Less is more at Erin Hills Golf Course

By |  April 9, 2015 0 Comments

In preparation for the 2017 U.S. Open, Erin Hills achieves stunning results while using minimalistic approaches to conserve natural resources.

erin_hills_viewTake a site made up of unusual earth formations left behind by glaciers thousands of years ago, add in a forward-thinking, minimalistic architecture team and a cutting edge superintendent, and the result is a links-style gem of a golf course in America’s heartland.

Located 35 miles northwest of Milwaukee, Erin Hills Golf Course, Erin, Wis., provided the architects an assortment of natural settings for golf holes. More, in fact, than any other property they had ever visited.

“I had an unexplainable feeling from the get-go that the property was a game-changer,” says Dana Fry, architect. “From its natural topography and unique landforms to its overall vastness and ideal soil conditions, it offered endless possibilities.”

Fry and his former business partner, Michael Hurdzan, Ph.D., the global authority on environmental course architecture, partnered with Ron Whitten, the world’s foremost golf course critic, to create the most natural golf course possible, taking a minimalistic approach to design and construction. The result of that collaboration is in the capable hands of superintendent Zach Reineking, who looks at water conservation and reducing inputs as an art form.

The USGA clearly likes the results, as the course has already hosted two of its championships — the 2008 U.S. Women’s Amateur Public Links Championship and the 2011 U.S. Amateur — at a course that only opened in 2006. And next up, the course will host the first U.S. Open to ever be played in Wisconsin in 2017.
 

Minimalism at its finest

Construction began on the course in 2004, with one primary focus in mind: to take full advantage of the natural terrain to limit earthmoving, aside from developing bunkers and tee complexes.

“Since the property’s terrain was so good for golf, we wanted to find a series of world-class holes that could be built with little to no earthmoving,” says Jason Straka, Hurdzan’s and Fry’s long-time associate, as well as Fry’s current business partner. “The glacial features of the property were very similar to the sand dunes of the world’s finest links courses, so we wanted the course’s appearance and playability to reflect upon the characteristics of links golf, even though it was located in the middle of Wisconsin rather than overlooking the ocean.”

By eliminating earthwork, grading and shaping on more than half of the course’s 18 holes, the architects’ crews spent nearly $3 million on construction costs in a year and a half, a relatively low aggregate, especially considering the size of the property. A majority of the property’s native soil structure remained undisturbed, resulting in further short- and long-term cost savings, as the soils required significantly fewer drainage basins and pipes than usual.

Erin-Hills_view2“On sites that require substantial earthmoving, topsoil is normally stripped off, stored and then replaced once the golf hole is shaped,” Straka says. “This shuffling of soil and disturbance by large earthmoving equipment compacts soil and oftentimes destroys its natural tilth. The ideal topography of Erin Hills, combined with our minimalistic approach, meant that the natural soil structure could be left in its existing, well-draining state. The undisturbed soils are a long-term benefit to the health of the turf.”

With the soil’s porosity in mind, the architectural team suggested that fine fescue be planted throughout the course’s fairways.

“If the property’s soil had been heavy and compacted, as is often the case when considerable earthmoving occurs, the fescue wouldn’t have thrived,” Straka says. “But since the native soils were so permeable and left undisturbed, the fescue has grown quite well. And it has used less water, fertilizer and fossil fuels than most other grasses would have, resulting in a more environmentally sustainable course.”

To further preserve the property’s natural environment, its wide array of prairie vegetation and wetlands were protected from the onset of construction. As the architects developed their initial layouts for Erin Hills, they ensured the wetlands would remain completely intact and surrounded by vegetative water filtration buffers. The property’s Ashippun River corridor, which bisects the site, is protected as well, as the course never crosses the river.

Even the natural contours of the course’s fairways were preserved, while bunkers were developed with unkempt edges to maintain a more naturalistic look and provide guests the ultimate links-style golfing experience.
 

Make history, prepare for the future

The USGA announced in 2010 that Erin Hills would host the 117th U.S. Open. The exciting news was presented to Erin Hills’ staff members shortly after the course had been purchased by a new owner, Andrew Ziegler, a Wisconsin businessman who oversees a Milwaukee-based investment management firm.

Within weeks of his purchase, Ziegler began to meet with the course’s superintendent, Zach Reineking, to hone in on turfgrass vitality in order to improve upon the course’s playing conditions in anticipation of the U.S. Open.

