Tom Fazio, who has 14 original designs on this year's ranking of America's 100 Greatest, also claims an array of redesigns. His transformation of Augusta National during the last decade, making it longer and tighter, has been well-documented. So has his work at No. 5 Oakmont, which hosts the U.S. Open in June, and No. 8 Winged Foot West, site of last year's Open. Fazio has also been involved in improvements to No. 7 Merion, No. 21 Butler National and No. 61 Riviera, where, among other things, he recaptured a long-abandoned alternate fairway on the par-4 eighth.
A similar reclamation just occurred at No. 37 San Francisco Golf Club, where three holes cast aside more than 50 years ago (in anticipation of a highway expansion) were recovered by Tom Doak, who in recent years has also helped No. 55 Camargo Club and No. 88 Shoreacres restore their distinctive Seth Raynor designs. Of course, Doak is best known for imaginative original work like No. 14 Pacific Dunes on the Oregon coast and Lost Dunes in southwest Michigan, new to our list at No. 63, one of only six additions to the 100 Greatest in 2007, down from the record turnover of 18 courses in 2005.
(Doak calls Lost Dunes, with two large lakes in play on half the holes and a wild set of boldly contoured greens, his most "modern-looking" design. Its routing is ingenious, linking holes in a mined-out sand pit on both sides of an Interstate highway. Nothing wrong with that: Oakmont is bisected by the Pennsylvania Turnpike.)
Pete Dye, Doak's mentor 20 years ago, spends much of his time these days refashioning many of his early designs. Seven years ago, he rebuilt No. 93 Harbour Town Golf Links on Hilton Head Island, replacing tees, greens and even rotted railroad ties in bunkers and water hazards. He then moved next door and gave a similar treatment to No. 78 Long Cove. Last year, Dye completed a top-to-bottom reconstruction of No. 79 TPC Sawgrass' Players Stadium Course. Can No. 69 Blackwolf Run River, almost 20 years old, be far behind?
ANOTHER STAR IN MONTEREY
Nowhere has the impact of course remodeling been more dramatic than at California's Monterey Peninsula Country Club, whose Shore Course joins America's 100 Greatest this year at No 77. Designer Mike Strantz battled tongue cancer while transforming the bland, low-budget 1961 Bob Baldock design into a scenic and strategic marvel that rivals its next door neighbor, Cypress Point. Strantz died in 2005 at age 50, only months after the course reopened for play.
The Shore is practically a new course. Strantz reversed direction of the fifth through 15th holes, so seven holes (instead of just one) would have a Pacific Ocean backdrop. He weaved fairways so holes could "dance among the cypress," replaced ice plant with a variety of native grasses meant to give the rough a coastal prairie look, and deliberately mixed old-style bent grasses with Poa annua to give the greens an old-fashioned, mottled look. It's a stunning landscape, and a work of art.
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