PINEHURST — Kris Spence and Spence Golf Inc., known best for its restoration/renovation work on classic golf courses throughout the United States, have been selected by The Country Club of North Carolina to renovate its driving range and practice areas.
The driving range and practices areas at CCNC will be closed as of June 8. The project has commenced and is estimated for completion in eight to 10 weeks, under the supervision of Spence’s lead associate Jim Harbin.
Spence is no stranger to CCNC as he supervised a renovation project on the club’s Dogwood Course in 2016, which served as the host of the 2021 U.S. Junior Amateur, won by Nick Dunlap. He is the club’s architect of record and advisor for the Dogwood Course.
“We are pleased to once again partner with Kris Spence — this time to enhance our golf practice facilities,” said CCNC COO/General Manager Jim Sutton. “This $2 million project was identified as a high priority in our recent strategic plan and represents an important investment in the member experience. CCNC is fortunate to have a strong community of golfers who are committed to improving their game through quality instruction and practice. Like many private clubs, we have seen a significant increase in both usage and time spent at our practice facilities, and we expect that trend to continue in the years ahead. This capital investment will greatly enhance the practice experience for our members and provide lasting benefits for the club.”
“The main focus is on the safety and functionality aspects of the range,” Spence said. “We are trying to address infrastructure items on it, including agronomy and we were listening to their problems. We are not going out to design a certain motif, except on the short game green.”
The main components of the renovation are changes to the size, alignment and levels of the practice range, additional target greens, a higher safety net, a larger and more free-flowing short-game area and a putting green. The entire facility will be sodded with new grass.
In his planning, Spence found two main revisions that needed to be implemented. The orientation of the aim of the practice tee was not down the center of the range, and the deck of the main practice area was sloped upward from back to front.
Instead of the two-level deck that was in place previously, a single deck of 125,000 square feet (nearly three acres) will be built. That is 30% larger than the previous two decks and will result in eight to more hitting stations.
“We are going to tilt that tee one% from back to front and lower the trajectory of the balls coming off of it, drivers in particular,” Spence said. “In the fairway, we are going to rework the area and raise some of low areas and reorient and shape the target greens.”
To provide members with a real feel while practicing, 40,000 square feet of the tee will be zoysia to match the fairway grass on the Dogwood Course and the remainder will be Bermuda to match the fairway grass of the Cardinal Course.
A total of four well-defined target greens with sharper surrounds, ranging in size from 3,000-3,500 square feet, will be a main feature of the new facility. In addition, two smaller target greens of 1,000 square feet or less will focus on the wedge game.
The area comprised by the short game area, with a larger green “to replicate what they are going to play on” with bunkers, will expand by 80% for what Spence calls “broader usability.”
Once the practice range layout has been defined, the new safety net will be raised in key locations.
Both ends of the practice range will include synthetic mats for the winter season.
During the renovation project, CCNC members have been offered the opportunity to use the practice facilities at Knollwood Fairways in Southern Pines.