TOTAL golf course transformation in less than a year! | Colonial CC | PGA TOUR Originals

How does an iconic golf course get stripped down to the soil and then reconstructed to the high standards of its legendary status? Learn how modern golf technology with hydronics, laser scanning and cutting-edge construction machinery combines with a mission to preserve the look and feel of a historic track to create a more sustainable course. Following the 2023 Charles Schwab Challenge, Colonial Country Club embarked on an 11-month renovation project led by architect Gil Hanse to return the property to a more natural, classic presentation. Hanse started on the master plan project in 2017, delving into the Club’s history and past modifications. He engaged members, including renowned golf writer Dan Jenkins, current Green Committee member Marty Leonard and daughter of the founder, Marvin Leonard.

00:00 Open
00:58 June 2023
02:48 Project Timeline
03:56 Why Make the Changes?
06:03 Removing Concrete
07:27 What is Hydronics?
09:08 Precision Air installation
10:27 Laser Scanning the Greens
11:39 Aerial Views of the Back Nine – June 2023
12:59 August 2023 – Gil Hanse Shares His Vision
15:39 Gil Hanse in a Bulldozer
16:39 The 5 Stages of Green Construction
19:54 Green Shaping
21:08 Aerial Views of the Entire 18 Holes – August 2023
23:37 May 2024
26:31 Ryan Palmer’s Role
27:25 Walking Tour of No. 8
28:54 Walking Tour of No. 13
30:43 Walking Tour of No. 16
32:08 Before and After Aerials
33:36 Reflecting on the Project
36:11 Special Thanks

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you’re going to stay in the prison if you’re G now he has been perfect from that range this week 8 years since his last win and 8 years was more than enough for gillo and for Colonial and era ended today a new era begins next year can’t wait to see it all brand new again I think this is going to be one of the biggest Transformations from a golf course that is now to what it will be at the end of the day our goal is to make a golf course that looks and feels old it feels original and ultimately will play as the original Architects intended it to it’s almost shocking to be honest with you I mean I remember talking to the Gil about timelines he go if it was his way he’ had 18 months and he had less than 11 morning Eddie Kevin morning morning morning guys you can go ahead and get those valves in cuz that water that’s where that square is that that’s not moving okay so if there’s anything on this front side that we need to pick up we’ll take it out we always wake up at just before 5: to be here by 6:00 6:15 we all meet at 6:30 cman Construction laar Construction Heritage links construction go over what we’re doing for the day what we need to get done for the day where we’re going to be at so trying to just make sure that we’re not crossing paths too much we’re not getting each other’s way so we get everything accomplished and we’re not creating more work for each other can we make it into that new 12in basement yeah we’ll have to pick up yeah that back corner if we can make if we have fall from there to here we can go that way yeah and of course no plans are perfect and when you take it from there whatever you need to tackle and change along the way we will once we get going there’s just questions that pop up through the day taking phone calls trucks delivering material just making sure that I’m not holding anything up and we can answer questions or get anything solved that we need to make sure the project keeps moving forward hydronics what do you think hydronics uh we’re going to cut that area out so that’s still happen cut that those two pieces out of that and then we already have it set the manifold will just pop in and you guys will be ready to go another busy thing yeah construction is about a f Monon project all the heavy liftings done at the beginning greens deadline is September 1st s down throughout the golf course ideally October 1 punch list hopefully by November 1 and then kind of hunker down for winter we have some freezes that tend to come through here so make sure we’re getting the grass ready to withstand winter it’s all going to be real young and then hopefully set up to come out of spring as best as possible once we get going in Spring make sure we’re getting everything grown in finished up kind of details and ready to go for tournament and end of [Music] [Music] May one of the things that that Marvin Leonard was dedicated to when he founded Colonial was to provide a wonderful test of golf and a wonderful reason to come to Fort Worth he was so proud of this area and so proud of its history and its roots and he wanted to show that off I think this is going to be one of the biggest Transformations from a golf course that is now to what it will be I think the par 3s are going to be our biggest most dramatic change you know four doesn’t change a whole lot but 8 13 and 16 are going to be significantly different I think overall the look of the golf course is going to stand out and then naturalizing the entire property rather than that concrete channel that we saw the ball roll down won’t be there and I think that’ll probably be our most dramatic area of changes in that back corner of the property creating a more natural Golf Course back in that area trying to create a golf course in conditions that everyone’s going to be happy and and proud of and takes this golf course back to the’ 40s era where it was this great golf course we had the best part 3s in the world I think we’ll we’ll get pretty close the time frame is short everybody knows that you know when need to start and you can’t stop you have to go cuz everything is right behind you we probably have about 35 guys now and more on the way we do the moving of dirt so we can make room for caveman’s team and their equipment to go between Hole by hole and do the work so basically opening round for them and then closing ground behind them as well it’s just a process slowly prepping for Mr Gil we want to be ready for him whenever he’s on site so this is a big storm drain area all the water from up above the property TCU residential areas south of here that drain all through our property I think it was in the 80s this was all big concrete walls rock walls and then the concrete Channel all the way through to a turning Basin over by