You shall go to the ball

Every now and then a golf club may face an uncommon challenge, with no precedent that can inform the solution. At the Waldorf Astoria Golf Club, set within the grounds of Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, that came in the form of plans to build an enormous ballroom on the site of its eighteenth green.

This wasn’t quite the glass slipper that director of golf club operations Rob Turner and golf course superintendent Reese Patterson may have wanted to receive.

The eighteenth played to an outcrop towards the centre of one of the property’s four lakes, overlooked by two hotels, and was the only feasible location for a building of the size required by the owners, Hilton Worldwide. It meant the course would lose its premium finishing location as well as, for the duration of the project, the par-three sixteenth hole on the bank of the lake, which was to be flattened and used as a staging location for the building construction work.

Turner and Patterson had, over the years since the course’s original construction in 2008, developed a close relationship with the designers Rees Jones and Steve Weisser. The four of them would work together on the solution, devising a plan that would enable play to continue over 18 holes while the work was in progress.

At 623 yards, the par-five twelfth hole could be split into a par four playing to a temporary green in the fairway and, using the back tees of the sixth, a par three over water to the hole’s existing green. Another temporary green was designed for the eighteenth, shortening it to a par four and freeing up the existing green site for the new building.

“Those greens were built to a USGA spec, so by no means would meet a golfer’s usual definition of temporary, other than being scheduled for just a short period of time,” says Turner. “But then Covid hit and that short period became a bit longer.”

With challenge comes opportunity. In addition to the new building, Hilton was in the process of an extensive renovation of both hotels on site. “The owners took a look at the golf course and said they want to improve it to become consistent with the rest of the investment that was going on,” says Turner.

“The realities of a golf course that is 14 years old are that green sizes are reduced as a result of fairway Bermuda encroachment,” continues Turner. “The original fabric liners of the bunkers had been compromised because of the nature of our central Florida summers and multiple hurricanes; they were no longer draining effectively and had lost some of their distinctive shape. And tees start to lose their level over a period of time.

“There were other opportunities too, such as opening up some of the native areas and adjusting bunker placement to make the game a bit more approachable to the average guest who plays here, and expanding the size of tees to take on the amount of play we had gained over the years.”

The back nine was rebuilt in 2022 and the front in 2023, along with the new green complex for the eighteenth. In 2024, with the building project complete, the sixteenth hole was rebuilt, plus new tees for the seventeenth, allowing it to be played as a par five and restoring the total par to 72.

“We wanted to make sure that the new sixteenth was a signature hole for us, as it is in full view of the ballroom on the second storey of the new building,” says Turner. “One thing we were conscious of is that when guests are looking out to the new hole, they are going to be looking at the back of the green. Rees created a run-off area and hidden bunker to make it look like the front of a green. We want guests to be thinking, ‘I gotta go play golf’.”

When they do, they will find what Jones describes as “a pre-Depression style golf course”. The original design incorporated many elements from classic course design, including a Biarritz inspired green at the seventh, and the renovation work has underscored this philosophy. “There are a lot of interesting chipping areas around greens, and we didn’t over-bunker the course,” says Jones. “Every hole has had some sort of tweak, like the opening up of the greens, to make them playable along the ground. We have given the golfer more shot options.”

The updated fourth, a par five that can play from 425 to 556 yards, is a great example. Fairway bunkering in the landing area has been staggered to create a pinch point that is tighter for longer hitters. In the approach area, a string of bunkers that previously split the entire fairway has been replaced with a single hazard that eats into just the right portion, leaving a route open to play along the ground. The green opening is wider, so can be reached with two long, accurate shots. Anyone navigating the route to the green in three shots has much more space to work with.

Another significant aspect of the renovation has been selective clearance of trees and bushes. Turner says: “There has been some encroachment of the native pines and palmettos. And one of the big things for us was, when you’re standing on tees or greens, how many different green complexes can you see?”

“We took some opportunities to clean out some of the native areas, to show our owners that, if they want to take another bite at the apple at some point, we can clean them out, lift them a little bit and create larger areas for golfers to play from,” says Turner. “I think we’ve been pretty successful on four holes where we did that.”

Amid many moving parts and dependencies, the project has succeeded in delivering for all involved: guests, owners, operations and maintenance.

“The changes we made to the bunkers were important from a visibility and playability standpoint, but they function much better too,” says Patterson. Each bunker now has Better Billy Bunker lining. “It has helped focus our attention on maintaining them, rather than on putting them back together after a major rain event.”

From discussion of initial plans in 2018 to completion in 2024, work at Waldorf Astoria has been more marathon than sprint. “The relationships have been really good,” says Weisser. “When you go through something together for a long time, everyone gets to know the course so well and it’s less about delivering some sort of product, and more about interaction and evolution over time. It’s been really fun, working together as a team.”

This article first appeared in the April 2025 issue of Golf Course Architecture. For a printed subscription or free digital edition, please visit our subscriptions page. 

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