brookings country club

Brookings, South Dakota

Master Plans

PROJECT PROFILE

Brookings Country Club was constructed in the 1920s
and, like many courses of that era, was originally built
as a 9-hole course with oiled-sand greens. The course
was later expanded to 18-holes and today is a parkland style
course with small rounded and sharply-undulating
greens and small bunkers. The course is widely regarded
in eastern South Dakota and southwest Minnesota for its
routing and quality greens. However, over time the course had
lost much of its historic character and become somewhat
more difficult to maintain. In addition, advances in golf
equipment technology had resulted in a number of safety
issues. Trees had grown and created shade and turf quality
issues. The sand bunkers had expanded in size with erosion
and maintenance so that the exposed faces were subject to
erosion and contamination.

RESPONSIBILITIES

We were retained to prepare a long-range
master plan for improvements. The Master Plan identified
safety and the condition of the tees and bunkers as the three
primary issues affecting playability and maintenance. Improvements
included adding new forward tees and a complete bunker renovation
to improve playability and to restore the classic character.