the beginning 18 Fairway 17 green area we’re coming back in and removing part of that to try and naturalize and and get it back to a small Waterway with a grass flood plane area and get that hard scape off the property the in play areas so we’re trying to widen everything right now it wants to hit a area take a 90° turn left and then another 90° turn out of here so we’re trying to soften those edges allow water to flow a little more freely through this area we know we’ll always have flooding issues just by where we’re at in relation to the neighborhood the river but we’re trying to reduce the frequency of those flooding events so by doing this we’re trying to allow more area for water to go to say we get four or five events a year hopefully we turn that into a 5ye maybe a 10year flood event so protect our investment and our features greens bunkers a little bit more than what they are now 14 green we got hydronics set in place just getting ready to start hydronics testings into our manifolds and then we should be ready to start putting mix on the greens and coing them good so hydronics is just to help control temperature below the mix layer I mean it can be slightly warmer or colder just by putting hot water or cold water in there when you gets too hot might be able to relieve that when it gets too cold might be able to relieve the cold it’s a tool that allows us to get through those tough Summers uh and allow us to grow a cool season grass in a in a pretty difficult transition zone area of Texas we have pretty large HVAC chillers that will cool the water to I think the set points 43° pump that cold water all the way to the greens through manifolds through all the tubing and the greens and then that cold air will come up through the root Zone and essentially create a fake growing environment for grass and you’re trying to trick the grass when it’s 110 115° outside the mix will be added to it and those hoses will be under that mix I mean carefully placing it in place and after that we just finish breaking them and The Architects will be able to put a final float and then she’ll be ready for seed or whatever the next process will be ready for grass basically that’s the finishing touches I’ve been assigned the task to help the contractors install these precision air Parts this is where we hook up so this would be the high side of the green right here this is where we’ll hook up our portable HVAC systems to then push air through the green right here all through this 6in PVC pipe that you can see exposed right here this is where it tees up and then connects to drainage tile that runs throughout the whole green and then Feeds out and connects to the Fairway drainage that will drain all the way down to the pond that’s over here so this will give us the opportunity to kind of control the moisture level of our greens and kind of provide air and be able to suck moisture out it really helps help us keep great playing conditions when we have rain and weather and stuff helps us dry up quick if you guys want to look at this I you have a little like gate valve right here so this we have the ability to close and shut so some guys think it it is like a reverse flush kind of so you can fill it up release it and then it’s kind of like it’s kind of like flushing a green that way so that’ll be pretty nice this is a Leica laser scanner we work with green scan to create a digital profile of the green that we’ll use later on with surveying tools to essentially rebuild the green exactly the way it is what we do is we set up control points that you can see with the little ball over there those points tell us in space where we’re at when we start to set up the surveying equipment we’ll come in here and we’ll demolish the green and take it down to whatever elevation that’s desired and then we build it back layer by layer and each layer is exactly contoured with essentially what you get as a finished product it’s really changing the way that Architects are operating these days and it really gives us control to do everything exactly the way that we want it and build it back to exactly the specifications that we’re looking for now the scan’s been done we’re going to download it and then we’ll put on the USB stick and then I’ll ship it off to Green scan they’ll edit the information for us and return it in a format that we can loaded into Total Station [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] the original Architects John breus and then Perry Maxwell he followed along thought about trying to keep the features lower to the ground and maximizing whatever topography they had on the site and so this restoration Embraces that thought process the construction methodology the process through there we’re working very closely with the club and with the engineers on that and we’re getting pretty close to heaven and knocked out the rest restation of those features is truly exciting getting the greens back down on the ground is also an exciting aspect of this trying to get the golf course to look a little bit more like the golf course that Mr Hogan played when he was here and the original design of the golf course combine all of those things and I think we’re going to bring the qualities of this site back to the Forefront but we’re also going to enhance the playability of the golf course our goal is to make a golf course that looks and feels old it feels original and ultimately will play as the original Architects intended it to when I’m on site we generally get together have a little construction meeting in the morning a lot of shaping uh a lot of walking looking around we’ve got you know great guys out here they understand the process they understand the quality of the product we’re trying to produce so we’re very comfortable with their leadership here because it’s been so hot try to do flagging of Fairway and grassing lines in the morning time before it gets unbearable and then jump in the the air conditioned bulldozer in the afternoon and just get into some shaping trying to set these flags about 20t apart gives the ability to visualize where the ground is going to go and how these flags are going to sit in there and where the grassing lines are going to be it’s a good way for an architect to get steps in here a colonial trying to work with basically 25 to 30 yard wide Fairways so