WHERE THE PROS PLAY
BY ERIC YODER
   The new PGA Tour stop at The Greenbrier offers everyone a chance to play the same course touring professionals play. See how your game stacks up.
   Renovating a great golf course, like writing a great book, is a process that is never truly finished, just abandoned.
   At least that was the experience of architect Lester George when he took on the revamping of the Old White course at The Greenbrier. For four winters starting in 2002, “I got about 93 percent done of what I wanted to get done,” George says.
   As with many renovations of old courses – the Old White dates back to 1914 – the process involved going back to source documents including, in this case, aerial pictures from the 1920s. “The whole quest was to restore the Old White and rebuild it the way we could interpret those photographs,” says George.
   Many of the holes were designed as copies of the great holes of Scotland, and that character hasn’t changed. The revisions mainly reflected that modern grasses allow fairways and greens to be mowed much closer. Thus, some of the slope and contours were taken out of them, while preserving their basic design, such as the trough that runs through the middle of the third green, a mid-length par 3.
   “In restoring a course you have to temper today’s speed and distance into where your hazards are, what your slopes can be, so you don’t have anything that gets crazy or out of control,” George says.
   However, a resort can only keep a golf course idle for so long, especially when the course in question is the signature layout of the three at the site.
   A new door opened, though, when The Greenbrier landed a PGA Tour stop, with a six-year commitment to use the Old White, starting with the 2010 inaugural Greenbrier Classic. George then decided that there were a half-dozen holes where the bunkers would not be in play for touring professionals, so he put in back tees adding close to 200 yards to the course. Meanwhile, he put finishing touches on several holes.
   Since those changes, the Old White now plays just above 7,000 yards from the tips, not especially long by today’s standards overall, much less the standards of tournament layouts. But that doesn’t mean that the average player should necessarily step back.
   “It’s a firm golf course, and it’s sneaky long,” says George. “There is so much of a premium to play second shots into these greens. You can make mistakes by thinking you should play it from farther back. It plays wonderfully well from 6,600 and even 6,300 yards.”
   “For the resort guest, you’re getting out and seeing what the touring pros are up against,” says Robert Harris, director of sports and recreation at The Greenbrier. “Great conditioning and a fast golf course is what we’re striving for. If you play the right set of tees, based on your ability, you’ll have a lot of fun with it.”