Reynolds Plantation on Lake Oconee

This turned out to be an eventful spring on the Georgia golf scene for a couple of highly acclaimed 17-year-olds.  While Japanese paparazzi darling Ryo Ishikawa tried to figure out putts at Augusta National, the award-winning Great Waters Course at Reynolds Plantation was rolling along toward the debut of its new Bermuda greens.

Restored to the shapes and sizes of the original Jack Nicklaus Signature Design that debuted in 1992, the green complexes at Great Waters are as cutting-edge as the $1-million driver the Yonex golf company developed for Ishikawa.  And no doubt they will have a much longer shelf life.

The major alteration to the greens is the complete turf changeover, from the original Penncross Bentgrass to Miniverde Bermudagrass, a unique variety that was not yet developed when Great Waters was built.

“This will give us a much more consistent putting surface, year round” says Great Waters superintendent Ethan Cooper, who has helped oversee the project, which is the first significant work done to the course.  “It’s going to look really nice.  The greens will have a new, fresh look.”

Greenside bunkers have been slightly tweaked throughout the golf course, to incorporate new drainage and help prevent the faces from being washed out by rain.  None of the modifications have impacted the integrity of the design, Cooper said.  “Everything will enhance shot value,” he noted.

It’s not as if Great Waters had lost its fastball; far from it.  Consistently ranked among the Top 100 courses in the nation, last year Great Waters also earned the distinction from LINKS magazine as one of the “10 most significant and influential courses of the past two decades.”  And to ensure Great Waters remains just as significant during the next two decades, Reynolds Plantation did not hesitate to commit the funds necessary to implement the first substantial renovation project on the course.

“The reputation Great Waters has as a world-class golf experience and the impact the course makes on the Reynolds Plantation golf community are a top priority for us,” said Bob Mauragas, vice president of golf for Reynolds Plantation.  “Great Waters is the course that helped put Reynolds Plantation on the map.  It has a great history, and we are doing everything to make sure the golf course maintains its place of prominence in the golf industry, now and in the future.”

The second golf course built at Reynolds Plantation, Great Waters is the only Nicklaus course on Lake Oconee –which, given the spotlight that has followed the legendary Golden Bear throughout his playing and designing careers, attracted a lot of attention to the design and development of the layout from its inception.  A revered figure in Georgia golf history as six-time winner of The Masters, Nicklaus brought a massive reputation to the project, as well as a proven record for creating championship-caliber courses.  It also created expectations that were almost impossibly high.

But with the same determination, imagination and execution Nicklaus displayed as a competitor, he surpassed those expectations with a Great Waters design that was as stunning and memorable as his final triumph at Augusta National in 1986.  The dramatic layout offers some of the most breathtaking golf scenery in the Southeast.  With nine holes lining the shores of Lake Oconee, Great Waters has gained a reputation as “The Pebble Beach of the East.”

It didn’t take long for some of golf’s elite professionals to get a good look at Great Waters under tournament conditions.  The Andersen Consulting World Championship of Golf (now known as the Accenture Match Play Championship) held one of its stages on the course from 1995 to 1997.  Competitors during those years included Phil Mickelson, Fred Couples and Davis Love III.

The lineup assembled to take on the Great Waters renovation project was equally talented.  Architectural staff from Nicklaus Design was assigned to the job from the outset, working together with Cooper and the Reynolds crew.  Each phase, which began initially the first week of January, revolved around maintaining the design and strategic objectives Nicklaus intended for each of the green complexes.

The undulations of the greens are the same as when they debuted in 1992 – although those who have played the course recently might notice a difference.  That’s because over the years, the greens and bunkers have changed slightly, as they do on every golf course.  The edges of the greens tend to creep in, gradually making the putting area smaller.

“We referred back to the original plans and drawings,” Cooper said, “and we used them to locate the original edges of the greens.  Now they are the exact same size they were on Day 1.  The contours have stayed the same, but with the extra size, the Nicklaus architects have been able to utilize undulations to give us more options for pin placements.”

As for the greenside bunkers, most of the changes won’t be visible to the golfer’s eye, since they deal more with the modernization of drainage and irrigation systems underground.  And to prevent erosion on the faces of the bunkers, the new ones have grass growing lower down the sides, making the slopes slightly less dramatic, but the obstacle no less hazardous.

The main difference at Great Waters is the new grass on the greens.  Miniverde Bermuda is one of the many plants developed the past decade, a result of the constantly changing agronomic niche of the golf industry.  It has emerged, however, as the most desired of the “ultradwarf” strains of Bermudagrass used on putting greens.  Not only does it provide the smoothest of Bermuda surfaces, it recovers faster than others from daily play and requires less water, nutrients and pesticides than similar ultradwarfs.

“The entire project has turned out beautifully,” Mauragas said.  “The Nicklaus team took a lot of pride in returning the greens to their original designs, as did our staff.

“By having Jack Nicklaus’ name on Great Waters, we are responsible for part of his legacy,” Mauragas said.  “By completing a project like this, it is satisfying for all of us at Reynolds Plantation to know we are being good caretakers of that legacy.”