Featured Golf News
Jeff Brauer Restoring Wichita CC
Armed with original drawings discovered in a "treasure hunt" to the Kansas state capital, along with old photographs and aerial pictures taken when the course was opened in 1950, golf course architect Jeffrey Brauer is restoring Wichita Country Club. "We found the old plans," Brauer said. "This has become an historic renovation, restoring the authenticity to a fine old William Diddel design.
"It was amazing how sophisticated the course was from a player's perspective – locating the greens and bunkers. A good player can use the strong Kansas winds to his advantage, and Diddel, who shot his age more than anyone in history, used the wind in his design extremely well."
"This is a tight golf course that emphasizes the straight shot and it has some of the best doglegs and par-3s in the area," said superintendent Brian White. "But throughout the years, different renovations were done at different times by different architects, and it had lost continuity. We decided to go back and focus on Diddel's original design."
Framed early photographs were uncovered around the clubhouse, aerial shots were also discovered, and Brauer capped the search with a motherload in Topeka, where golf architecture historian Ron Whitten had some of the club's plans, as well as other items on Diddel, in his archives.
While the current-day course had the fingerprints of several architects, each with his own proclivities, another major change over the years was the land covering. "When the course was built, all that was out here were hedge rows," White said.
"But over the years they planted and, in some cases, overplanted trees of many species that are prone to disease," said Brauer. "The challenge is to remove trees, widen corridors, and restore agronomic health. It is a balancing act.
"For example, in converting the fairways from a mixture of ryegrass and Bermudagrass to Meyer zoysiagrass, we needed to install more drainage than Diddell — or any other 1950s architect — envisioned. In the process, we solved a few long-standing problems."
On some holes, according to White, tree plantings had created "double hazards, areas trees blocked shots out of bunkers. Sometimes we had to decide: remove the tree or the bunker." Even trying to follow the original plans, Brauer said he had to make "a few changes and concessions to authenticity, since Diddell didn't envision, for example, cart paths."
Brauer credited Max Beins, president of Wichita-based golf course builder Wildcat Golf, with doing an excellent job on the project. "They are working with the precision of a surgeon around the existing irrigation to minimize damage," Brauer said.
Wildcat Golf crews are also spending the winter installing new drainage. Once that is complete, they will restore the bunkers to Brauer's (and Diddel's) specifications and sod the bunker surrounds. Meanwhile, in late March they will begin tilling the fairways to a depth of 6 inches, fumigating them, then re-finishing them so that they can be sodded.
Wichita CC members are aiming for a July 1 opening.
White said that the practice range was reconstructed first, and holes 1 and 18 were done, with the intent of restoring two holes at a time. "But once members saw those two holes," he recalled, "everyone liked what they saw and thought it was in the best interests of the club to do it all at one time."
Rebuilding the greens, which are a combination of bentgrass and poa annua, he said, is a project for the future. But to prepare for that time, Brauer allowed for drainage in front of the current greens, so that drainage from the future greens will tie into the existing system.
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