New ownership, renovations, grasses across PGA West properties

[Mark Kiely]

Sort of a puff piece about the new owners of PGA West, but also some specifics about new grasses and future plans across the nine PGA West courses. I've always been surprised at how lax their maintenance is compared to many other nearby courses. Hopefully they follow through with these promises and reinvigorate the whole place.

https://sports.yahoo.com/pga-west-ownership-busy-restoring-155509660.html

[Joel_Stewart]

This has been going on for over a year.  I played the Palmer private right before Brandon started doing his work. Personally I thought it needed more work then what they've done but maybe they're just going to spread it out.


The Stadium course is the crown jewel so they are being careful with what they want to do.  A few former Dye proteges have turned them down but it appears they chosen one who has a plan. It was built in 1986 and is pretty dated so I'm unclear if they are going to try for a restoration or a thoughtful renovation in a Pete Dye style? 

[Mark Kiely]

Update on this:


https://sports.yahoo.com/back-future-pga-west-hoping-201709375.html

[Joel_Stewart]

Update on this:


https://sports.yahoo.com/back-future-pga-west-hoping-201709375.html

So Tim Liddy has officially been named the architect. 


Tim has been adamant with management that the course be restored and they've agreed.  Personally, that 1980s style "land art form" is not attractive and I thought it would have been much better to renovate the course. There's going to be quite a bit of landscaping brought back, the lakes need to be dredged, the bunkers rebuilt, a new irrigation system and I assume they will regrass the entire course. All in all its a huge project.   

[Wayne_Kozun]

Will they be closing the courses to do this?

[Philip Caccamise]

Will they be closing the courses to do this?

Yes. The latest I've heard is it will be seasonal through 2023-2024 and open for play during the winter months [but that is subject to change]. (We run events there so I talk to them frequently.)


Nicklaus was regrassed last summer and it looks and plays much better.

[Wayne_Kozun]

Is there still any affiliation to the PGA?  If not, why does it still carry that name?  Was PGA West ever owned by the PGA?

[Tom_Doak]

Is there still any affiliation to the PGA?  If not, why does it still carry that name?  Was PGA West ever owned by the PGA?

It was owned by Landmark Land Co at the beginning, although they lost it in the Savings & Loan crisis.  The two developers were PGA members and did the deal to name it that, although I'm not sure why, though they did have long-term commitments to host PGA Tour qualifying and the PGA club professional championship.

[Matt_Cohn]

Putting back all those gorge like bushes is interesting. I assume they were taken out to make the course more playable for resort guests in the first place in the first place. Architecturally, restoring the greens to their original size seems like 90% of what they need to do. I’ve posted on that here before.