Restoration specialist Andrew Green recently inked two additional Donald Ross designs to his ever-growing portfolio.
In January, venerable East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta enlisted Green to take its hallowed grounds, where Bobby Jones learned the game, back to its Ross version. In 1913, Ross completely redesigned Tom Bendelow’s 1908 original. It lasted until the late 1950s, when George Cobb modernized features ahead of the 1963 Ryder Cup. Rees Jones undertook subsequent renovations beginning in 1995. Work is scheduled to commence following the 2023 Tour Championship, which has been played at East Lake every year since 2004.
In February, Green signed on to restore the Union League Golf Club at Torresdale in Philadelphia. Formed in 1921 by the merger of two nine hole courses, Torresdale Country Club and Frankford Country Club, the course was redesigned by Ross in 1921. Thereafter, it was known as Torresdale-Frankford Country Club, until its purchase and renaming by the Union League of Philadelphia in 2014.
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> Just across the river from Augusta, Ga., Aiken, S.C. has its own acclaimed golf courses, with more on the way. Old Barnwell broke ground in early 2022 with the first of two planned courses, a private championship layout designed by Brian Schneider and Blake Conant. Schneider is the former a longtime associate of Tom Doak’s Renaissance Golf Design Group, while Conant often associated with constructing Renaissance’s designs. According to the club’s membership prospectus, “Old Barnwell’s 575 acres of sandy loam stretch across valleys and ridges, through prairies, secluded timber forests and spacious corridors winding in and out of native vegetation.” The course is expected to open in 2023.
> Canada’s only Alister MacKenzie design, St. Charles Country Club in Winnipeg, will be restored in 2022, courtesy of Jim Urbina, with an assist from Riley Johns. MacKenzie created nine holes for the club in 1929, which paired with a Ross nine from 1920. Urbina will tackle the Ross nine in 2023.
