Course of the Week: Atlanta Athletic Club completes Riverside Course renovation

By |  November 10, 2022 0 Comments
(Photo: Dave Sansom Photography)

(Photo: Dave Sansom Photography)

The Atlanta Athletic Club (AAC) in John’s Creek, Ga., recently completed the renovation of its Riverside Course. Golf course architect Tripp Davis re-envisioned the routing, playing strategy and visual quality of this storied course set alongside the Chattahoochee River.

To update the course infrastructure, tees, greens and bunkers were rebuilt and repositioned, along with reshaping to develop sound surface and subsurface drainage. The crew also installed a new irrigation system.

The fairways were sand capped and replanted with Zorro Zoysia. The crew replanted roughs with Tiftuf Bermuda and seeded far roughs with a fescue blend.

Davis focused on carefully moving dirt, so the course ties into the land in a natural way. He carried this into the style of the bunkers in the way he contoured the fairways, how greens sit on the land and how tees tie off subtly to surrounding grades. Accomplishing this required the rerouting of holes three, four, five, 12, 13 and 14.

Players can choose how aggressive or conservative they want to be and are not forced to play in a limited or prescribed manner. The design allows course setup to vary the level of challenge, from regular member play to national championships.

“Riverside can be setup to be a very enjoyable course for the membership on a daily basis, but we instilled design elements that will allow high-level events to test the best players in the game,” Davis said. “We can grow the rough a little, speed up the greens, and use a variety of tougher hole locations to present a complete test.”

Recently, the USGA and AAC announced that the 2025 U.S. Girl’s Junior Amateur, the 2030 U.S. Amateur and the 2035 U.S. Women’s Amateur will be played at AAC.



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