Old Town's Maxwell Restoration: A "Grand Slam"

John Dell took a look at the restoration of Perry Maxwell's Old Town Club--ironically once mangled by Liberty National architect Bob Cupp--and comes away calling the Bill Coore-Ben Crenshaw restoration a "grand slam."

This PDF of before-after photos tell the visual story. You won't see many more stunning architectural transformations than this.

From golf chairman Dunlop White:

"Coore and Crenshaw have successfully recaptured the ‘big bone’ presence of our 1939 layout, and today all of our features possess a much larger footprint,” White said last week, just before the re-opening.

The course had been closed since December, and the $1 million restoration had plenty of phases to it. The bunker sizes were restored and reshaped to capture an old-style look and feel that resembles courses in the Pinehurst area.

They even put back the rare double green built by Maxwell.

Old Town used to play at about 6,800 yards from the back tees. It now can play at 7,037 yards.
Coore, who hopes to make it back to Old Town this fall, said by telephone that he and his team, which included Dave Axland, were the most nervous about the double green.

"We knew something had to be done with the double green, and we wanted to make sure it was done right, and when it was completed we liked how it turned out,” Coore said.

Other major changes included fairway expansions from 35 acres to 52 acres that give golfers more choices off the tee and plenty of fairway.

The story also featured this video interviewing superintendent O’Neal Crouch.