“I’m thrilled with what was uncovered. It was like finding a long- lost treasure.”

It's always good to hear about a faithful Donald Ross restoration, even if it's a pretty private club.

Howard Ward tells us about Kris Spence's sensitive, well-researched (Tufts Archives ironically enough) restoration of the Blue Ridge Mountains' Roaring Gap Club where Leonard Tufts was the club's founder.

“A large majority of club members were overwhelmed by the outcome. People are raving about how much the greens exceeded their expectations,” said Dunlop White III, a longtime member of the club’s greens committee and past president of the Donald Ross Society. “Kris’s understanding of how the greens evolved over time was critical to the project’s success. He really devoted his skills to bringing back Ross’ distinctive design work here at Roaring Gap.”

White said so much of the greens had been lost over time that current golfers assumed the knobby regions outside the perimeters were chipping areas. Instead, they were integral parts of the original putting surfaces.

“These were 86-year-old greens that had never been touched. No one remembered exactly how they were,” said White. “I’m thrilled with what was uncovered. It was like finding a long- lost treasure.”