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Oakland Hills
Country Club: This Month's Featured Course
 Our current featured project is the renovation work at the Oakland Hills Country Club’s South Course in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. The club will be host to its 16th major championship from August 7th-10th, when the 90th PGA Championship is played there (http://www.pga.com/pgachampionship).
The South course, which has earned the nickname “The Monster”, will have been host to three PGA Championships (1972, 1979, 2008), six U.S. Opens (1924, 1937, 1951, 1961, 1985, 1996), two U.S. Senior Opens (1981,1991), the U.S. Women’s Amateur (1929), the U.S. Men’s Amateur (2002), the Ryder Cup (2004), the Western Open (1922), and the Carling World Open (1964). The course was originally designed by the great Donald Ross and is consistently ranked as one of the top twenty courses in the U.S.
McDonald & Sons was retained by the Club in 2006 for a four month long renovation project in preparation for the tournament. The scope of the work included rebuilding and adding tees, rebuilding and adding selective fairway and greenside bunkers, addition of fairway and rough drainage where necessary, pond work on Holes 7 & 16, and adjustment and regrassing of all fairway lines. McDonald & Sons worked with architects Rees Jones and Keith Evans of Rees Jones, Inc., Oakland Hills’ Golf Course Superintendent Steve Cook, and the Club’s Maintenance Staff to complete the work.
Tees
A total of 21 tees were added to the course and 2 existing tees were rebuilt. The tees were added in order to lengthen the course and establish a new Championship set for tournament play. Nearly 350 yards were added to the back tees. A small amount of yardage and more flexibility was added to the membership tee markers on the course as well. Cart path was re-routed where necessary to accommodate for these new tee locations. Tee surfaces were sodded with a half acre of Bentgrass, and the surrounds were sodded with over 4 acres of Bluegrass.
Bunkers
A total of 13 fairway bunkers were added to the course and 20 were rebuilt. Some fairway bunkers were relocated or added to come more into play in today’s game or to improve strategy. Of the greenside bunkers, 3 were removed, 1 was added, and 14 were rebuilt. Of the bunkers rebuilt, floors were often deepened, and all were constructed to retain their original shape to remain consistent with the style of the course. The image below shows the bunkers completed on the Par 4, Hole #6.
Pond Work
A small existing pond to the right of the fairway landing area on Hole #7 was rebuilt and expanded to ten times its original size. Soil excavated from the lake was used to build the #7 Championship tee, which required a large fill. Special care was taken to provide a sightline from the new tee to the enlarged pond. A new rock wall was installed on the green side of the pond as well. The revised pond is now an acre in size and poses a more prominent threat to errant tee shots.
The large existing pond to the right of the green on Hole #16 was drained, de-mucked, and expanded to hug the back of the green. The old limestone rock wall was demolished and a new one was built along the greenside edge and approach. The completed pond and bunker work on the Par 4, 16th is shown in the image below.
Fairway Contouring
The fairway lines were adjusted for the entire course, regrassing with sod at a width of at least 20 feet. Some lines were moved to correspond with new bunker locations, and the fairway landing areas were narrowed to a width of approximately 25-30 yards. In all, about 2 acres of Bluegrass sod was laid to replace fairway Bentgrass area.
With the work completed on the famed Oakland Hills South Course, the Club is prepared to host the 90th PGA Major Championship. McDonald & Sons is proud to have played a part in the renovation work at a club with such a storied history as Oakland Hills. Our attention to detail and commitment to quality work lead to a successful renovation project at Oakland Hills, as well as with our many other Top 100 Clients.
Other McDonald &
Sons clients to host tournaments are:
Baltusrol
C.C. for the 2004 PGA Championship
Bethpage
State Park (Black) for the 2002 U.S. Open
Caves
Valley G.C. for the 2002 U.S. Senior Open
Congressional
C.C. for the 1997 and 2011 U.S. Open
(current featured course page)
Hayfields
G.C. for the 2003 through 2006 Constellation Energy
Classic
Hobbits
Glen G.C. for the 1998 and 1999 Senior State Farm Classic
Merion
G.C. for the 2005 U.S. Amateur Championship
Oakmont
C.C. for the 2007 U.S. Open (past
featured course page)
Olympia Fields C.C. for the 2003 U.S. Open (past featured course page)
Riviera
C.C. for the Nissan Open
Quail Hollow Club for
the Quail Hollow Championship
Robert
Trent Jones G.C. for the 2000 Presidents
Cup
Sherwood Country Club for
the Chevron World Challenge
Shinnecock Hills
G.C. for the 2004 U.S. Open (past featured course page)
Winged
Foot G.C. for the 2006 U.S. Open
What
will be our next Featured Course?
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Congressional
Country Club
Bethesda, Maryland
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Check back soon to
see this feature story...
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