To improve upon the overall experiences of members and guests, as well as prepare for the U.S. Open, Reineking’s principal focus was shifted toward plant health. Methods to reduce stress to the fairways’ fescue as well as the greens’ A-4 bentgrass and the tee boxes’ Penncross bentgrass became priority.

“By improving turf conditions, (we have) restricted the amount of chemical inputs necessary to achieve its desired standards,” Reineking says. “Each of these improvements was suggested by the USGA and implemented in-house by my team.”
 

Protecting fescue from Mother Nature

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Fry/Straka Global Golf Course Design was Boardroom magazine’s design firm of the year in 2013. Dana Fry (left) and Jason Straka (right) have worked together for nearly 20 years.

Although fine fescue’s positive traits, such as drought tolerance and low fertility demand, certainly outweigh its negative characteristics, high temperatures and high humidity can directly influence its growth patterns. To combat this and prepare the fescue for the stress of summertime heat and humidity, Reineking’s team topdresses the course’s fairways from April to June.

Each year, Reineking applies eight topdressing applications to each fairway, totaling half an inch of accumulated sand. That amounts to more than 1,500 tons of sand annually. As a result, Erin Hills’ playing conditions are immediately improved because the fescue’s crown is fully protected from Mother Nature’s elements.

“For further protection, before the course is opened in the spring, the fairways are also aerated through deep-tine aerification so the fescue can produce deeper roots,” Reineking says. “Once this occurs, our focus is shifted to reduce traffic stress through mowing patterns and schedules that also protect the fescue until late summer.”

Fescue generally isn’t tolerant of high volumes of golf car traffic, so Reineking at one point found himself watering and fertilizing fairways more frequently. The additional chemical inputs and water encouraged the growth of invasive species like Poa annua.

Bearing in mind the longstanding traditions of the game, as well as the principles of agronomics, new owner Ziegler converted Erin Hills to a “walking-only” facility shortly after purchasing it. Eliminating golf cars means the fescue is now maintained as originally intended, using much less fertilizer and water, resulting in dry, firm and fast conditions.
 

Brown is beautiful

During the summer of 2012, southeast Wisconsin endured a severe drought, with no rain reported for 62 consecutive days. In response, Reineking actually took advantage of the conditions, pushing the course to its limits by only irrigating fescue minimally so it would stay alive without actively growing. Greens and tee boxes, however, were irrigated.

Erin-Hills_view3By the end of the summer, the course used only 18.2 million gallons of water, just 500,000 more gallons than typical summers.
“Since fescue can manage droughts by transitioning into a summer-dormancy state and turning brown while the crown and roots are alive, the fairways had an incredible patina of green and brown all summer,” Reineking says. “We want to maintain that ‘brown is beautiful’ philosophy during the Open by using the least amount of chemicals and water we possibly can.”

Erin Hills has a two-row irrigation system, preventing excessive water application on the outer perimeters of fairways and rough. Of the course’s 550 irrigation heads, 200 to 300 see frequent use. Consequently, the course now uses less than 125,000 gallons of water each day.

To better measure Erin Hills’ irrigation needs, the Turfgrass Department also uses time-domain reflectometers, a form of moisture sensing technology, to determine how much water the rough, fairways and greens require day to day. Staff members have an established daily reading to strive for via hand-watering. Each reading is based on weather conditions. Using the reflectometers and hand watering the turfgrass limits the number of overhead irrigation applications necessary to maintain healthy turfgrass. It also limits the amount of disease, which usually occurs as a result of overwatering.

As another example of minimal maintenance input, Reineking’s staff uses iPads that are paired to their irrigation computers, allowing staff members to walk fairways and determine which irrigation heads should run. This micromanagement of irrigation is especially valuable on Erin Hills’ undulated natural terrain, which creates microclimates at individual holes and requires more water on some greens and fairways than others.

“People often assume minimalism is an end product,” Fry says, “but, as evidenced by Erin Hills, it is clearly a process. To preserve our ecosystem, golf courses’ minimalistic processes must start prior to the beginning of planning, design, or even construction, and then continue long-term through the initiatives of superintendents.”

Course photos by: Paul Hundley | Fry/Straka photo by: Ryan Bockmuller

This article is tagged with and posted in Maintenance

About the Author: Chris Lewis

Michigan-based writer Chris Lewis specializes in reporting on golf in the U.S. He wrote about White Pine National Golf Resort for Golfdom in 2013, and part two of the magazine’s annual Plant Health Series in 2014.


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