Course Restoration Program

Our Plan to Restore the Course

The members of the Plymouth Country Club have voted to undertake a long term plan to restore the golf course to Donald Ross' original design. Enlisting the support of Ian Andrews, Golf Course Architect in 2008, (Mike Weir's partner) the members have aggressively supported the endeavor through fundraising activities and direct donations. Currently we have restored nine of the 18 holes and are committed to finishing over the next few years. Below is an edited version of Mr. Andrews report on the restoration:

General Assessment of Plymouth Country Club
by Ian Andrew Golf Design Inc.
Ontario, Canada

Overview:

The following Master Plan is the result of multiple site visits combined with researching the architectural history of Plymouth Country Club. The focus of this plan is the restoration and preservation of the architecture of Donald Ross. I also analyzed each individual hole to produce a list of improvements that will help place a greater focus on the architecture of Donald Ross.

Course Layout:

Donald Ross is without question one of the greatest golf course architects in history. Ross's routing of the Plymouth Country Club is an excellent use of a terrific rolling property. The opening three holes are wide and pleasant and help warm the player up for what is to come. They feature great long views out towards the ocean. The next six holes offer a wonderful rollercoaster ride playing over and through valleys. The changes of pace from short holes to long demanding holes are exceptional. The next nine continues the ride with even more dramatic undulations and a couple of big drops that increase the excitement. The opening stretch on the back nine features a string of par fours that are as good as anything in golf. The back nine winds in around the terrain and finishes with a spectacular set of holes and some really terrific green sites.

Greens:

While a good routing is the most important part of a golf course, the greens are the one element that can take an average hole and make it truly sublime. At Plymouth Country Club Donald Ross used a combination of strong pitch and clever interior roll to create a very memorable set of greens. Those greens are the true defense of the Plymouth Country Club and must be preserved even if it means aiming for a slightly slower green speed to keep them playable and maintainable.

The only changes I propose to the greens themselves is to expand and extend all of these greens back out to their original size and configuration. This will help recapture some lost pinning areas and return a few strategic slopes. This will be done to place an emphasis on the features around the green since this will close the distance between bunkers and fall offs and the edge of the green itself. The expansions will end up making the greens tougher since they often recapture a much more challenging pin.

Around the greens there are also quite a few feeder slopes, backstops, fall-offs and short game areas that will be restored to open up the options for players. Most of these options will become apparent in the recovery shots but quite a few open up an alternative type of approach shot into the green too. These areas should be recaptured at the same time as the greens since they will require an extensive maintenance program similar to the greens to get them to play firm and fast.

Bunkers:

While the greens on a golf course are the most important architectural feature, it is the bunkers that usually get the most attention. Most players use the character of the bunkers to describe what separates one course from another aesthetically. In the Ross's era seeing the sand was not considered essential, since the rough edges and shadow around the bunkers were clear indication of the hazard within. He built many beautiful grass faced bunkers at Plymouth that fit elegantly into terrain. The other benefit of his grass faced bunkers was that they could be placed much tighter to fairways and greens making the line between success and disaster much closer.

Plymouth's bunkers are spectacular. The club has managed to preserve the original shapes and lines on almost all the bunkers. Many experts have pointed to Plymouth's bunkers as some of the finest original examples of Ross's work, "Often, the very highest recommendation of a bunker is when it is criticized. That shows that it is accomplishing the one thing for which it was built: It is making players think. How often do we hear players criticize a bunker that is placed for a carry as being an unfair one if they cannot carry it?"

Fairways:

There are three major projects. The first is grass lines and involves shifting the ninth fairway further to the right which will make the green more visible from the landing area. The second is piping the ditch beyond the drop on the ninth hole and pulling the fairway back to the base of the fescue slope for playability for high handicap players. The final one is raising and draining the lower fairway on the 18th, removing the slope between fairways, so that the 18th fairway becomes one continuous fairway for playability.

There a couple of holes where short grass will be added around greens. The feeder slope will be returned to the right of the 3rd hole. The 4th hole will have a chipping area beyond the green on the left for more recovery options. The mound on the left of the 9th green will be turned into short grass to help feed in shots hit out on the bank. The right side mounds at the 14th green will be turned into short grass to add an interesting set of options on recovery shots. Donald Ross loved the small undulations around the Links courses.

"On approaches in America, one does not often find what is considered most desirable on a British course, namely an approach which takes the ball over little knolls, undulations and hillocks instead of absolutely flat and smooth country. There are holes on some Scottish links where knowledge of these peculiarities is absolutely imperative in order to get the ball near the hole."

Trees:

Trees are, without question, the most emotional and controversial topic for most golf course members. Many members view each and every tree as an integral part of the course and believe that they should be treasured and protected no matter what the circumstance. Golf course architects have to approach the issue of trees practically in order to effectively do our job. Our recommendations are almost always unpopular when it comes to trees. But every time we go through a tree removal program, some of the same members will say that it wasn't as bad as they thought it would be - or even better, they say they barely noticed the difference.

As an architect, it is our responsibility to recommend changes for the good of the course and the health of the property. Sometimes, this means removing trees. Donald Ross believed that trees could be used as a backdrop to visually frame a hole. However, Ross insists that trees should not be used for penal purposes on a golf course. He eloquently said:

"Trees should serve perhaps as the scenery, but never as part of the stage."

When Ross built the course at Plymouth he left lots of width between tree lines to allow players room to work the ball, and enough room for a weaker player to negotiate their way round the course.