A drone’s eye view of hole No. 5 at Cutten Fields in Guelph, Ontario, with the new green being established behind the old one. Features of the new green include a 41% increase in size and a reworked cart-path routing to increase entry and exit points compared to the old path on the left. The old path and green have since been removed. Photo courtesy of David Braun
Editor’s note: This story originally appeared in the June 2024 issue of ONCourse, the official publication of the Ontario Golf Superintendents’ Association.
Golf course renovations often stem from a desire for improvement that is initiated by a combination of a passionate membership, club management and other key stakeholders. Behind every renovation is a unique story to be told.
There have been few renovations that have come together as uniquely as that of Cutten Fields.
History
Cutten Fields was designed by amateur golfer Chick Evans, who was the first golfer to win the U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur in the same year. Canadian architect Stanley Thompson also contributed to the original design; however, it is believed his involvement came later in the process. Since the club’s opening in 1931, the course had undergone numerous changes over the past 92 years, including the sale of a portion of the back nine, the addition of mounding around green sites and numerous bunker renovations to bring bunkers closer to shrinking greens. The original design along with many of the unique features had been lost or altered as time passed. It was time to look at reinvigorating the golf course while restoring some of the features that made Cutten Fields distinct from other great Canadian golf courses. The search began for an architect who could revitalize Cutten Fields.
Jeff Mingay restored some symmetrical features at Cutten Fields, including this rectangle green on the 18th hole. Mingay utilized the preliminary plan and old photos to replicate the original green shape designed by Chick Evans. Photos courtesy of Bill Green
The process
As part of the selection process of the architect, the Golf Course and Grounds Committee established and prioritized various club objectives. This process proved to be a valuable exercise to keep the design and methods in sync with our objectives, because sometimes clubs can get lost in the process and excitement of it all. The following objectives were approved by the committee and were incorporated as part of the improvement plan:
- Maintain the spirit of Chick Evans and Stanley Thompson. If, as set out in the club’s guiding principles, we are to be true to the spirit of Stanley Thompson, we should recognize that time has diminished the presence of the Thompson spirit. We now have an opportunity and perhaps a responsibility to “move the course forward by taking it back to its roots.”
- Respond to technological advances of the modern game. These advances have resulted in the course losing some of its original design defenses, such as bunker positioning and fairway shapes and contours.
- Attend to safety concerns. Address the safety concerns of golfers, staff and neighboring properties.
- Advance agronomic conditioning and consistency. Limit and reduce risk of winter damage and summer stress by increasing green sizes, increase pinnable areas, improve surface and subsurface drainage, improve traffic flow on greens and promote hearty turf varieties.
- Environment benefits. A natural course will be environmentally friendly and likely reduce the amount of water and chemical use.
- Competitive positioning of Cutten Fields. The club’s value is determined through myriad intangibles — obviously, the golf course is our key tangible asset. A comprehensive master plan must provide us an opportunity to significantly enhance the golf course and thereby differentiate the Cutten Fields golf experience in a competitive golf market.
- Financial benefits. Reduction of financial inputs should be considered when creating any new design features.
After a lengthy selection process that included a request for proposal process and multiple interviews, Jeff Mingay was appointed course architect in 2016. The Golf Course Improvement Plan was developed in 2018; however, the club was still investigating the best solution to improve the greens and mitigate the constant threat of winter injury.
The old No. 15 green remained in play during construction and was the first green completed as part of the Course Improvement Plan. This before and after shows the significance of the changes at Cutten Fields.
A deeper look into issues — green site evaluations
Agronomically, the golf course was falling short on member expectations, as the putting greens could not perform consistently with the constant threat of winter injury on predominately undersized Poa annua greens. A comprehensive green-site evaluation was completed to help direct the club on how the greens could be improved. It quickly became evident that the club had too many deficiencies to simply add drainage or expand greens to solve the myriad problems. The common deficiencies included inadequate sunlight, limited entry/exit points and poor surface drainage on the greens themselves, and many of the green surrounds had mounding and slopes that were draining onto greens, absence of internal drainage, inadequate square footage and a lack of pin locations due to severe slopes.
Ultimately, this process provided what we would use as the guiding principles to the development of new greens at Cutten Fields, as part of the Golf Course Improvement Plan. Looking ahead 30 years, we wanted a future green-site evaluation to hit positively on as many categories that were in our control. If we could achieve that goal, the greens at Cutten Fields would be set up for many years of success.
