Metrowest Renovations

[Richie3Jack]

I've played a few new golf courses lately and have enjoyed some of them like Ritz Carlton - Grande Lakes, LPGA International Champions Course, Duran Golf Club, etc.

I know some people that read the blog have played Metrowest in Orlando since it's a fairly popular course. I always take interest in 'what I would do if I could renovate a course and had the money to do so.' It's pretty much an obsession of mine.

Anyway, Metrowest is going thru a $1.5 million renovation. Furthermore, they are showing YouTube videos of their course renovation.

You can see it at neworlandogolf.com/


I generally like Metrowest even though I've never played a good round there. I came close one time, shooting -2 on the front nine and then we got held back as a 2-some on the back nine and it took us 2:45 to play the back nine (tooks us 1:15 to play the front). I crapped out from there.

Metrowest is a Robert Trent Jones design and that's probably one of the reasons why I am fond of it as I grew up playing a lot of different RTJ designs in New York. RTJ went to Cornell so he is a very popular designer in Central New York. And even though this is in Orlando, it comes off as your typical RTJ design as Metrowest is probably the hilliest part inside the Orlando city limits. In fact, the tee on #13 is supposedly the highest point in Orlando.

Metrowest will be reshaping some of the greens. I don't recall a major problem with the shape of the greens. But, they are also switching to a TifEagle on the greens. I believe they had TifDwarf before. I'm a much bigger fan of TifEagle. It's much more durable and consistently provides a smoother surface, even in high traffic courses. The problem some people have with TifEagle is that you really can't go more than 10.5 on the stimpmeter. You can easily go 12 on the stimp on TifDwarf, but the grass is too inconsistent, it doesn't handle traffic well and it often times becomes rock hard. I would imagine that Championship Bermuda was out of the question as they get too much traffic to maintain it.

I will be interested to see what they do with the bunkers. My problem with the bunker is that they had hellacious lips and it was very easy to have a buried lie up against the lip. While it makes for a more difficult course, I think it causes people to frown upon the course. And some of those lips can be hazardous to try and hit out of. The real bad ones are are #4, #6 and #7. If I were them, I would just take out the front bunkers on #4 anyway. The hole is difficult to begin with and it slows up play too much if you're in that front bunker. Furthermore, I don't think it's an easy chip shot out of the rough if you are anywhere around that green.

I am glad to see that they are re-doing the tee boxes.

One of my pet peeves and every designer seems to fall into this, is small tee box areas. Small tee boxes are just too difficult to maintain. Even if it's on a par-4 or a par-5, the traffic will tear up the tee box. Plus, you will have golfers that chunk one with the driver or slam their driver into the tee after a bad tee shot. Tee boxes should be moved around all of the time (another pet peeve), but you can't do it if the tee box is small. And every RTJ design I've played features a lot of small tee boxes. There are tiny tee boxes on #1, #2, #4, #5, #7, #12 and #15.

I've heard that they are tearing down the dead oak tree on the left of the 10th hole. I tend to think that from a design perspective, there's nothing wrong with it. However, it's not a very appealing tree to look at. It will make the hole much easier.

The course plans to re-open in November. I doubt I will play it when it re-opens because they charge a fairly high green fee. But, I think if they can make the right changes and with the TifEagle on the greens, they can restore this course back into one of the top courses in Orlando.








3JACK

[Richie3Jack]

Played Metrowest today.

The main things were that they went to TifEagle greens (I think they used to have TifDwarf). They re-did the bunkers and re-did the tees.

The greens were the same size, shape and slope. Only difference was the grass. To me, this was a good move as Metrowest doesn't feature crazy sloped greens. TifEagle is my favorite Bermuda grass because it rolls smoothly and does not require nearly as much attention and care. It's a bit pricey and you really don't want the greens going more than 10.5, but it will roll smooth and you can keep them consistently at 10 to 10.5 and for the occasional tourney get them up to 11. The greens were pretty firm because of the newness, but they looked and rolled great.

The huge part was the bunkering. They went from 73 to 42 bunkers. And the bunkers that were left over were usually re-designed to be made smaller, with better shape to them.

I really didn't notice the tee boxes that much. They were still the same size. I never had much of an issue with the old tee boxes.

I'll try to give a rundown with the changes:

Practice area is still the same except they got rid of the old practice putting green. They created a new one behind the 1st tee box. The new green is a bit flatter and larger. Not really nutty about where it is located. Probably should have put it where the old the pitching green is (still in the same position).

#1: Left fairway bunker is much smaller. Much more difficult to hit into.

#2: Right fwy bunker about 1/4 the size. I believe left greenside bunker is gone. Right greenside bunker about 1/2 the size.

#3: left green side bunker gone. Right greenside bunker 1/2 the size. I like this move here because it's a very narrow green and it's a good length shot (200 yards from back tee).

#4: Giant changes here. Right Fwy bunker about 1/2 the original size. Big changes up by the green. Back and left greenside bunkers are completely gone. Front bunker a little smaller and now split into two. I think this is a good decision because the hole is long enough already (610 yards) and the approach shot just made rounds very long.

#5: Right fwy bunker about 1/2 the size.

#6: Left fwy bunker about 1/2 the size.

#7: Right fwy bunker is gone.

#8 & #9: No real changes

#10: Left Oak tree is still there. Right Fwy bunker is still there. Big changes is that the entire bunkers on the right that where from 50-125 yards to the green are all gone. They also mowed all of the long grass/weeds/etc on the right down by the #17 tee. Much needed changes.

#11: Left fwy bunker is gone. Not sure I like this since it is an easy hole as is.

#12: Right fwy bunker about 1/4 the size (more like a small pot bunker). Left greenside bunker about 1/2 the size.

#13, 14, 15 and 16: No real changes. Left fwy bunker on #14 is gone.

#17: Trimmed all of the long grass by the water. It's pretty much all gone. Makes the hole look *entirely* better.

#18: No real changes (can't recall if there was a left fwy bunker..it's gone now).

I think the changes were a home run. The course was much more fun to play because you didn't have to worry about missing a shot by a few yards and getting buried up against the lip which doesn't make things fun. Plus, bunkers are costly to keep and maintain. They require a lot of labor and sand.

The TifEagle is initially pricey, but the money should make up for it in the end as it should require less upkeep and having to worry about shutting down the course.

Between the bunkers and the greens you get something that more players will like. Plus, it saves them money and time in the end so the crew can work on other parts of the course. The fairways were in so-so shape. We had a good amount of rain on Saturday and you could see some areas where trucks were probably driving thru quite often. The course will likely yield lower scores, but it will be more enjoyable to play, make the pace of play move a bit faster and I think it is a more fair test of golf.







3JACK