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Member Clubs
Looking to the Future
A renovated practice facility and East Course has Farmington primed for success
O
n a cold, late January day at
Charlottesville’s Farmington
Country Club, head golf profes-
sional Rob McNamara settled
into his seat in his cozy pro-shop office and
took a deep breath.
“There’s no break,” he said. “I gave four
golf lessons yesterday and it was a high of,
what, 31 degrees? So the whole work day
has now changed.”
For the better, for sure. One of Farming-
ton’s main objectives in recent years was
to revamp an outdated practice facility to
better serve the membership. For years, the
club’s lone driving range was located just
down the hill from the pro shop, situated
along the club’s entry road. Because even the
tall netting that enclosed the range wasn’t
enough to keep balls from sailing astra y, the
club went to limited-flight range balls.
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“The only land that we had was the East
Course, which was underutilized and just
wasn’t a real popular spot for the mem-
bers,” said Scott Kinnan, Farmington’s
golf course superintendent. “So where do
we build? We took the two biggest holes
from the previous course and built the
practice facility.”
That state-of-the-art practice facility
features a two-sided range, putting and
chipping greens and an indoor practice
range with four heated hitting bays and
two putting studios. In other words, there’s
no real reason for a member’s game to
atrophy in winter. There are ample oppor-
tunities to practice year round.
But what to do with the rest of the
East Course? That’s where the renowned
design team of Bill Coore and Ben Cren-
shaw came in.
V I R G I N I A G O L F E R | M A R C H / A P R I L 2 0 1 8
Coore and Crenshaw had overseen
non-traditional layouts at Bandon Pre-
serve in Oregon and Sand Valley in Wis-
consin. Their challenge was to take the
remaining land and transform the East
Course into a playable, varied layout.
Coore describes the concept as a
“hybrid” course. It’s not a true executive
course. The East layout features a mix
of par 3s and par 4s and even a finish-
ing, short uphill par 5. Both Farmington
and Coore had an eye toward the future
when designing the revamped nine. As
golf continues to try to adapt to a world
where committing to four-plus hours
for a round is increasingly difficult, how
can a shorter course still provide a true
golf experience?
“When I grew up in North Carolina years
ago, I grew up on a nine-hole course,” Coore
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by CHRIS LANG