Design Notebook: An Update on Tom Doak’s Work at Crooked Stick

Hello and welcome back to Design Notebook, where we won’t over-explain the obvious point made by the contrast between the Open Championship and the 3M Open. With all due respect to the Timberwolves, Prince, Scotch tape, lakes, and the Twin Cities in general, design and agronomy matter!

In this edition of DN, Matt Rouches gives the lowdown on Tom Doak’s ongoing project at Crooked Stick Golf Club, a fascinating 1964 Pete Dye design. Also included: tidbits on happenings at Rodeo Dunes and Olympia Fields, and photos of the Gil Hanse-renovated Oakmont Country Club.

Details on Tom Doak’s Crooked Stick Renovation

By Matt Rouches

In August of 2023, we reported that one of Pete Dye’s first big commissions, Crooked Stick Golf Club, would be renovated by Tom Doak’s Renaissance Golf Design starting in the summer of 2024. Construction broke ground on June 6. While there aren’t many significant changes happening to the golf course, the story of the club, the Dyes’ relationship to it, and the deep connection between the course and the people behind the renovation make for some intriguing dynamics.

Over the past two months, I’ve made a pair of visits to Carmel, Indiana, to begin documenting the course and its restoration for a future Fried Egg Golf project. Failing infrastructure was the main factor spurring the work. Superintendent Jake Gargasz told me that several greens would puddle up and hold water with even a mild rain event. The plan to upgrade drainage within the greens and bunkers evolved into a larger renovation that would lead to a total course shutdown for the majority of the 2024 season. It will reopen in 2025.

Although the entire course is closed for construction, the eventual changes won’t be that dramatic. That list includes regrassing fairways with the latest “super bentgrass,” expanding a few fairways, rebuilding 19 greens with some contour changes and expansions, rebuilding or eliminating bunkers, and improving erosion control on the back-nine creek.

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The restoration work is not extreme, but the club feels it is important to honor the legacy of Pete and Alice Dye with any changes made. The first step to that end was taken in hiring the workers for the project, all of whom have a strong connection to the Dyes. Jake Gargasz has been Crooked Stick superintendent for 14 years. When he was originally hired, his interview process involved a sit-down with Pete Dye followed by a walk around the golf course together, as the architect ensured he was the right guy to look after his baby. Lead architect Tom Doak worked for Pete and Alice for many years, proclaiming on his website, “I owe whatever I have achieved in the business to Pete and Alice Dye.” His team consists of Eric Iverson running the job, with Brian Slawnik, Andrej Buchko, and Brad Gehl shaping. Interestingly enough, Gehl grew up just off the 12th fairway, telling me he was out playing golf almost everyday throughout high school, making him an ideal candidate for the restoration.

MacCurrach Golf Construction, based in Jacksonville, Florida, is the contractor for this job. While a smaller company within this industry, MacCurrach has a strong relationship with the Dyes, having worked on nearly 20 Pete Dye golf courses, including TPC Sawgrass, The Honors Course, the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island, and Harbour Town. TPC Sawgrass, in fact, is where the relationship between MacCurrach and the Dyes began. Fourteen-year-old Alan MacCurrach landed a job on the TPC Sawgrass construction project through his father, who worked for the PGA Tour. MacCurrach’s first task was to pick up sticks on holes 12, 13, and 14. (Doak tells a similar story about his tasks on his first construction job with the Dyes at Long Cove Golf Club.) MacCurrach cites the long days at Sawgrass as a transformational period in his life, and the beginning of a rich relationship with Pete and Alice Dye. By the age of 22, he founded MacCurrach Golf Construction. Thirty-seven years later he’s still at it, working on the course that arguably meant the most to the Dyes.

Crooked Stick was Pete Dye’s playground. He and Alice had a home about 200 yards down the left side of the 18th hole. He could be seen walking his dog almost every morning, looking at his design and contemplating improvements. Dye constantly tinkered with the golf course, using it as a testing ground before implementing what worked on his other projects. This gives Crooked Stick a distinctive feel compared to most other Pete Dye golf courses that are chock-full of his trademark design features.

A statue of Pete and Alice Dye at Crooked Stick

The course work is currently ahead of schedule, with at least nine greens rebuilt and seeded. Many of the greens will remain exactly the same as what Dye built previously thanks to the help of green-mapping and GPS technology, but there are a handful that will see small changes to increase intrigue or allow for more pin positions. The most noticeable visual change will be the creek bank on the ninth hole, which has been reinforced with Dye’s trademark railroad ties.

Now we wait for the team assembled to complete their work and usher in the next chapter of Crooked Stick Golf Club. It certainly seems that the era of Pete Dye restorations is in full swing, with many of his earlier projects undergoing facelifts. It will also be interesting to see who carries out future projects, considering Doak has said this would likely be his last consulting job.

Stay tuned for a deeper look at the Crooked Stick project in 2025.

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Chocolate Drops

By Garrett Morrison

Rodeo Dunes No. 1 construction begins: Rodeo Dunes, a Dream Golf property in Colorado developed by Michael and Chris Keiser, announced on Friday of Open Championship week that construction had begun on the resort’s first course. Designed by Coore & Crenshaw, the 18-hole layout is situated in large sand dunes that Ben Crenshaw says remind him of those at Sand Hills Golf Club in Nebraska. The course is set for a 2026 debut, with preview play potentially beginning in 2025.

Course No. 2 at Rodeo Dunes, designed by longtime Coore & Crenshaw associate Jimmy Craig, will break ground next year and is scheduled to open in 2028. This represents a change of plans: as of last year, when Michael Keiser spoke with me on the Fried Egg Golf Podcast, Craig’s project was expected to be completed first. Even earlier in the development process, however, the Keiser brothers envisioned the C&C course as the resort’s leadoff hitter, so this recent rescheduling is best understood as a return to original intentions.

Olympia Fields hires Andrew Green: Last Thursday, Olympia Fields Country Club announced that it had engaged Andrew Green to restore its famed North Course. In a press release, club president Bill McErlean touted Green’s “vision and dedication to honoring the original design while incorporating modern advancements.” The Chicago-area club has hosted two U.S. Opens and two PGA Championships, but the North Course’s readiness for additional men’s majors came into question last August when Viktor Hovland lit up the Willie Park Jr. design during the PGA Tour’s BMW Championship, shooting a course-record 61 in the final round. Green’s work will begin in the coming months.

Relatedly, last year, Andy Staples finished a renovation of Olympia Fields’ lesser-known (but in some quarters better-liked) South Course.

Holston Hills tweaks spur controversy: I recommend checking out this Golf Club Atlas thread discussing Kris Spence’s recent renovation work at Holston Hills Country Club, a Donald Ross design in Knoxville, Tennessee. The original poster’s criticism of Spence’s approach is thorough and well articulated, and Spence’s response is admirably even-tempered. What could have been a flame war turned into an enlightening discussion of what to emphasize when researching a golf course restoration: does a written or drawn plan by the lead architect constitute an authoritative text, or are early photographs of actual holes more valuable?

For my part, I’d prioritize photographic evidence. Golf course design is a field practice, and what goes into the ground is often, though admittedly not always, more functional and interesting than what the architect initially imagined. But I can see both sides here.

A Course We Photographed Recently

Oakmont Country Club (Oakmont, PA)—designed by Henry C. Fownes in 1904, monkeyed with throughout the 20th century, renovated by Gil Hanse in 2024

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Quotable

“Too many golf courses focus on separating a good shot from a bad one. The real goal should be to separate a good shot from a great one, while allowing the bad shots to eventually find their way home.” –George Waters