Beau Welling Design is renovating the golf course and practice facilities at Stowe Country Club in Vermont.

Work is being led by Welling and his senior design associate Chase Webb, with the brief of making the layout more playable for high handicappers and more challenging for low handicap golfers, while delivering more consistent playing surfaces and improving its environmental sustainability.

The renovation includes redesigning or reshaping greens, approaches and surrounds, regrading select fairways, reshaping all bunkers, new tees, drainage upgrades and a new irrigation system.

Tees, fairways and greens will be regrassed with new bentgrass while rough will be a blend of Kentucky bluegrass and fescue. Stands of fescue will be expanded throughout the property.

Welling and Webb will also complete a long-term tree plan to ensure consistent turf conditions and open up views.

The renovation will take place in two phases to allow nine holes to remain open at all times, with the front nine work planned for 2024 and the back nine for 2025.

“As a design team, we are collaborators at heart, and we are excited to be working alongside Stowe Country Club to breathe new life into one of the best golf courses in the region,” said Welling. “This project will make the golf course more approachable for the average player while retaining the precise challenge that members and guests have enjoyed for over 70 years. We’re honoured to play a role in refreshing this historic club to be enjoyed by the current membership and generations to come.”

Welling’s design firm is also assisting Stowe with ‘campus planning’, which includes the practice facilities, expanded amenities and a future residential community.

“It’s an exciting time for our membership,” said Michael Harger, general manager of both Stowe and the nearby The Club at Spruce Peak. “So many of us have a vested interest in this historic course, and it’s been a thrilling process to lay the groundwork for the next generation of golf enthusiasts in the Stowe community.”