91 general manager Mike Poe explains: “When we took over the property there was quite a bit of contamination in the greens, with the bermudagrass competing with the bentgrass that was originally installed.” The club was happy with the performance of its original PennLinks strain, so sought to identify a modern variant that would provide similar playing characteristics but offered greater drought tolerance and disease resistance. It ultimately selected 007XL creeping bent for greens, and Tifway 419 bermuda for teeing areas. The large regrassing project opened a window of opportunity for the club to consider additional changes. “I wanted to make sure we did the right thing by reaching out to the original architects and making sure that things we wanted to change met their approval,” says Poe. “The course has been perfect, so it made sense for them to come back and keep their fingerprints on it.” Jones and his associate Steve Weisser (who also worked on the original design) found that the encroachment of bermuda and build-up of material over the years had changed the shape and contour of greens, and that some pin positions had been lost. “It was interesting because you almost don’t appreciate how much they can change,” says Weisser. “We stripped the greens down to get back to the original mix, and resurveyed every green to make sure we had the slopes working for all hole locations. Green speeds are different now than they were then and, for the type of play the club now has, we wanted more useable green surfaces and hole locations.” Jones adds: “It’s basically the same thing that Augusta National has been The front nine at Quintero closes with a drop-shot par three, which illustrates the scale of elevation change incorporated into the routing. In the background, the seventeenth hole climbs uphill Photo: Premier Aerials
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