Isleworth Getting New Practice Area

One of the most sought-after amenities at a golf course is the practice area, and when the membership includes more than a dozen PGA Tour players, it's even more important.

So Isleworth Country Club in Windermere, Fla., has begun the construction of what may be the world's most comprehensive practice facility, with different types of turf and bunkers to simulate play at other venues, and a short-game area with a number of fairway and greenside bunkers of varying types.

Kurt Kuebler, general manager, said Tiger Woods, Mark O'Meara, Darren Clarke, Stuart Appleby, Robert Allenby, Charles Howell III, Lee Janzen and other Tour players who live at Isleworth normally spend more time at the range than on the golf course. That's why the new practice area, being designed by Steve Smyers, will replicate the conditions and shot values, found on the course.

"At Florida Tour events, golfers are playing mostly on Tifeagle Bermudagrass. But if you're practicing for play elsewhere, you may want to practice on those other turfgrasses to see how the ball is going to react," Kuebler said.

According to golf course superintendent Steve MacLeod, the practice area is going to involve a little bit of turf maintenance magic as well. "We're talking about having a bentgrass green and a bit of fairway that would allow them to prepare for the kinds of shots they'd see in Great Britain," he said. The practice bunkers will have different bunker sand, and obviously different depths of sand, as well as different designs, to allow them to practice for events in other parts of the world."

Regarding the difficulty of maintaining different types of turf in an area that gets 70 inches of rain a year, Macleod said, "It will be a little bit of theater. I'd say it's like managing test plots. It will be interesting to see what we can do with them. It might mean a few more labor hours, and we'll definitely have to manage our irrigation carefully."

At the end of August, several of the tour pro members will be at home and the team will get their input on the project.

This story originally appeared in Divot Mix, an e-publication of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (www.gcsaa.org).