If all goes as scheduled, about three months
from now, in early or mid-May, the Donald Ross-designed course we’ve long known
as Torresdale-Frankford Country Club will stage
something of a grand reopening amid hoopla and high hopes.
Along with a new name – it is now called
The Union League Golf Club at Torresdale – the
venerable club in Northeast Philadelphia will boast a $3 million restoration of
its classic-era course, and a $4 million renovation of its stately
clubhouse.
The Union League GC at Torresdale
is the result of the marriage of two old-line, respected Philadelphia brands:
the Union League of Philadelphia,
the Center City business club that dates to the Civil War; and Torresdale-Frankford CC, a proud, century-old club that had
been struggling in recent years.
The two clubs talked of merging 10 years ago,
but nothing came of it. The members
of Torresdale-Frankford weren’t ready. This time around, facing economic
reality, they were. Torresdale members voted last spring to accept the purchase
offer – the Union League essentially threw the club a lifeline – and
the deal closed on July 1.
Both the golf community and the private club
sector watched with considerable interest.
They are still watching, and with good reason. Could this kind of marriage of convenience
and potential be the solution for other clubs with financial woes?
The Union League thinks so. "Bringing these two clubs together is
the new business model," said Jeff McFadden, general manager of the Union
League, as he showed off the planned changes to local media one day last fall.
Former Torresdale
members were absorbed into the new, combined club. Union League members will now have
access to a top-quality course with a Donald Ross pedigree.
McFadden described the "complete facelift" of
the Torresdale clubhouse, which had begun to show its
age, and the restoration of the course as the first step in a 15-year master
plan that will eventually include upgrades to club’s pool and a fitness center.
"My dream is of creating a Cave’s Valley
experience with Merion’s history," said McFadden, in his 17th year
at the Union League. Merion needs
no introduction; Cave’s Valley is an upscale private club golf outside
Baltimore.
Flicker photos
Bausch Collection gallery of Torresdale-Frankford
Country Club
Inside Golf interview with Stephen Kay
COURSE RESTORATION
Overseeing the course work is Jersey
Shore-based architect Stephen Kay, who designed several local
favorites, including Scotland Run, Harbor Pines, McCullough’s Emerald Links and
The Architects Club (with Ron Whitten).
Kay also has a passion for restoring classic
courses, especially Ross courses.
In fact, the project underway at Torresdale is
really a continuation and expansion of a master plan Kay began for the club
several years ago. So far,
Kay had rebuilt about one-third of the bunkers at the club, in 2008 and 2010.
By the time the Union League GC at Torresdale reopens in May, restoration work should include:
--
Removing about 350 trees, trimming others.
Many classic-era parkland courses in the Northeast have become overgrown
with trees that encroach on fairways, restrict approach shots and cast too much
shade on greens. Torresdale is among them.
--
Lengthening the layout by about 200 yards, to 6,633 yards. Because Torresdale
is a par 70, with only two par 5s, Kay is quick to note that the course will
have the feel of a 7,030-yard par 72 course, with four par 5s.
The
additional 200 yards will be come in 20- and 30-yard increments, largely from
moving the tees back on holes No. 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7.
--
Complete the job of rebuilding all the bunkers on the course. In addition, the sand in all the bunkers
will be replaced by a brand of sand called Valley Forge, used by Llanerch Country Club and Philadelphia Cricket Club, among
others.
-- Widen
fairways, thereby creating new angles into several greens. The fairways at Torresdale
and many older courses began to narrow in the 1950s, according to Kay, when
irrigation systems became common.
Because sprinklers could throw water in only 45 feet in either
direction, over time fairways narrowed from their original 40- to 60-yard
widths to 30 yards, where the grass was green.
--
Soften several greens. Torresdale is well-known for greens that are pitched
steeply from back to front, in some cases with five or six degrees of
slope. That was not a problem
in the days when greens were cut at ¼-inch. But today, with better
strains of grass, better mowers and greens that run twice as fast, several
greens at Torresdale were too unforgiving. A missed down-hill three-footer could
roll off the green.
On the
most severely sloped greens, Kay plans to reduce the back to front slope to a
manageable three degrees by lowering the back of the greens and raising the
front.
--
Expand several greens. At the same
time, on several greens, Kay will straighten the front, restoring the putting
surfaces a squarer shape, which was common years ago.
--
Repave cart paths across the course.
--
Enlarge the practice range, plus add a short-game facility.
Modern Restoration
Rounds
at Torresdale peaked in the late 1990s and early 2000s,
at 15,000 to 17,000 per year. In
recent years, the course has averaged 10,000 to 11,000 rounds. After the restoration, the goal is to
reach 18,000 to 20,000 rounds.
Even
when the work is complete, Kay does not claim that it will be a "true" restoration,
exactly recreating the 1921 origins of the course. That, says Kay, would not fit the modern
game.
"Are you
mow the greens above ¼ inch?" he asked. "Are you going to mow the fairways at 1
inch?"
For that
matter, asked Kay, do we want to take out all the ladies tees, because there
were no ladies tees in 1921? How
about the cart paths, because there were no carts, either? And what about modern irrigation
systems, which didn’t appear until about 1950?
"Nobody
does that," Kay said of "true" restorations. "We’re going to do a "sympathetic"
restoration. If Donald Ross was
suddenly here and they said, "Hey, Mr. Ross, it’s yours to do what you want
over the next three years, I think I am doing what he would do.""
