From PGA Magazine Industry Insider: Doak's Medinah No. 1 Restoration

[Matt Frey, PGA]

The latest issue of PGA Magazine Industry Insider is now live and I wanted to share one of its articles with the GCA community. It's about Tom Doak's restoration of Medinah Country Club's No.1 course.

http://www.pgaindustryinsider.com/i/368314/8

[Garland Bayley]

I don't believe that's Tom in the picture.

I think they faked it.

Dead give away would be the clothes and the equipment.

Edit:
Well since he's wearing the same clothes on the next page, they must have given them to him like the people at PGA West did for Pete Dye everyday while he was working there.

[Tom_Doak]

I don't believe that's Tom in the picture.

I think they faked it.

Dead give away would be the clothes and the equipment.

Edit:
Well since he's wearing the same clothes on the next page, they must have given them to him like the people at PGA West did for Pete Dye everyday while he was working there.

The golf shirt was a freebie, but the blazer is mine.  I just try to avoid events where I will be expected to wear it.  They actually wanted me to be in a coat and tie, but I got out of that by pointing out that I had to hit the opening tee shot.

I do have a new driver and 5-wood, which I bought last year.  I think I've only played 15 rounds with them.

[Jeff Bergeron]

Are there no chainsaws in Chicago?

[Matt Frey, PGA]

Are there no chainsaws in Chicago?

I'm sure Mr. Doak and Medinah had very good reasons to keep as many tress as they did (flooding?), but it is interesting to see how much different the hole has changed since this photo was taken, compared to today:

[Andrew Buck]

I believe Tom has noted that he had the ability to take down as many trees as he wished during the project.

[Jeff Bergeron]

I'm loving the before cross bunker.

[Terry Lavin]

It is nigh impossible to describe how much fun this new iteration is, especially for those who suffered through rounds on the rather tired predecessor.

[Jeff Bergeron]

Are there no chainsaws in Chicago?

I'm sure Mr. Doak and Medinah had very good reasons to keep as many tress as they did (flooding?), but it is interesting to see how much different the hole has changed since this photo was taken, compared to today:

The problem is 'and Medinah'. Get Green Committees and Boards involved and you have a faux restoration.

[Terry Lavin]

JB:

Ever played there?

[Jeff Bergeron]

No 3 yes. No 1 no. A good friend of mine is a member and he is very pleased. That being said I think the over exuberance of Boards and Green Committees mess up restorations.

[Terry Lavin]

No 3 yes. No 1 no. A good friend of mine is a member and he is very pleased. That being said I think the over exuberance of Boards and Green Committees mess up restorations.

There may be merit in that belief, but the work on Course One was not a restoration. It was a renovation or a rebuild. So to criticize it because the new camel bunker isn't as cool as the original is funny. The boards and committees at Medinah have f'ed up #3 on a repetitive basis but they pretty much let Doak get his vision implemented.  Get out there and play One. You won't care to go back to 3 unless you have all sorts of game.

[Aaron McMaster]

No 3 yes. No 1 no. A good friend of mine is a member and he is very pleased. That being said I think the over exuberance of Boards and Green Committees mess up restorations.

There may be merit in that belief, but the work on Course One was not a restoration. It was a renovation or a rebuild. So to criticize it because the new camel bunker isn't as cool as the original is funny. The boards and committees at Medinah have f'ed up #3 on a repetitive basis but they pretty much let Doak get his vision implemented.  Get out there and play One. You won't care to go back to 3 unless you have all sorts of game.

Agree JB there are still too many trees but Terry is correct this course (good or bad) is now fully a Doak, might as well have been a new build.

[Jonathan Webb]

Square tees looking good!

[Tom_Doak]

The club has a new camel logo for Course Number One, so they asked us to re-shape the camel bunker to look like the new logo.  It had morphed quite a bit over the years; it looked more like the bear on the Klondyke Bar, before we did our work to it.

We took down hundreds of trees, but mostly further out in the middle of the course.  There is no way they would have let me take down everything past the oaks down the right side of #1, so I didn't ask. 

[John McCarthy]

Aaron:  the fairways are very generous.   The trees are not a problem and the remaining trees should serve as an example to the other courses in the area on how to cut the forests that too many courses have become.