Hollywood Golf Club Restoring Bunkers In Advance Of USGA Event
In advance of next September’s U.S. Women’s Senior Amateur Championship on its links, Hollywood Golf Club in Deal is getting a facelift.
The club is restoring all of the existing 125 bunkers and adding 10 to 15 new ones in returning the course as much as possible to the original redesign of Walter Travis, which dates back to 1917. Travis, of course, was a top player, winning three U.S. Amateurs and was the first American to win the British amateur in 1904.
The USGA Women’s Senior Amateur Championship will be contested September 13 through 18, 2014.
Hollywood was restored by Rees Jones in 1998. Considered one of the state’s top courses, Hollywood G.C. has fast, undulating poa Annua/bentgrass greens and well-bunkered fairways. Jones’ restoration brought wind back into play, a feature of Travis’ design, and allowed the native grasses to flourish, creating a dramatic look.
Renaissance Golf Design, led by architect Tom Doak, began the restoration in late September and is expected to be completed in February. Brian Schneider is the project manager. La Bar Golf Renovations is responsible for the construction work.
“We didn’t need the USG to tell us we had an issue with our bunkers,” said Hollywood greens chairman and Board of Trustees member Jeff Schreider. “The playability of the sand had deteriorated becoming contaminated from washouts.
“The course will be spectacular when we are finished.”
Schneider, the design associate, is using photographs and aerial shots of Hollywood from 1921, when it hosted the U.S. Women’s Amateur, showing Travis’s original design.
“The most important part to me is restoring the Walter Travis heritage. Everything has gone so well so far,” Schneider said. “With good weather, we are making great progress. We have good aerial photographs to use as a guide.
“We’re trying to restore what made Hollywood unique. It was built at the same time as Pine Valley, and Travis knew Pine Valley designer Crump. The courses are similar in the amounts of sand employed.”
As part of the restoration, Hollywood is using manufactured quartz as sand, which binds together to remain in place on the high flashed bunker faces.
The bunker restoration project includes new irrigation on bunker surrounds, new bunker drainage and liners, which provide a synthetic bed for the sand. The bunker edging is now rougher and undefined.
Originally, Hollywood boasted more than 220 bunkers. In the early 1920s, one survey of golfers had the course ranked as the second best in the world.
Three years ago, Hollywood installed a sub-surface drainage system to its greens, the XGD System, which removes surface water more rapidly and lowers the water table in the green.
The club has hosted many notable matches and tournaments including the 1925 Met Amateur, and the 1956, 1986 and 2002 New Jersey State Men’s Amateurs. In addition, the club was the site of the 1906 and 1991 Met Open, the 2006 and 2011 State Open, the 2007 State Women’s Amateur and the 2008 Met Senior Open. In 2012, Hollywood hosted the 110th Met Amateur Championship, won by Ryan McCormick of Suburban.
“Hollywood Golf Club is honored to continue our long history of hosting USGA and regional golf association events and is thrilled to have been chosen to host the 2014 USGA Senior Women’s Amateur Championship," said Paul D. Drobbin, the club’s president. “We look forward to welcoming the United States Golf Association, the players, guests and spectators. Our members, staff, volunteers and the community are excited to provide an outstanding venue for this national championship.”
