HOT SPRINGS, Va. -- Silver is for a 25th anniversary and gold for a 50th, but what do you get for an 83rd anniversary?
If you're The Homestead Resort, it's a facelift for your most famous golf course. The classic Cascades Course has closed to begin an extreme makeover, a renovation that will restore the course to its original design as created by William Flynn more than 80 years ago.
The makeover will focus mainly on the course bunkers, which have deteriorated from routine edging and flooding over the history of the course.
"Our No. 1 opportunity has been the bunkers all along," said Director of Golf Don Ryder. "This restoration will elevate the level of play and make the course more difficult than it was before."
The Cascades Course was completed in 1923 and then redesigned by Robert Trent Jones in 1961. Renovation plans will restore the course to the original design Flynn developed, with the help of the 1923 course blueprint.
"We are restoring the course with assumptions based on today's game. Many things the original design called for can't be implemented today -- there's a road that runs through the course now -- and today's game is a bit more challenging," said Brett Schoenfield, president of The Homestead. "But we want to pay homage to one of the world's most talented golf course architects and to a regular guest that loved The Homestead and its surroundings."
The Cascades is noted for grooming some of the PGA Tour's past and present touring professionals, such as Sam Snead, who began his professional career at The Homestead in 1934, and Richmond, Va., native Lanny Wadkins, the 1995 Ryder Cup captain.
The course, recently named as one of the Top 100 golf courses in the United States and Top 100 in the world by Golf Magazine, is scheduled to be finished and ready for play in May 2006.
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