Worth the wait: Club completes renovation

The course at Tippecanoe Country Club received a $3 million facelift.
By PETE MOLLICA
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
CANFIELD -- Tippecanoe Country Club has always been one of the area's toughest and most beautiful golf courses.
And it just became tougher and better.
The club, one of the area's oldest private facilities, recently underwent a major renovation project that cost just less than $3 million.
The renovation process took a little more than a year to complete. When it was finished, the course had eight new greens, five new lakes, a couple of completely new holes and some renovation on the others.
Why spend all that money on a golf course that was one of the finest in the area?
"Well, you have to upgrade your facility and make improvements," said Dr. Bob Gerberry, Tippecanoe club president. "There have been several new courses built around here, and Avalon Lakes recently had a big renovation. So you have to keep up."
Time to act
Jerry Cox , Tippecanoe head greens superintendent, said there were some needed improvements to the golf course.
"We added a new irrigation system and new drainage, especially on the greens," Cox said. "Our old greens were a problem when we got a lot of rain -- now we don't have that problem. You can play on them within a half hour after a hard rain."
Cox said that irrigation and drainage are the "bread-and-butter" of any golf course.
"When it rains you have to have good drainage to take care of the water, and when it doesn't rain you have to be able to get the water on the course," Cox said.
Tippecanoe has installed a new state-of-the-art triple row irrigation system, with new sprinkler heads that list the yardage to the front, middle and back of each green.
Gerberry, Cox and head golf professional George Bellino were involved in selling the idea of renovation to the membership.
"We brought in an architect, Brian Huntley of Akron, to redesign the course and he came up with two plans for the members," Gerberry said.
Options
One of the plans was to redo the golf course the way it was, with work on greens and tees. The other was the complete renovation, which the membership elected to go with.
"We completely built eight new greens," Cox said. "In the process we added five new lakes. Plus, we now will have five tee areas on every hole to accommodate the membership."
The new greens were built on holes 1, 3, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17. No. 16, a short par-3, is an entirely new hole that was cut out of the heavy tree area.
The hole includes a lake and bunkers and goes from an elevated tee down to the green measuring anywhere from 100 yards to 155 yards.
The renovation has forced some changing of holes on the course.
The new No. 1 hole is the old No. 10. The No. 2 hole, formerly a par-4 and followed by a par-3, was combined into a long par-5 using the old No. 3 green.
The old No. 11 hole was completely redesigned into a dogleg left with a new green and the No. 15 hole has been turned into one of the most picturesque holes on the course.
The par-4, 375-yard hole was always difficult with the huge drop off before getting to the green. Now, the steep hill that leads up to the green has been covered with sand bunkers and a beautiful waterfall, with a stream running through.
"It just flowed down into the lake by No. 16 and a pump keeps circulating it back up through the falls," Gerberry said.
Covering other angles
In addition to all the renovation to the golf course, the club has also rebuilt the entire driving range, including tees and landing areas, and will use the old No. 11 green for a chipping and sand practice area. The huge practice putting green has also been totally redesigned.
"The old practice green was a nightmare to maintain," Cox said.. "It had dips so deep that you couldn't get a mower in there to cut it right."
The entrance way to the club has also been renovated.
While the membership has been patient since the renovation process began in the spring of 2002, Cox said the golf course has really never been closed during the entire process.
"We've had to come up with a lot of temporary greens at times, but it was always open for play," Cox said.
Gerberry said there is still some work to be completed.
"We've got cart paths to finish and we will also be redoing the club parking lot.
"Our membership has been just tremendous throughout this whole process and without their cooperation we would have never been able to make all these improvements," Gerberry said.
mollica@vindy.com