Nicklaus looking to Valhalla Golf Club's next 25 years
The major renovation planned for Valhalla Golf Club is designed to catch up with 25 years of change in the game and to prepare the course for “the next 25 years,” course designer Jack Nicklaus said Thursday.
Nicklaus, who was hired by then-owner Dwight Gahm to create the course in the early 1980s, and PGA of America chief executive officer Joe Steranka announced detailed plans for the changes to the media and then met with club members.
Nicklaus said that in the 25 years since the course opened, “golf equipment has changed dramatically, and golfers have changed the way they play the game dramatically. A course needs to change with them ...
“Most golf courses at that point, the irrigation gets tired, the greens start to get tired and the drainage gets tired. All of these things need to be brought up to snuff.“It’s not a complete makeover,” said Nicklaus, one of the greatest golfers in the history of the game. “ ... But we are looking toward the next 25 years. When we’re done with this, the next time the (professionals) play here, this course will be moved up in the rankings.”
Nicklaus said the goal is to finish the project in two months and have players back on parts of the course by “early to midsummer” and the rest of the course “by the end of the summer. But the man upstairs has to cooperate with us.”
The course has been renovated two other times, including a complete shutdown before the Ryder Cup when Nicklaus’ company reworked some holes.Nicklaus noted that several greens were rebuilt before the Ryder Cup but said, “We didn’t change the bottom structure of the greens.” In this renovation the entire green structures will be redone.
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