PHOTO: ANN MARIE TOBIN
A shot of one of the fairways at the newly restored Salem Country Club.
By ANN MARIE TOBIN
PEABODY – More than 40 members of the media descended upon Salem Country Club Monday for the U.S. Senior Open Media Day, at which time the club unveiled a major project that restored the Donald Ross-designed gem to its original 1925 layout.
The bulk of the project, conducted by designer Ron Forse, focused on the expansion and reshaping of the greens as originally envisioned and created by Ross. In addition, a new irrigation system was installed and more that 500 trees were removed, significantly opening up the course and restoring original site lines and strategy.
“Over time, most of the greens had shrunk in size, so the greens were expanded significantly,” Forse said. “The benefits, aside from the obvious desire to honor the vision of Donald Ross, are we now have opportunities for great new pin placements as there are more flat places for hole location. This was something the members really wanted, and it was not just for because the Senior Open was coming next year.”
Forse’s team used historic photos dating back to the 1920s, as well as aerial photos and Ross’ original plan designs to recapture original green areas that had faded into rough and fairways over the years. Overall, the size of Salem’s greens increased by 17 percent, from 93,000 square feet to 109,000, even with significant reductions on two greens, Championship No. 16 (members’ No. 7) and Championship No. 17 (members’ No. 8).
The most dramatic changes were on the devilish Championship No. 4 (members’ No. 13), which Golf Magazine has ranked as one of the top 500 holes in the world. The back left corner of the green was altered to recreate Ross’ original three-tiered design. Another major change was Championship No. 1 (members’ No. 10) where Forse returned the missing front corners of the putting green.
“Everything Ross wanted is back,” Forse said. “At the last Senior Open in 2001, Johnny Miller made the comments on television that all the greens are circles. Well, now we have gone from circles without corners to trapezoids, squares and oblong as envisioned by the original designer.”
Forse said the impact to players is that players will require more skillful, strategic play as, while it may be easier to hit more greens, lag putting and ball placement will be more challenging.
“There are more false fronts and drop offs on the sides of the greens, so players will find themselves having to take more risks,” Forse said.
Course superintendent Kip Tyler said that the average speed of the greens is 10 (on the stimpmeter).
“That will be plenty fast as there will be an increased fearful look of these new greens,” Forse said.
The cost of the renovation was $550,000. All of the sod for the new portions of the greens came from the existing greens. The aerification plugs from the spring of 2015 were used to created an abundant nursery of new sod, which was used in the renovation, which began in October 2015 and was completed at the end of November.
Following the presentation, media members got a chance to come to their own conclusions about the restoration.
“I can assure you that the golf course you will be playing today is the very same golf course that Virginia Van Wie played in 1932 when she defeated Glenna Collett Vare to win the U.S. Women’s Amateur,” General Chairman William H. Sheehan, III said.
Salem has hosted five national championships, the most recent of which was the 2001 Senior Open won by Bruce Fleisher. One of the greatest sporting events in history occurred at Salem in 1954 when the legendary Babe Didrikson Zaharias captured her third Women’s U.S. Open Championship just weeks after a devastating surgery that doctors said would prevent her from ever playing competitive golf.
The 38th Senior Open is expected to inject $25 million into the local economy. The tournament will be played from June 26-July 2, 2017. One hundred fifty-six of the best professional and amateurs in the world, 50 years of age and older (including defending champion, Jeff Maggert) will compete in the 72-hole event. The event will be broadcast to more than 100 countries with live television coverage for all four rounds and is expected to attract more than 120,000 spectators.
Tickets for the championship went on sale May 11 at www.ussenioropen.com. Youths ages 17 and younger will be admitted free with a ticketed adult.