Green Restoration
Green Restoration
AP : I think a perfect example of how the University had ignored the golf course was a Yale Golf Course hat with a Charles Blair Macdonald name on the side because at that time they thought he was the architect and it turned out to be Seth Raynor [ with Macdonald as consultant ] and Macdonald ’ s name was spelled wrong . To me that kind of gives an indication of where the focus was and how much priority they were putting into the golf course . In the intervening years , it ’ s amazing what ’ s happened to the golf course . Let ’ s talk about what you ’ ve done in restoring greens to original size . Was it 3000 square feet [ you added to ] one green ?
SR : Here at Yale we don ’ t measure greens in square feet we measure in acres .
AP : So how many acres ?
SR : We ’ re up to six to seven acres . We spray seven acres of greens , collars and all . There is 6.25 to 6.5 acres of green space , actual green space . So we have greens that are 20,000 square feet , we have greens that are 15,000 square feet . I think our smallest one now is 9,000 square feet .
AP : Which is the smallest ?
Club prior to Yale — prepping for the 2004 Women ’ s Open I did a lot of research [ on Donald Ross courses ] and we did a lot of expansion work there and I had some background when I came here . I just listened a lot and people talked to me a lot and I filtered things out and basically I just started probing soil surfaces . I was told that Seth Raynor used a cinder layer as a drainage medium or a “ choker ” layer or whatever it might have been [ called ] back then so I basically identified where the choker layers were around the perimeters of greens and that was pretty much my template with , a 1934 aerial photograph that you seem to have to come up with .
AP : When you did this , you realized there were massive portions of some greens that had to be recaptured .
SR : You could see where corners were and where the shaping was and once you kind of get the eye for it you know where the intent of where the surfaces are . So it ’ s an acquired taste and acquired talent and in the end you can pretty much go to a corner and find this cinder layer , which is pretty cool .
AP : You were adding 2-3,000 square feet to some greens ?
SR : I only had only two or three thousand square feet of plug nursery so if everything went wrong that ’ s all I could
SR : Number five , the Short . AP : And the largest ?
SR : Nine . Which is now at 20,000 square feet .
AP : And when you got there there was no green , if I remember correctly , that was out to its original , intended dimension .
SR : When I was at the Orchards Golf
A restoration of the original punchbowl green at No . 3 , which was altered in the 50s , may be on the table .
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