If you enjoyed the best golfers in the world struggle to make pars and bogies at the PGA Championship on historic Aronimink Golf Club last month, did you know you could experience a piece of that historic course right here in Michigan?
In 1990, BOYNE Golf recreated Aronimink’s 11th hole on their Donald Ross Memorial Course. Recently that hole, the 15th, on Ross Memorial has recently undergone a renovation using the latest technology to create an exact copy of Ross’ original design. It is so precise that when an aerial photograph of the replica hole was shown to Aronimink’s staff, they thought it was the real thing.
The Donald Ross Memorial was a first-of-its-kind course paying homage to a great early-20th-century golf course architect. The course has long been a popular “greatest hits” compilation of the architect’s best work.
From the beginning BOYNE’s plan was to make the Ross holes as true to the original design concepts as possible. This led to a transformation of Ross Memorial’s No. 15 (Aronimink 11), by expanding the green complex by 65 percent, plus reshaping it to Ross’s original design. With its offset bunkering, undulation and slope, Aronimink’s No. 11 is also one of the most challenging putting surfaces found anywhere.
The idea for a Donald Ross Memorial Course at BOYNE began in 1988, when scouting trips were made to several famous Ross designed courses.
“It was difficult to find old Ross drawings back then”, said Bernie Friedrich, Director of Golf Course Renovation & Development. “So, a group of us flew around with architect Bill Newcomb and legendary instructor Jim Flick to find Ross holes that closely matched the Michigan terrain. We were specifically seeking a 375-to-450-yard par-4 that played uphill, and the 11th hole at Aronimink closely fit that mold. We walked that hole, took notes, pictures, and built a close version of the original at that time.”
Now 40 years later, with historic photos and modern-day technology, the Friedrich, Hearn, and Furness construction team improved the playability while more accurately recreating Ross’s original design.
“You can never fully replicate a great hole like No. 11 at Aronimink, especially on very different terrain, but our vision was to create a very close rendition that pays homage to Donald Ross,” explains Hearn. “Our process involved studying historic aerial photography from the Tufts archives, other historical sources, and modern technology to analyze greens, slopes, and approaches, fairway widths, distances between bunkers and landing areas, and angles of play that more closely represent Ross and his team’s original vision for this hole.”
Michigan Golf Course designer Ray Hearn explained that modern technology was especially important when working on the green complex and bunkers.
“The green and bunkering on this hole, especially around the green, with its slope from back to front, a false front, and shelves, are particularly challenging. Having these resources allowed us to reimagine this on the Donald Ross Memorial course. Even though the land might not be the exact same and the surroundings are different, we were able to create a Donald Ross experience for golfers both visually and in shot values.”
All of this attention to detail created a near-perfect likeness of Aronimink’s 11th hole that can be enjoyed by every golfer visiting BOYNE Golf.