Additionally, if the club was to take on the financial burden and effort to build new greens, why fall short on any controllable factor like green sizes or entry/exit points?
Those guiding principles were:
- Sunlight. Maximize morning and afternoon sunlight. This included tree removal and relocating greens where required.
- Air movement. Maximize air movement where possible by removing trees or underbrush.
- Entrance and exit points. Three or more entry and exit points per green.
- Green size. Minimum 6,200 square feet.
- Pinnable area. 4,200 square feet of pinnable area at 1.5% to 3.5% slope.
- Surface drainage. Multi-directional surface drainage off putting green surfaces.
- Internal drainage. 10-foot centers.
- Purity of stand. 007 creeping bentgrass.
An aerial view of No. 9 green at Cutten Fields with some compelling green contours known as the thumb print.
Golf course improvement plan — implementation
In the spring of 2019, the club experienced yet another bad winter, and this set the stage for the addition of 18 new greens to the Golf Course Improvement Plan. Preparation began for a member vote to take place in the fall of 2019. A communication plan was developed with long-time Cutten Fields member Joan McVean, who had a wealth of knowledge and experience in communications with the local school board. The club conducted focus groups to help determine the best way to approach the project with respect to disruption only and not soliciting them for input on the necessity of the improvement plan. We offered walking tours to members to observe and discuss historically troubled greens. For comparison, the tours also included viewing the new pure bentgrass greens at the Guelph Turfgrass Institute. The most successful walking tour was on Men’s Night, where we provided refreshments and a putting competition after a short presentation. Also, the club hosted multiple townhall meetings, which included presentations from Dave Oatis (consulting agronomist), superintendent Bill Green and the charismatic Mingay. Communication and education were critical in achieving a 95% vote in favor of the Golf Course Improvement Plan.
The original Golf Course Improvement Plan was approved on the premise that Cutten Fields staff would complete five holes in-house. These were holes where we could build the new green behind or beside the current green so golfers could keep playing with minor inconveniences. Initially, a contractor was scheduled to finish the remaining 13 holes, with the condition that we would utilize temporary greens and keep the course open for play as much as possible. When COVID hit, there was so much uncertainty that the club decided to put a hold on the contractor portion of the project, but work continued on the other five holes. During this time, pro shop and clubhouse staff assisted with construction on the golf course.
Once COVID restrictions subsided and things got rolling again, the club was ready to complete the final 13 greens, but major changes were on the horizon. Over the course of completing the first five greens, we had essentially trained a construction crew who could install drainage and irrigation and build bunkers, tees and cart paths. Confidence in executing this project completely in-house quickly grew within our management team, staff and the membership. Sure enough, the talented team at Cutten Fields, along with Mingay, executed this task, all in-house, all while keeping the course open and playable.
The scope of the renovation included:
- Relocating two holes to address safety concerns.
- Construction of 18 modified California putting greens.
- Tee deck renovations that focused on improving separation between decks, more forward tees and adding length where possible. Cutten Fields is now over 7,000 yards.
- Construction of 67 new bunkers.
- New cart paths systems to improve entry and exit points.
- All related irrigation work.
From left, golf course architect Jeff Mingay, superintendent Bill Green and assistant superintendent Mark Hughes looking down the 13th hole at Cutten Fields trying to visualize the final product.
This project could not be completed in-house without a very talented group of individuals. Mark Hughes, who had recently joined our team at Cutten Fields, had 18 years of experience as a project manager for a golf course construction company. Hughes traveled throughout the U.S. and Canada renovating and building golf courses. This was certainly a different situation for Hughes, being on this side of a major project, as he was able to contribute in a meaningful way throughout the process. Longtime assistant superintendent Jamie Laird designed and installed the related irrigation, which was another skill set that was critical to executing the project the way it was done. Mingay subsequently had more architectural freedom, as we were easily able to adjust on the fly without having to worry about change orders, adding costs or administrative delays. This unique circumstance led to an exceptional end result.
Cutten Fields reopened in the fall of 2023. Since then, the team at Cutten Fields has been successful in maintaining turf health and exceptional playability of these agronomically engineered greens. The membership at Cutten Fields put a lot of trust in our team to execute this unique renovation, and they are enjoying the incredible improvements and conditions.
Bill Green is the GCSAA Class A golf course & grounds superintendent at Cutten Fields in Guelph, Ontario. He is a 24-year GCSAA member.