Forest Oaks given a 1920’s look

By JAY ALLRED

The renovation of Forest Oaks Country Club is not that noticeable by a quick look at the course routing or the par-72 scorecard. To get the full impact, players will have to take a trip around the 7,250-yard Greensboro course to experience the full scope of the new green complexes. It will reveal a trip back to the Golden Age of golf course design.

The $3.5 million rework is as classic as the elegant swing Davis Love III displays.

Most golfers are familiar with the “modern” architecture style made famous by Robert Trent Jones. The new design style is a throwback to the classics. Love’s team refers to architect Seth Raynor’s designs to describe the style of greens. Seth Raynor learned to design golf courses under the hand of Charles Blair MacDonald, the father of American golf course architecture. Raynor designed just over a dozen courses before his premature death. Among the most famous: Shinnecock Hills, Greenbrier (Old White), Yale University, Yeaman’s Hall and Fisher’s Island.

It will be there for all to see at the Chrysler Classic of Greensboro Oct. 13-19.

Forest Oaks’ fairway bunkers are trimmed in fescue grasses that will be a brownish color next year (too much fertilizer and water this year keeping them alive this summer). They will give a rugged look to the course. The edges of the greens have squared-off sides that will carry the ball away from the green. The greens feature dramatic slopes and have more movement than a J-Lo video.

This will provide more entertainment for the golfing public seeing how the pros will negotiate what promises to be a wide variety of recovery shots around the greens.

Two-time champion Rocco Mediate described many of today’s redesigns as boring golf. Not so with the gem at Forest Oaks.

“If you don’t like this golf course then you don’t like golf,” Mediate said after a tour of the course Sept. 4. “I think the guys are absolutely going to love it. I think the fields will continue to grow, now that the course has been put into a classic (design). We don’t have a lot of these.”

The major routing changes come early – the first two holes to be exact. The green on the first hole green has been moved to the location of the former second tee. Fairway bunkers on the left of the fairway are trimmed with fescue grasses, providing the only trouble on the relatively short par-4.

“It’s always nice to have first hole that’s playable,” Mediate said. “You go out the blocks with a 460-yard par-4 and it’s not much fun after that. And we’re talking membership too.”

The second tee has been placed where the first green was, changing that hole to a dogleg left. The area around the second green has been opened up and the green is the first dramatic change – a par-5 hole that ends on a Raynor-style “Biarritz” green.

Raynor based his designs on the most famous holes in Europe. The green is long with a deep swale in the middle. The pros will go for the green in two, but if they end up on the wrong side of the green a three-putt will be likely.

The third hole has been lengthened and will require a long iron second shot. One of the many changes that transpire though the course was the removal of trees to open up the course and provide for greater air circulation for improved grass growth around the course. Another change is that many greens feature a false front. This is pretty much a non-playable area of the green that most balls won’t stay. The purpose of the false front is to let golfers know where the green begins and is rather helpful in judging the depth of the shot.

Love converted the fifth and sixth holes from two short par-4s into a short and a long par-4. The seventh hole protected by the lake on the left can be accessed by a monster drive as the right side is contoured to funnel towards the green. Watch Hank Kuenne launch one on this hole. The eighth hole may appear plain without a bunker, but the long par-3 will feature some tough front pin positions. Golfers may try to bounce a few up on the green.

The 13th hole – one of the most photographed – has seen some of the most changes from tee to green. First, the hill in the landing area has been leveled. Second, the trees just over the lake have been removed. A 280-yard carry will allow big hitters to take the risk and leave them with a medium iron into the green. It's another green with a lot of elevation change and some unique pitches, chips and putts.

The 16th may be played from across the road, adding 50 yards to the par-4. If so this will be one intimidating tee shot and a hole that will be a bear.

On No. 18, players that miss the fairway left and find the “Big Nasty” bunkers will have to hack their way out of the deep fescue faces of the bunkers. They'll then encounter another green with a lot of slope and a 6-foot drop in the back. Skybox sponsors will get their money’s worth watching shots to the back pin position.

“It’s right in front of you,” Mediate said. “We need more courses like this, and you’ll get better fields.”

Officials of the Chrysler Classic are counting on that.