‘Exciting’ project begins : Renovation at Pinnacle starts with bulldozer on first green
Posted on Wednesday, August 13, 2008
ROGERS — It was an interesting morning Tuesday for Mike Hudson.
“ We’ve spent a lot of time trying to make these greens beautiful and our course look pretty, ” said Hudson, president of Pinnacle Country Club in Rogers and son of James T. “ Red” Hudson, the Hudson Foods and Pinnacle Country Club founder who died in August 2006. “ Now we’re out here trying to tear the durn things up. It’s both exciting and scary at the same time. ”
And with those words Hudson and four others — including his mother, June Hudson — each plunged a shovel deep into the green at the golf course’s signature hole, the par-3 15 th.
Soon after, a group of approximately 20 took a short cart ride to the par-4 first hole to watch a bulldozer roaring back and forth while ripping apart the green there.
Renovation here is officially under way. Tuesday’s beginning started the process of updating the grasses on the course, among other things, and will take approximately 10 months.
“ I’m nervous and excited; a little of both, ” said course superintendent Todd Towery, the man overseeing the $ 5. 3 million project along with architect Randy Heckenkemper of Tulsa, who has designed and remodeled more than 40 golf courses across the country. “ We started off (Tuesday ) morning spraying Roundup and Fusilade on all our fairways. We’re here to grow grass not kill it and we were out here trying to kill everything. Not something you get to do every day, so this is a once-ina-lifetime opportunity. ”
The target date for the course to re-open is June 1, a full three months before the LPGA Tour returns for the third annual NW Arkansas Championship scheduled the second week of September.
The goal of the project is to modernize the golf course — which opened in 1990 as Champions Country Club — but it will also revamp the practice areas, cart paths, parking lots and even the club’s luxurious clubhouse.
At its completion, general manager Pat Hennessy said the club will have the newest and most innovative golf course in Arkansas and club officials will ramp up their services to utilize the changes.
“ The renovation is an opportunity to create new and fresh programs for our entire membership, ” Hennessy said. “ Not only by updating the golf course but also updating our clubhouse with new amenities. ”
Longtime member Bob Quinlan was among those out for Tuesday’s ceremony. As he sat in his cart parked near what used to be the green at the first hole, he said he had mixed emotions about losing the original golf course.
“ I’ve loved the golf course, but I’m looking forward to playing a new golf course, ” said Quinlan, a member since 1992 and six times a senior club champion. “ It’s going to be a different course, going to be a little bit longer but I think it’ll be real good.
“ It’ll be interesting to see how they tear the course up and how they rebuild it, ” he added. “ I’m curious to watch the process. ”
At its completion, the golf course will be stretched from 6, 745 yards to more than 7, 000 while remaining a par 71. From the championship tees, holes with the the most notable length additions will be at the par-4 8 th (432 yards; plus 50 ), the par-4 9 th (401 yards; plus 30 ) and the par-5 14 th (632 yards; plus 36 ).
Greenside and fairway bunkers will be added to several holes while others will be relocated or removed altogether, notably the long fairway bunker at the par-4 fifth hole.
The golf course’s irrigation system will also be upgraded. Tee boxes will also be rebuilt to allow for better drainage and then laser leveled.
The greens will be reconfigured —a couple of them totally repositioned — and rebuilt with a different type of Bentgrass. The fairways will have a different type of Zoysia grass and the rough will be converted to Kentucky Bluegrass.
“ Our architect is going to design and build perfect greens and Todd has promised me that he is going to keep them perfect, ” Mike Hudson joked. “ This time next year we’re going to have perfect greens, perfect fairways and perfect tees and that is what we want for our members. We’ve got the finest group of members of any country club in the United States and we want them to have the finest golf course. ”
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