Corona Premier Property

Port Orchard’s portrait of golfing Peninsula style

The folks at the McCormick Woods Golf Club, the distinguished 37-year-old course among the pines and firs in Port Orchard, understand that changes to the course under the turf are appreciated by golfers as much as those above.

That’s why the course’s master plan over the past few years has been to fix or upgrade the course’s irrigation system so that occasional marshy spots in the fall/winter are abated and dry patchy areas during the summer are hydrated.

“We’ve put a lot of money into our irrigation system,” said Bjorn Bjorke, McCormick Woods’ general manager.

Within the past few years, maintenance workers addressed some of the soggy areas, tearing up and replacing piping on holes 4, 6 and 8. “We still have one more drainage issue on No. 5,” Bjorke said. “It’s on our list. I’m not sure when we’ll do it. We’ll see how the winter goes.”

On the dry side, Bjorke said over the past year the course did a slew of irrigation projects designed to address areas that burn out during extended dry summer periods.

“We replaced all the pumps and lots of heads,’’ Bjorke said. “We're still working with our original irrigation system that was built in the 1980s. We're about a quarter of the way through replacing the heads. We may have 600 of them and we’ve replaced about 150.’’

Maintenance workers replaced broken heads, put in new ones, adjusted some for better spray coverage or moved some to different locations. “We were getting to the point where we couldn’t keep up with the watering. It got pretty dry,” Bjorke said.

The result is better playability.

“They (golfers) don’t see it directly, but they see it indirectly with better quality turf out there,” he added.

Bjorke said the course also made some above-ground changes. The old chipping green — about 1,000 square feet — was torn up and replaced by a redesigned one that’s seven times bigger with a grass bunker and sand bunker.

The 10th hole also was lengthened, from around 420 yards to 491 yards and adjusted from a par-4 to a par-5.

“It’s a dogleg left and what would happen is people would just hit driver and without knowing that ball would just be gone (OB) through the dogleg. That was no fun for a lot of them,” Bjorke said. “So, we lengthened it and now they're not going to lose their ball, if they hit it down the middle.”

Bjorke, who has served in the GM role for nearly nine years, has overseen most of the course changes. Here are his thoughts on our six-question Corona Premier Property survey. Visit McCormickWoodsGolf.com for complete information.

A Bucket with GM • Bjorn Bjorke

Toughest Tee Shot

For an average golfer, I’d say No. 16 (par 4, 435 yards back tees). It’s an elevated tee, fairway slopes pretty severely left to right. Out of bounds left and a creek on the right. You’ve got to hit the fairway. If you don’t, you’re going to be facing penalties. Most people hit a driver because it’s a fairly long par 4. But you have to hit the fairway. That’s what makes it difficult.

Best Birdie Opportunity

It might be No. 10 now, but probably No. 8 (par 4, 373 yards). It’s a shorter par 4. Most golfers would hit a driver or a hybrid and a wedge. The green has some trickiness, but from most locations, you’re going to be on or close to the green putting for birdie. It’s one of those holes where you mark on the scorecard, ‘I need to make birdie here if I’m going to score well.’

Best Par 3

No. 7 (142 yards). It’s the shortest one. The green is a little higher than the tee, but there’s a dip in the middle, with a pond. It’s kind of a kidney-shaped green. Huge grass bunker in the short right corner of it. You’ve got to hit the right club there. It sits high in the back and low in the front. You miss the green right or left, it’s not a given up-and-down. You’re going to make four. And it’s a beauty, a nice background of trees and the pond in front.

Favorite Hole

Probably No. 5 (par 4, 388 yards). It’s an elevated tee. The hole is all out in front of you. It’s a demanding tee shot that has quite a bit of risk-and-reward. You can try to hit it over the pond and give yourself a wedge in, or you can lay up. If you lay up, the green is pretty difficult to hit. It’s skinny in the center of it. There’s a swamp to the right, bunker on the left.

Emergency Nine — front or back?

If you want to score well, you go on the front. If you want more of a challenge you go on the back. Most people, if they had their choice, would choose the back.

Go-To Lunch Item on the Clubhouse Menu

The Monte Cristo (ham, turkey, Swiss cheese hot sandwich). People love it. Over 20 years (on the menu).

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