At Deerwood, Silva Renovates with a Capital ‘R’

Brian Silva's extensive restoration work in Florida – at storied venues like Seminole in North Palm Beach, Mountain Lake Club in Lake Wales, and The Everglades Club in Palm Beach, among others – peg him as one of the nation's leading interpreters of classic course design. But the refurbishment exercise at Deerwood Country Club in Jacksonville, where ground was broken in January, is far more sweeping than interpretive.

"At Deerwood, we're 'renovating' with a capital ‘R’ – essentially creating a brand-new golf course within the previous corridors of play," says Silva, a partner with Uxbridge, Mass.-based Cornish, Silva & Mungeam. "The club felt quite strongly that a 'new' course – one that takes optimum advantage of what remains an excellent piece of North Florida terrain – would position the club best in a highly competitive market."

At Deerwood, not one blade of existing grass will survive Silva's complete makeover of a 1961 George Cobb-designed layout. The project is akin to Silva's work at yet another exclusive Florida club, Card Sound Golf Club in Key Largo, where the architect pumped healthy doses of vintage design into a 1960s-era course.

Stuart, Fla.-based TDI International broke ground at Deerwood on Jan. 5, 2004. A grand re-opening has been scheduled for Labor Day.

"This was the first gated community in Florida and, in terms of the housing components, it's one of the most comfortable, spacious real-estate master plans I've seen," Silva says of Deerwood. "However, the original course was built on a limited budget. There are tremendous water features here: The lake on the 10th, for example, stretches the entire length of the golf hole – but the green is 50 yards from the hazard! Here and elsewhere, far better strategic and aesthetic use can be made of this unique piece of property and its existing water features. The resulting strategies brought on by newly created greens and bunkers will make Deerwood look and play like it was built 80 years ago – but with the best available grasses, construction techniques, drainage and irrigation systems."

Silva has earned a national reputation for infusing his original course designs with the visual and strategic trappings of classic design. These projects include Red Tail Golf Club in Devens, Mass. (GOLF Magazine "Top 10 New Courses You Can Play" in 2002), and Black Creek Club in Chattanooga, Tenn. (No. 97 on Golfweek's Top 100 Modern ranking). In recognition of his skills, Silva was named GolfWorld magazine's Architect of the Year in 1999 for his work at two Massachusetts originals, Waverly Oaks and Cape Cod National, both of which ooze vintage sensibility.

Though it's technically a renovation, the Deerwood project is tantamount to an original design. "We're starting over," Silva says flatly. "This will be a new golf course from the first tee to the 18th green, and everything in between. New drainage scheme underlying the entire course. New irrigation system. The works. When it reopens you won't recognize the place, which, from the club's perspective, was the whole point."

"Brian comes to us very highly recommended," says Deerwood general manager Rocky Staples, who notes the $5-million course renovation is part of a $9.5-million capital expenditure that also includes a complete clubhouse makeover. "I must have called 20 general managers and board presidents at the clubs where Brian has worked – Seminole, Riviera [Golf Club in Coral Gables], Fox Chapel [Golf Club in Pittsburgh] – and they couldn't say enough about the results he achieved. The members bought this club four years ago; they knew then that this work had to be done. We couldn't wait to get started."

With original designs and course restorations underway from San Antonio to Boston and Chicago to Palm Beach, Cornish, Silva and Mungeam, Inc. is one of the nation's busiest course architecture firms. This year will see the opening of Silva's original design at Renaissance Golf Club in Haverhill, Mass. He recently finished a restoration of Seth Raynor's Everglades Club and will embark on a remake of San Antonio Country Club in 2005.

In 2004, Silva's attention swings to Chicago (where his partner, Mark Mungeam, recently oversaw renovation/preparation of the North Course at Olympia Fields Country Club for the 2003 U.S. Open). On the city's North Side, Silva will break ground this year on the bluffs above Lake Michigan, crafting a new, upscale daily-fee in Fort Sheridan.