Renovations of the Maple Chase Country Club course began on March 11. The changes will include a new irrigation and drainage system, the creation of several bunkers — fairway and greenside — as well as the addition of some back tees and some bunker and green moves for strategic purposes.
The north Winston-Salem project started with bulldozing of the driving range (pictured above) along Germantown Road and the closing of the front nine. The back nine was scheduled to be closed in mid-April. The course is expected to reopen in December.
Bob Moore, who has degrees from Wake Forest University and N.C. State and has designed or renovated dozens of courses in North Carolina, California and throughout Southeast Asia, is the architect of the project through his JMP Golf Design Group. Landscapes Unlimited, a golf construction giant based in Nebraska that worked on Old Town Club’s recent renovations, is handling construction.
“It’s a complete infrastructure overhaul,” said Maple Chase pro Paul Allen.
Maple Chase pro Paul Allen said the greens would be replanted in on of a handful of bent grass strains that the club is studying. Some bunkers will be reshaped and added to give them a more “uniform” look throughout the course. The greens, created by “pushing up dirt” for the course’s opening in 1954, will be rebuilt and reshaped by modern standards to allow for proper maintenance.
“The plan is to get everything uniform across the board,” Allen said.
The green on the par-4 third hole will be moved back behind a creek.
SPENCE TO LEAD STARMOUNT FOREST UPGRADES
Starmount Forest Country Club will launch an extensive, eight-month renovation project in January 2025 to include new greens, tees, fairways, bunkers and a new irrigation system.
Greensboro-based architect Kris Spence, whose portfolio includes restoration projects at Sedgefield Country Club, Forsyth Country Club and several other Donald Ross layouts as well as his own designs, is the architect. Spence recently completed an extensive renovation at Woodlake Country Club near Pinehurst and design of the exclusive Quixote Club in Sumter, South Carolina.
Starmount was originally designed by Wayne Stiles and John Van Kleek in 1930. Spence said “Ross influence” is noticeable in several places.
Spence will replace the top four inches on all the greens and do some subtle reshaping, replacing Champion Bermuda with TifEagle Bermuda on the surfaces. The fairways will be reshaped and replanted with TifTuf Bermuda grass, a stable strain that uses water efficiently and has become known for its playability. Mounding that was added to the borders of fairways over the years, will be eliminated.
The tees will be doubled in size and planted with Zoysia. Bunkers will be moved and added to adjust for increases in distance from modern technology.
“We would like it to look and feel like courses did in the 1930s,” Spence said. “It’s going to feel like a new golf course.”
PEGRAM WORKS ON MONROETON
Monroeton Golf Club has nine new greens with nine more on the way. Triad golf professional Tommy Pegram, who designed Crooked Tree Golf Course in Browns Summit and worked on several other Triad courses, is supervising the project at the rural course, which is southwest of Reidsville of N.C. 150.
The first nine opened last year. Pegram said he expects to have the second nine seeded in April and ready for play in June. Pegram said the projects included expanding, reshaping and moving greens as well as work on several tee boxes.
The goal, he said was to give the putting surfaces “more character” and “more interesting,” without making them significantly more difficult.
