Quail Hollow Under The Knife Again

Ron Green Jr. with the list of changes, many of which are in response to player criticism or with the 2017 PGA in mind.

The move allows the club to expand its practice tees and create a new short-game area with three greens. The existing short-game area, located to the right of the practice range, will be converted into a tournament parking area.

Among the features of the new short game area will be a sod-faced bunker, reminiscent of those on the famous links courses in Scotland and Ireland.

The short par-4 eighth hole is also being revamped with a new green being built to the left of the existing green, which was among the most controversial on the course. The tees will be shifted slightly and the hole will play between 325 and 340 yards with an opening at the front of the green to allow long hitters to attempt to fit their tee shots between two bunkers.

Comments

[Chip Gaskins]

Sod faced practice bunker in Charlotte on a course without sod faced bunkers? Sounds like a good idea.

[DTF]

Had the same thought, weird.

Last I heard the bank still hasn't decided whether to keep the regular tour event in Charlotte. Bozos.

[No Longer Used to be Former S&T Convert]

The "knife" analogy is putting it mildly, it is a pretty major overhaul. It is interesting that they are not going ahead and redoing 16 while they are at it, Which means another project very soon, then there will be the conversion to bermuda....

[johnnnycz]

A sod faced bunker...REALLY? Nothing surprises me with the folks at Quail and how they operate. In the early 90's (my college years) I played the course and it was a beast, but very neglected and even to my inexperienced eye, it was obvious it needed some serious restoration as some of the greens were TINY and the over grown trees made some shot angles virtually impossible, and this was when one could actually move a ball left<-->right w/ balata.

Now, seeing the course in person and on TV...they're doing a great job IMO...and I applaud them for making an effort to improve and keep their course up to date. Now if they could only re-do that 18th hole...yet again....it was always a hard hole with an even harder green.

[Sclaff & Foozle]

What are they up to at Augusta National this summer? Anything interesting? Moving a tee box over to the right three inches? Is the gal from IBM on any committees yet?

[Erik J. Barzeski]

Where is it written that you can only have a practice facility that plays and looks exactly like the course at which the facility exists?

A course near me just built an AWESOME practice facility, and it has all kinds of bunkers and shots, many of which don't exist on the course that's as close as the other side of the cart path.