The wanamaker and ryder courses that will be used in the pga professional Championship at PGA Golf Club on April 27-30 provide vastly different elements and scoring opportunities.
That was by design.
“The commitment was to have two different-styled courses even though the land was very similar, meaning flat,” says legendary designer Tom Fazio, who was hired in the mid-1990s to design two championship courses at the PGA of America’s flagship property in Port St. Lucie, Florida. “You have to find other design elements to set them apart. The first element is visual.”
For Fazio, that meant designing one of the courses with wider corridors to give it a different feel than the other. The next element was to use more sand bunkers on one of the courses, putting a premium on accuracy. Then he relied on the natural features such as elevation changes and contours to provide more contrast.
“You blend all those separate items, and that gives you two distinct courses,” Fazio explains. “What you don’t want is a golf course that’s preferred over the other. The ideal situation is when a golfer is asked what course they want to play, they say, ‘I don’t care; they’re both good.’”
Truth be told, virtually every golfer in the 312-player in the PGA Professional Championship would opt for the par-71 Ryder Course for all four rounds because it typically plays about two to three shots easier than the par-72 Wanamaker. It doesn’t work that way: Each player gets one round on the Ryder and the Wanamaker courses before the 36-hole cut, then the last two rounds are played on the recently-renovated Wanamaker, usually called the Wane (wah-knee) by locals.
“Truth of the matter is, Wane’s greens are a little firmer after the renovation and a little more penal if you miss in the wrong place,” says Dylan Newman, PGA, who has won a half dozen tournaments at PGA Golf Club the last three years in the PGA Tournament Series and the PGA Winter Championships. “At the Ryder, you just send it out there and play offense. If you miss a green, it’s usually not that bad. On Wane, you can put yourself in bad spots and you have to play defense.”
That opinion is shared by PGA Golf Club’s Director of Golf/Head Golf Professional Holly Taylor, PGA, who should know. She’s been working at the property, which also includes the par-72 Dye Course, since 2008.
“My favorite part of this facility is each course is so different,” Taylor explains. “I find the Wanamaker Course is more challenging. Ryder is kind of rolling hills, pines, big greens. The Wane is a true Florida test of golf with big bunkers, lots of water and undulating greens.”
The Wanamaker renovation was overseen by Fazio and his son, Nathan. They wanted to ensure the major design concepts — such as the two-green eighth hole — would be kept, and they helped with the bunker changes to reduce them and make them less susceptible to washouts after the usual summer storms and the occasional hurricane. The renovation was completed Nov. 1, then it was up to Chris Sykes, the Director of Golf Course Maintenance, and his staff to work their magic.
It didn’t help that the National Car Rental Assistant PGA Professional Championship was held three weeks after the reopening, followed by the PGA Tournament Series and the PGA Winter Series, another 12 events. Such is the life of a superintendent at a three-course facility.
“We’re used to hosting championships, but it’s a different set of circumstances because we just renovated one of them,” says Sykes, who has been at PGA Golf Club for two years. “We know there are some runoff areas that need a little work on the Wanamaker. You don’t want the greens to be firm and the areas around them to be slow. We’re trying to carefully push the envelope. We’ve had a lot of growth in the last few weeks, and we hope that will continue so the course will play plenty firm and fast.”
PGA Golf Club is making every effort to have the courses in the best shape for this month’s PGA Professional Championship. Taylor says the Wanamaker Course will go to cart-paths only on April 4, with the Ryder Course following suit April 18.
Past PGA Professional Champion Bob Sowards (2004) says the recent renovation on the Wanamaker may take away some of the local knowledge available to players who have competed at PGA Golf Club often. Then again, golf is all about making adjustments.
“The first time I played Wane, I remembered how the grain was, and I was overreading putts because new greens don’t have as much grain,” Sowards recalls. “I like the changes because it gives us more pin placements. They’ve softened some of the hills. It seems like every hole has major changes.”
One thing that hasn’t changed, however, is the difficulty of Wanamaker’s two closing holes – the par-3 17th that usually plays into a sidewind, and the par-4 18th with water lining the right side and a steep-inclined green, with a tough chipping area behind. Closing with two pars isn’t easy, typical of a major championship.
Some players have complained hosting the PGA Professional Championship at a place where many PGA of America members are so comfortable may not be fair to others. Past Champion Ron Philo (2006) has a succinct response to such a claim.
“I definitely think knowing the courses is an advantage,” explains Philo, who has been a member of PGA Golf Club since it opened. “Anybody who feels they’re at a disadvantage, I tell them, ‘Come play. These courses aren’t closed. Anybody can come play them. Shame on you if you don’t want to come and learn them.’” —Craig Dolch
