66 REPORT The course at Metairie Country Club in Louisiana dates back to 1922, when Seth Raynor was commissioned to design 18 holes, built by golf professional Joe Bartholomew. Several notable redesigns haven taken place since. In 1938, Jack Daray was hired to modernise the course. In the middle of the century portions of the layout were sold to ease financial difficulties. And a renovation was completed in the early 2000s to tackle flooding. Hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of fill were used to raise the level of holes. As a result, evidence of Raynor’s hand has steadily diminished. So, in 2021, the club decided to undertake a project to bring back the original character of the course, and hired architect Brian Silva to conduct the work. “During the planning process, the committee reviewed and studied a collection of template holes and various examples of each as they worked towards a finished product that more closely resembled some of the character of a Raynor design,” says Silva. The project has seen the introduction of new greens complexes and bunkers, Silva lining for Metairie Photo: Larry Lambrecht Brian Silva has reinstated a Biarritz green at Metairie’s third Renovation work has returned Seth Raynor character to the Louisiana layout.
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