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Last Update :7/1/2010 Old White Ready for Greenbrier Classic
George ‘excited’ for Old White
Award-winning architect ready for next month’s Greenbrier Classic
By Jim Workman Assistant Managing Editor
BECKLEY — As an award-winning golf course architect, Lester George has no doubt had plenty of highlights in his career.
But his work over the last several months on Old White, the course the PGA Tour players will play at The Greenbrier Classic next month, may top them all.
“It’s the first PGA Tour on one of my courses,” he said. “I’m very excited. It’s been a blast for us. We’re really happy for The Greenbrier and Mr. (Jim) Justice and his efforts. Its all because of him that it’s happening.”
The Greenbrier Classic, a FedExCup event, is set for July 26-Aug. 1 on the Old White Course at The Greenbrier.
“I think it’s going to be one of those courses that the players are really going to like,” George said. “It’s old-school, but it has new principles applied to it. It’s in great condition. I would compare it to when they brought back Pinehurst a few years ago. It’s now as modern as any course out there.
“From what I’ve heard from the tour, the players are excited about playing Old White,” he added. “They’re excited about the history of the course. They’re excited about the setup of the course and I believe that the ones that have followed the progress are excited about the architecture. That’s an absolute compliment to me and a credit to Jim Justice for allowing us to go down that restoration road.”
George did his first restoration on Old White beginning in 2002 and finishing in 2006 after four winter phases.
“We had to be ready each spring for guest play,” he explained. “So we spread it out over four winters.”
More than designing the course with the game in mind, there was much to do underground in preparation early on and some beautification touches still remaining.
“Now we’re just grooming, top dressing and firming,” George said. “We’re mowing the grass aggressively in both directions so that it will be exactly they way they want it to be. We were also asked to execute a color plan for the course to add color and landscaping to it. We’re currently moving full speed ahead on that.”
“Mr. Justice is a big fan of continuing the color that is typical of The Greenbrier throughout the property. He wanted to make sure the golf course was no different.”
Working with PGA Tour officials has been an added bonus for George.
“We’ve had a very good relationship with the PGA Tour and their agronomy staff, Cal Roth (senior vice president of agronomy for PGA Tour) in particular and Steve Wenzloff in their design services office and with Slugger White,” George stated. “That’s been our team from the beginning. It’s been valuable to me as an architect.
“We’re making the course firm and fast and making sure the turf is really, really healthy. I think the course is as good as it’s ever been. That coupled with the buzz of the tournament along with the support of Mr. Justice — I think the course is going to be fun to watch for patrons, fun to watch on television and the players are going to enjoy it. It’s the oldest course that they’ll play on and it has some of the classic Macdonald Raynor features.
The talk of the course is expected to be No. 18, which is one of only two par 3 finishing holes on the PGA Tour.
“You can add 18 to the list of the other two most iconic short holes on the tour, which is 12 at Augusta and 17 at Sawgrass,” George said. “There is going to be an ‘ooh’ and an ‘aah’ for every shot struck. It should provide for lots of drama. It’s going to be a lot of fun. I think the players are going to like it and I think the tour is going to embrace it.”
No. 17 and No. 14 had the most work, done basically “from scratch” by George.
“Seventeen was a hole that we needed some length,” George said. “I always wanted to add length to it the first time I restored the course. We had that Valley View Trail bridge that cut through the course between 16 green and 17. We couldn’t do it unless we moved the bridge. So early in the process, we said to Mr. Justice, ‘One way to get length is to put the tees out here in front of Howard’s Creek Lodge,’ and he agreed. And he said, ‘Move the bridge.’ That allowed us to change the strategy of the hole, a little more like it was in the early days. The further down the creek you drive the ball, the better angle you have going into the green if you want to try to reach it in two (strokes). We put in a cross bunker in at about 289 yards and widened the fairway actually, over toward Howard’s Creek. We gave them a slot, if you will, that’s 26 yards wide down the creekside. It really makes you want to go for that green from the right. To make it even more interesting, we added a set of dragon’s teeth on the right-hand side of the hole so they couldn’t bale around the bunker at the green. We shaved the back of the green off to create a chipping trough. It’s basically a bent grass chipping area that has steep sides on it. It’s kind of old-school. There’s not many holes like it in the world that I know of. We increased it to 572 yards, which is still pretty much a ‘go hole’ for the PGA Tour.
“Fourteen had to become a narrows hole,” George added. “We they were developing the Sporting Club years ago, they wanted to build houses along Howard’s Creek. We gained another classic, preserving much of the original design ... We actually gave the Sporting Club four more lots than they had anticipated, so everybody won. It’s a little bit of a departure than what was there in the ’20s.”
For more information, visit www.georgegolfdesign.com
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