The Classic Forest Oaks Layout - A Revered Course Newly?Renovated as a Labor of Love and Home to the PGA TOUR's Wyndham Championship From 1977 - 2007.
Forest Oaks?was?rated by?PGA TOUR members as a favorite stop on the PGA TOUR.? Carved?from North Carolina hardwoods by noted architect Ellis Maples, Forest Oaks opened in 1962 to wide acclaim.? It was already known as one of the best tests of golf in a state known for great golf tests when it became the home course of the venerable Greater Greensboro Open in 1977.? As the golf course matured, alterations to the course were necessary. In 2002, the job of restoring the course to all its? glory was assigned to Davis Love III’s Love Design Group.
Having played the course?numerous times?as a member of the University of North Carolina's golf team, and later?as a member of the ?PGA TOUR, Davis Love III had the advantage of a historical perspective in working on the course redesign.? He also had the benefit of hearing the opinions, suggestions and comments?from literally hundreds of touring professionals.? In the end, however, he relied most heavily on his own golfer's eye and instincts.
An Ellis Maples Original. A Davis Love III Signature Course. But First and Foremost?A Member's Course. Working with design associate Paul Cowley, Love?answered the key concerns of his touring professionals.??At the same time, Love brought his understanding of what was needed to balance the demands of tournament golf with the needs of building a members course.? Forest Oaks is first and foremost a member's course, and that was the primary motivation in?Love's redesign.
“The goal was to make a great course more aesthetically pleasing and also improve the nature of the strategic test,” said Cowley. “It’s really the older more traditional courses that professionals like Davis enjoy and that’s what why we went back to some of the original Maples design while incorporating some tried and tested classical elements.”
So while the championship tees and fairways have been positioned to move the turns in the doglegs to a distance that can challenge the 300+ yard drives of the touring professionals, the members’ tees have been positioned to make cutting those doglegs well within reach of the double-digit handicapper.
Greens so smooth, you’ll want to remove your shoes.?One thing professionals and members alike can both agree on?the conditioning of the fairways and greens is superb.? The fairways have been?re-sprigged with Tift Sport Bermuda grass, a strain that handles the extremes of summer heat and winter wetness better than the old local strains.? As a result, the fairways can be cut lower and smoother than ever before.? The new greens have been planted with a mix of A4 and A1 bentgrass, which offers a faster and truer surface than the old Penn Links bentgrass.
Coddled and nurtured year-round under the supervision of Geoff Dail, Forest Oaks’s golf course superintendent, the fairways are so well groomed that some new members are reluctant to take divots, and the greens are so smooth, they feel they ought to remove their shoes before walking on them.? In fact, player satisfaction is so high that the readers of Golf World magazine give it a rating of 4.7 out of a possible 5.0
The Classic Forest Oaks Layout - A Revered Course Newly?Renovated as a Labor of Love and Home to the PGA TOUR's Wyndham Championship From 1977 - 2007.
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Forest Oaks?was?rated by?PGA TOUR members as a favorite stop on the PGA TOUR.? Carved?from North Carolina hardwoods by noted architect Ellis Maples, Forest Oaks opened in 1962 to wide acclaim.? It was already known as one of the best tests of golf in a state known for great golf tests when it became the home course of the venerable Greater Greensboro Open in 1977.? As the golf course matured, alterations to the course were necessary. In 2002, the job of restoring the course to all its? glory was assigned to Davis Love III’s Love Design Group.
Having played the course?numerous times?as a member of the University of North Carolina's golf team, and later?as a member of the ?PGA TOUR, Davis Love III had the advantage of a historical perspective in working on the course redesign.? He also had the benefit of hearing the opinions, suggestions and comments?from literally hundreds of touring professionals.? In the end, however, he relied most heavily on his own golfer's eye and instincts.An Ellis Maples Original. A Davis Love III Signature Course. But First and Foremost?A Member's Course. Working with design associate Paul Cowley, Love?answered the key concerns of his touring professionals.??At the same time, Love brought his understanding of what was needed to balance the demands of tournament golf with the needs of building a members course.? Forest Oaks is first and foremost a member's course, and that was the primary motivation in?Love's redesign.
“The goal was to make a great course more aesthetically pleasing and also improve the nature of the strategic test,” said Cowley. “It’s really the older more traditional courses that professionals like Davis enjoy and that’s what why we went back to some of the original Maples design while incorporating some tried and tested classical elements.”
So while the championship tees and fairways have been positioned to move the turns in the doglegs to a distance that can challenge the 300+ yard drives of the touring professionals, the members’ tees have been positioned to make cutting those doglegs well within reach of the double-digit handicapper.
Greens so smooth, you’ll want to remove your shoes.?One thing professionals and members alike can both agree on?the conditioning of the fairways and greens is superb.? The fairways have been?re-sprigged with Tift Sport Bermuda grass, a strain that handles the extremes of summer heat and winter wetness better than the old local strains.? As a result, the fairways can be cut lower and smoother than ever before.? The new greens have been planted with a mix of A4 and A1 bentgrass, which offers a faster and truer surface than the old Penn Links bentgrass.
Coddled and nurtured year-round under the supervision of Geoff Dail, Forest Oaks’s golf course superintendent, the fairways are so well groomed that some new members are reluctant to take divots, and the greens are so smooth, they feel they ought to remove their shoes before walking on them.? In fact, player satisfaction is so high that the readers of Golf World magazine give it a rating of 4.7 out of a possible 5.0