of the above decision. Further changes were made to the green complex at #5. From the Mackenzie plan & still photograph in Doak's biography on Mackenzie, there does appear to still be quite a bit of the original course intact. More recently, Mike DeVries has been enlarging the putting surfaces on #1 & #2 on the Mackenzie nine, creating some very exciting new pin positions. I was told the old edges were determined by taking plugs out of the existing green surrounds. However, seeing as the greens were originally push-up complexes, I'm a little unclear as to what was found in the soil to differentiate between green surface & surrounds (no greens mix like modern day USGA greens).
The Ross nine also received substantial changes in the process of wooing the Senior Tour. Thankfully, a great number of trees were removed from the #2 hole, however the green was enlarged substantially. I believe the original green is intact, and not sure if the new area is more fitting of Ross' original design. The same thing occured at both the #6 & #7 green complexes. Further, the old short par 4 #8 was removed from the routing by a longer hole to the immediate west of the fairway. Sadly, last time around the course, the old green complex was being stripped for sod and the bunkers were unkempt and fading into extinction. It is not entirely clear to me how intact the Ross nine was before the changes, for there had been work done in the past.
The club has also engaged in a tree clearing plan in recent years to help encourage the strategic options that once existed on many holes, and the result looks great!
It is encouraging to see that Mike DeVries is restoring the look of the bunkering, to give each nine the destinctive appearance of their original architecture. It is a shame that a true restoration will not take place!!
Tyler Kearns