CONSTRUCTION ROUNDUP
Widened fairways but sloping, testing greensites characterize the restoration at Dornick Hills.
Doak did it for Dornick Hills by ken macleod
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hen you are a world famous and in-demand golf architect, there are certain benefits to volunteering for a project. Not having to sit through committee meetings is one of them. “Because I made that comment about doing it for free, nobody could say boo to me about what we were doing,” Tom Doak said at the grand reopening party June 2 for Dornick Hills Country Club in Ardmore. “They let Tom Doak me do what I wanted to do without having to go through a bunch of committee BS.” And what Doak wanted to do was recreate 18 greens envisioning what Perry Maxwell would have done more than a century ago on the rolling course that launched his fabled career. Then he wanted to remove hundreds of trees to widen fairways, improve turf grass and bring back playing angles and sightlines, knowing his sloping greens and testy surrounds will be all the challenge required. 34
GOLF OKL AHOMA • JUNE/JULY 2022
Doak played a morning round with Jerome work provided by the course builders, in“Bruzzy” Westheimer and Joe Ward, two cluding Dundee Golf led by Blake Conant, members who were major financial backers whose company works closely with Doak, of the project. Ward was the one who called shaping most of his projects. Speeds on the new greens, seeded last fall Doak after seeing a comment in Golfclubatlast.com where Doak mentioned he would with 007 bent grass, were a bit conservative, volunteer his services if the opportunity ever according to Doak. “I think they can be a little faster and came up to improve Dornick Hills. Well it did and he was a man of his word. they’ll be fine,” Doak said. “I know they are And now Dornick Hills has 18 incredible new and Brent (superintendent Brent Waite) greens with the Maxwell rolls and Doak wants to be conservative and doesn’t want golfers to think they are too severe, but I hit touches. “They let me do what I thought we should do and I’m happy with the way they came out,” Doak said. “One of the reasons I don’t do a lot of consulting work anymore is because clubs really try to micromanage what you’re doing, and I don’t want to spend 10 days talking about something, I want to do something. This free thing really opens the door to that.” Of course not comp Hundreds of trees removed but plenty remain. was the tremendous W W W.GOLFOKL AHOMA.ORG
