NEWS
FEATURE
Jacksonville's Deerwood gets new
drainage, greens
with major renovation
By Greg Walsh,
Special for TravelGolf.com
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (Sept. 24, 2004) – This city’s oldest gated community now has the newest golf course in Northeast Florida.
Officially opened Labor Day weekend, Deerwood Country Club’s 18-hole course underwent an eight-month renovation that involved reworking many of the existing holes and adding much needed drainage.
The course improvements represent about half of a $10 million project that includes a new clubhouse, putting green, cart facility and other amenities.
Members of the media were given a tour of the course, which is well known as a local qualifying site for the U.S. Open and Mid-Amateur tournaments. For those who knew the old course, the changes have been dramatic.
“We are very, very happy with the changes,” said Michelle Pollina, Deerwood marketing director. “We feel like this has made the course so much better.”
Pollina said previously it became clear that the flat course, which always had drainage issues, needed substantial improvements. The course was built in 1960 on a shoestring budget and it became obvious over the years when its infrastructure couldn’t keep up.
"The course was built badly, and over time everything started to look really awful," Pollina said. "We had drought for a few years so you really didn’t notice the fact we had a drainage problem. When it actually started to rain again about two years ago, you really started to see the problem. Then, everybody started to complain. It became apparent we needed to do something quickly."
Most
notable is the contoured feel of the fairways that are now more sculpted
to subtly direct water to underground drainage. All the bunkers were
dug out and lined to keep the sand and underlying dirt separate, and
new irrigation sprayers were added to maintain the bunker edges.
Besides installing the drainage, architect Brian Silva’s primary objective also was to straighten some of the holes that got Deerwood dubbed “The Dogleg Open” when it hosted the Greater Jacksonville Open in the 1960s and 70s. He was successful to some degree, although the course still has a couple holes, including the par 5 13th and the par 4 14th, with severe turns.
The course property is dominated by Lake Deerwood, which comes into play on three holes. The 473-yard, par 4 10th hole is a severe dogleg left, but you can cutoff nearly 250 yards with a straight shot over the lake to a large landing area.
And the par 4 11th, while shorter at 339 yards, has a similar tee shot as the hole wraps around the lake. However, the fairway is well bunkered on the far side if the tee shot goes long and the green juts out into the lake, making the second shot very difficult.
Other
notable changes include:
