Renovated Forest Oaks Will Play to 7,350 Yards for Tournament

By JIM PETTIT

Normally when you think of Forest Oaks Country Club, you think of lush greenery, immaculately groomed.

This time of year, the autumn foliage would only enhance the course’s beauty.

Forest Oaks looks nothing like that today. As the course awaits a renovation project that will carry it and the Chrysler Classic of Greensboro into a new era of PGA Tour golf in the Triad, Forest Oaks is brown and dead.

The renovation team from Love Enterprises and Associates of St. Simons Island, Georgia – a firm headed by prominent touring professional Davis Love III – was set to begin work October 24. The project is scheduled to be completed between next June and September, just in time for the Chrysler Classic, which moves to October dates for the first time. In previous years, the tournament had April dates.

“We have a common bermudagrass and we changed over to rye for the tournament every year,’’ Forest Oaks head professional Ron Jones said. “”So now that we’re going to the fall, we will not go to a rye grass. It will be all bermudagrass. Well, the PGA Tour does not play on a common bermudagrass, so we’re changing that. We’re taking out all of our common bermudagrass and, to do that, we had to kill it while it was still growing. When bermudagrass is dormant, Roundup (a plant killer) doesn’t do anything to it. We sprayed the first week in August and then we had to wait six weeks to spray again. You’re still not going to get it all, but you’re going to get 90-some percent. And, once we put the new bermudagrass in, you’ll be able to tell a big difference in the two grasses and we’ll go back and spot-spray the first couple of years. The greens aren’t basically a problem because you dig them up and reshape them anyway.’’

In addition to the new hybrid bermudagrass for the fairways, greens will be seeded in A-4 bentgrass, an ideal putting surface. “It’s supposed to be more receptive to traffic and heat so you can keep it cut a lot lower in the summertime,’’ Jones said.

Jones says the project will begin on the back nine.

“What you do is work from the pump house out,’’ he explained. “When they complete a hole, our staff will go in and re-do the sprinkler system. Our pump house is down around the 12th hole. So as soon as they get done with that, the sprinkler heads will go down and we’ll follow them to the 11th or 13th hole, whichever way they decide to go. The way they’re doing it is the backside first, which should be completed in December, and then they’ll move to the front side.’’

Although several of the Forest Oaks holes will remain largely true to the original Ellis Maples design, about a third will undergo major changes that will require a lot of earth-moving.

“From the preliminary reports, what we’ve seen is that a lot of the hills will be shaved down, a lot of trees moved and things like that,’’ Jones said.

One of the biggest changes will be the design of the 13th hole, a dogleg left par-5 that featured a hill sloping down to a lake on the tee shot. Fans loved the hole because it challenged the big hitters to thread a needle and get to the green in two shots.

“They’re going to take that hill totally out,’’ Jones said. “Plus, they’re going to move the tee back about 60 yards. You’ll be hitting to a flat area, and it should be a really neat hole.’’

Another major change will be at the 18th, a par 4.

“At 18, the pros drive over a hill and a bunker, but that hill is going to be moved back so they will drive into the hill,’’ Jones said. “They no longer will get the 50-yard bounce forward. The ball will hit and stop pretty quickly, leaving them a longer shot into the green.’’

Overall length of the course will be increased to about 7,350 yards, returning it to one of the PGA Tour’s longest. Size of the greens is also being increased as a decade-old reworking by Fuzzy Zoeller and Clyde Johnston is obsolete due to edges burning out and other grasses creeping in.

 The course will definitely carry the Davis Love stamp.

“His greens tend to have undulations but are not severe,’’ Jones said. “Also, he has a lot of false fronts and sides, so if you hit to the wrong side, the ball will start trickling off into a gathering area.’’

Forest Oaks members will be hosted by several area clubs during the renovation project, but despite the inconvenience of not having their own course, most members are excited about the $5 million project, Jones said.

One of the hardest parts has been staff reduction.

“All the outside staff is gone,’’ Jones said. Superintendent Dan Winters remains, however. “That’s really on the job training, to be able to re-do a golf course,’’ Jones said. “They thrive on something like that.’’

Jones and one assistant will man the pro shop through the shutdown period. They will book tee times at other courses for members and continue to give lessons.

And maybe catch up on reading in some trade journals.

“It will be pretty slow for a while,’’ Jones said, “but it will all be worth it when it’s finished.’’