GOLF by Brad King
Making Practice Perfect McConnell Golf emphasizes short-game practice facilities WHILE GATHERED FOR the 2020 Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, North Carolina, the PGA Tour competitors raved about the club’s new short-game practice area. “A-plus-plus,” says longtime Wyndham Championship Tournament Director Mark Brazil, grading the new facility, which is adjacent to Sedgefield’s stately, Tudor-style clubhouse. The two-acre practice area — designed by Steve Wenzloff, Senior Vice President of Design Services for the PGA Tour — made its debut during the spectator-free Wyndham event in August. Wenzloff, who also updated the short-game area at TPC Sawgrass in 2016, incorporated ShotLink technology to review data from every Sedgefield green complex. Providing Sedgefield with five times more practice space, the new area features two Ultradwarf Bermuda greens that measure about 3,600 square feet apiece, along with a trio of bunkers, giving players the option of working on greenside bunker shots as well as 30- to 40-yard bunker shots. The expanded space also features closely mowed areas off the greenside slopes and shoulders, where players can focus on putting the ball up the hill or practice a pitch shot up the embankment to a tight pin. The addition gives Sedgefield about 15,000 square feet of short-grass area, allowing a dozen or more players to hit shots from a variety of locations. Brazil calls the new short-game practice area, which was financed by the tournament, “a huge upgrade for the Tour pros one week a year and for the Sedgefield members 51 weeks a year.” 28
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“This upgrade will definitely help us attract and retain new members,” says Sedgefield’s PGA Director of Golf Rocky Brooks. “The layout and size of our new short-game area afford us the opportunity to work with multiple students [men, women or juniors] at the same time. This is a luxury most clubs don’t have the space for.” The new amenity is a tremendous asset for Sedgefield Country Club as well as visiting members from other McConnell Golf properties. “Any time you give members time to improve their golf games, they’re much more likely to play golf and spend time at the club,” Brooks says. Sedgefield’s PGA Head Professional Eric Ferguson agrees. “From beginners to advanced players, we’ll now be able to help players execute just about any shot they will see on the golf course,” he says. “For our junior golf programs, it is almost like we have our own twohole golf course for them to learn on.” The ability to improve one’s game is crucial to the pure golf experience. Sedgefield’s comprehensive practice facility, including TrackMan radar technology swing analysis, complements the club’s expert instruction from its Class A PGA Professionals. McConnell Golf has overseen
“A huge upgrade for the Tour pros one week a year and for the Sedgefield members 51 weeks a year.” – Mark Brazil, Wyndham Championship Tournament Director
numerous enhancements to its stable of short-game and practice areas at more than two dozen clubs around the Southeast. “One of the areas McConnell Golf will always focus on is the short game,” says Brian Kittler, McConnell’s VP of Golf Operations. “If you’re playing a McConnell Golf property and you don’t have a good short game, you might be in for a long day.” Sedgefield’s new upgrade “is about as good as it comes,” Kittler says. “It enhances what we provide, the quality of the venue, not only from the golf course, and service at the clubhouse with food, etc., but practice facilities. Working with John [McConnell], you know that in time, when there’s opportunities to do some upgrades, he’s been willing to invest in the practice and short-game areas at the facilities.” McConnell Golf performed a significant expansion to the Raleigh Country Club practice area in 200506, and golf course architect Kyle Franz has sketched additional plans for potential future upgrades to RCC’s short-game area. In 2012, McConnell Golf completely redesigned the range and shortgame area at The Country Club at Wakefield Plantation in Raleigh, North Carolina — while also modernizing the entire clubhouse — completing McConnell Golf’s trifecta of upgrades to its three Triangle practice facilities, including RCC and Durham’s Treyburn Country Club. Wakefield’s golf learning center is 1,600 square feet, and includes two indoor-outdoor hitting bays, an indoor putting studio and the latest in game-improvement technology.
