The Naples, Fla., property restored its 18-hole championship golf course in just over six months, by recapturing the original design and size of the greens, removing multiple cart paths, enlarging tee boxes, upgrading the quality of the turf, restoring all bunkers and replacing two and a half miles of trees and tropical plants.
Bay Colony Golf Club in Naples, Fla., is celebrating the grand reopening of the par 72, 18-hole championship course after a monumental master restoration of the greens, tees, fairways, bunkers, bulkheads and infrastructure.
Arguably the most comprehensive golf course restoration ever to be completed in just over 6 months with a $7.7 million dollar budget, the Bay Colony Golf Course was completed this past November within budget, without any assessment to members, and with a grand re-opening delivered in time for the launch of golf season in Naples.
The greatest significance about the restoration is, rather than a “renovation” in piecemeal fashion, this was a restoration of the Bay Colony Golf Course in its entirety.
“Collectively, there was 1,000 years’ worth of experience between those associated with this project and nobody can recall ever seeing anything like this ever being done before anywhere,” said Superintendent Josh LeVitre.
The course was originally designed by Robert von Hagge in 1996 and built by WCI. The Bay Colony Golf Course borders the Cocohatchee Strand Nature Preserve and, in the words of von Hagge, “Water and nature preserves add dramatic beauty to many of the Bay Colony Golf Club holes. The course is a timeless design that looks as though nature itself routed it through the elegant surroundings.”
The course restoration included recapturing the original design and size of the greens to increase pin placement and target areas; removing multiple cart paths to enhance landing area and aesthetic beauty; enlarging tee boxes for increased flexibility with tee positions; upgrading the quality of the turf to ensure championship-quality turf conditions for decades; restoring all bunkers and replacing sand for improved consistency, drainage and playability. The club also replaced two and a half linear miles of trees and tropical plants along the perimeter at the same time.
The restoration project was the result of the Board of Governors’ long-term strategy to stay ahead of the curve and take a proactive approach before any element of the infrastructure failed or the member experience was compromised. The even larger story is the long range planning process which spanned six years and involved a collection of members and management; multiple greens and grounds committees, golf committees, governing boards, club presidents; multiple architectural firms; a handful of exceptional contractors; and a course maintenance crew of 19 ladies and gentlemen who rose to the occasion.
“When we started this, we had letters from everyone in the profession telling us how risky it was for our club to do this scope of work in this short amount of time: 120 acres and five months of construction is 24 acres worth of construction every month. It is mind boggling,” said LeVitre.
“Then, on top of this, we added the perimeter project; removing two and a half miles of trees and plants along the perimeter, building a 10 foot berm, erecting a fence, landscaping and planting again. Throwing that scope of work on top of what was already viewed as an impossible timeline, it seemed like it couldn’t be done. That’s the adversity we knew we were up against.”
After vetting many course architectural design firms, the club chose architect Mike Smelek of Smelek Design due to his familiarity with the property and the course. Smelek was partner in the original course architectural design firm of von Hagge, Smelek and Baril. He worked with Robert von Hagge for 30 years and was involved in the original Bay Colony Golf Course construction.
A decision had to be made whether to replant the same grass or select a different turf. Ultimately, the decision was made to switch to Tif Sport everywhere with the exception of greens, for which Tif Eagle was selected.
Last summer, Naples experienced perfect weather up until the record rainfall of September and October 2014. Just after construction was completed and signed off on, the newly constructed course, in a very vulnerable state, experienced massive storm damage. According to LeVitre, “it wasn’t as much the quantity of rain as it was the intensity of rain—seven inches in a period of only 2 to 3 hours repeatedly over days caused massive damage.”
The maintenance crew virtually had to rebuild holes #14 and #15 three times in those two months. Finally, the most difficult part of any golf course construction is the maturation process. Grass needs sunlight to grow, and there was a stretch during those rainy months when the course only saw sunshine 30 of 75 days.
“One of the biggest opportunities in course construction is to be involved in all of the decisions, stay involved and remain committed to the project every step of the way, from the ground up, so you can ensure that you build the course correctly. In doing so, it will be easier to maintain and will last longer. That’s what we did,” said LeVitre. “In my opinion, this course is now tough to compete with. It has every opportunity to last 25 to 30 years.”
Tell Us What You Think!
You must be logged in to post a comment.