When The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, Orlando, Grande Lakes reopens on Nov. 1, the 7,122-yard (tips), par 72 layout will look different, but it also will look much the same. Over the past few months, Carlton Marshall Golf Design reworked many of the greens complexes and bunkers. The team even added stacked sod “echo’’ bunkers around some greens, but maintained the integrity of Greg Norman’s original 2003 routing design.
The course will host the PNC Championship, an annual 36-hole two-person scramble featuring PGA Tour and LPGA players, Dec. 16-20.
“We finished the project about a month early, which was good for the superintendent to grow the new (Celebration) grass,’’ Marshall told me. “The entire course got regrassed tee-to-green,’’ with TifEagle on the greens.
“We didn’t completely redesign each green because we didn’t have to rebuild them, ” Marshall said. “The greens were very subtle. So, with the knowledge of having the existing USGA green specs, we were able to get a little more contour, which is what the membership wanted. It wanted to add a little more flavor to the greens, which we did. And on a few of the greens we expanded pin locations.’’
Marshall, a co-partner in Carlton Marshall Design with Justin Carlton, worked as a design associate – sometimes as lead designer – with Norman’s course design group – from 2004-2014, so he had a good idea for Norman’s design eye.
“It’s a great course the way it’s laid out – a good piece of property’’ Marshall said. “You don’t feel like you’re in the heart of Orlando.’’
https://www.ritzcarlton.com/en/hotels/mcorz-the-ritz-carlton-orlando-grande-lakes/golf
Photo Courtesy of The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club, Orlando, Grande Lakes