By Adam Ikamas
Exec. Director, Michigan Golf Course Superintendents Assoc.
Some readers may look at the massive investment into the South Course at Oakland Hills and brush it off.
What are the chances they ever get to tee it up and experience the restored beauty of this classic Donald Ross design?
Will it matter to them if the greens can be heated or cooled as needed for the health of the turf?
It is doubtful that they will ever fix a ball mark on the new rapidly draining soil profile specially mixed for the site – nor hit a shot out of the original Ross bunkers that were found under the topsoil of previous renovations. It is easy to look at this and think it has nothing to do with you or where you play golf every week.
However, I would beg to differ.
While you are right that your 9-hole Thursday league course may never install any of these groundbreaking technologies, the results will be shared among the membership of the Michigan Golf Course Superintendents Association. Being the resourceful professionals they are, many of these agronomic results will be implemented in many other smaller ways all around the state.
Think of it like NASA and the technology that trickles down from them into all our lives.
Oakland Hills Country Club is important to the golf industry in Michigan. It is important to all golfers reading this magazine. It is important to push boundaries in any industry, and ours is no different. The work done by OHCC Director of Agronomy Phil Cuffare and his team was complex and incredibly detailed.
Cuffare was kind enough to host multiple tours and discuss every aspect of the project with our members this year and in 2020. The level to which all inputs and decisions were considered with the goal of hosting major championships was staggering. This was also done while making the course more playable for the membership as well.
If you did every get the chance to tee it up at Oakland Hills with a member or during one of the dozens of charity outings they host each year, you may remember the brutal test for any level of player. This restoration has brought some fun back to the Monster – but make no mistake there is opportunity to set the course up to test the best players in the world on the grandest of stages but still have an enjoyable 9-hole Thursday members league as well.
Hopefully, some of you reading this will get to play the new South Course someday, but even more importantly I hope you can attend a major championship there. If it happens, I hope that championship inspires people to play golf, which will lead to more revenue for the courses in our amazing golf state. With the increases in revenue these facilities can utilize some of the agronomic lessons learned from the Oakland Hills restoration at their own facilities to help make the game more enjoyable for everyone, everywhere in Michigan.