kind of pace things across trying to get everything set up gives us a point to point to work our next Fairway lines too so that was about 26 here on number seven also got to take into account all these trees cuz they’re overhanging we don’t want to get you in the Fairway with a tree in your way so that tends to tighten things up a little bit more this little fall off here is one of the cool things about Colonial if you avoid that bunker and you overcook it a little bit this thing’s just going to take you into the rough and put you underneath the trees just super subtle but very impactful and meaningful that’s why I think this is such a thoughtful golf course you got to think about do you really want to push it up here past this and take this into play even though you don’t see it or do you stay back so a lot of choices for the players out here just based on the subtle ground movement not a lot of golf Architects get in machinery and do their own shaping but that’s how I learned I mean I’ve Had The Good Fortune to work for Tom do for three and a half Years Tom worked for Pete D Pete taught all his guys that you know you needed to get in a piece of equipment you needed to understand how to build a golf course before you could design one honestly it’s the best part of the job I mean it really is you get to basically put on music listen to that kind of get locked into your own world and then you know the creative process can be extended for a longer period of time but when you’re operating the equipment and you’re in charge of wherever that goes if you don’t like what you’ve shaped you make a change and it’s just your time and a little bit of diesel fuel but it’s basically you know the opportunity to extend that design window as far as it [Music] can on the third green we’re just putting it back together to the original shape subgrade to start from zero to finish before seting everything is built to 16 in of material four of gravel and 12 of Green Mix so it’s basically completed now it’s ready for drainage drainage is in so now 4 in of uh rock layer so essentially we’re using a total station with that scan that we had gotten back from being processed with the laser and essentially we just set it at 4 in and it’ll Contour as it goes Santos over here is running the total station for us and then uh when he’s looking at that it’s giving him a cut and a fill reading so he’s putting numbers on the Rocks like a minus one minus5 whatever it is and that’s kind of indicating to his other guys how much to take off so once we’re within range where we want it to be then he’ll just put a point and then that’s good then we’ll just move back from that and then if we need a little bit of extra then they just throw a little bit of extra there and takes care of it so then that way it’s exactly 4 in contoured exactly how the grain will be built so what we saw in three was just the uh subgrade before the drainage before the grav layer and now you can see hydronics before the greens mix install so these guys are getting ready to start bringing mix and installing that yeah this one has already drainage gravel layer hydronics three steps and then mix so seven green is uh stage each four so as we have the greens mix installed already on top of the hydronics the guys are adding water and we’re using an excavator to compact the mix as much as possible we get it to grade and then we walk away for irrigation install that way irrigation can be installed following our grade of the green not too high not too low it’s a busy process between adding mix bringing the mix over compacting it adding water it’s about half a day or so another half a day just to get it to grade that’ll be it for stage four so 11 Green on stage 5 this is the final prep work that we got to do to the green before it’s ready for seed they’re just using that robotic Total Station that unit can replicate everything from zero from subgrade like in stage one to stage five which is this measuring the depth of our greens mix to 12 in following the shape that the green had before so then once they finish this green is ready to proceed and for the final shaping around the green itself I currently we oversee the project for both Gil and Jim we kind of more or less do quality control as well as shaping and make design decisions in the field so it’s a pretty Dynamic job and it’s a lot of fun I think the Green’s good Antonio I think what we might do is just check with the laser that that is going off and out and then we should be we should be good for sod so we’ve got the sod that comes in it’s a little bit thicker so we’re just trying to ensure that the grades on the green match the grades in the surround seamlessly so we’ve gone through and we’ve keyed everything in now we’re just checking the exits on the greens to make sure that everything comes off and then we’re going through and just finding just little anomalies in the scan where you might have a slight you know a little bird bath so we’re just going through to make sure that you know the green flows seamlessly across the collar and makes its way out to either a catch Basin or in this case the pond so the final surface that rich the superintendent gets is Flawless in this case behind us we’ve actually added you know 10 to 15 ft F feet of pinnable space in the front which will be quite exciting for tournament and stuff like that now you’ve got a pin right up front where you’ve got a bit of a false front too so it’s pretty neat [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] AUST since last time you guys were here I mean it seems years ago we were finishing up construction on the back nine SED that out and then we’re kind of making our way through the front nine and over into that area ended up seating greens September 1st through the 7th once we had all our sod down and grass or let’s say 95% of the grass in by our October sad date it was trying to grow as much grass and get seams shut in before winter hit winter was okay it was wasn’t too extreme we dipped down really cold for four or 5 days which affected us a little bit we went completely dormant in January February had a little bit of a heat wave in February and then more normal spring and we probably a little bit cooler than normal right now we’re greened up but we’re not really growing enough so our rough is kind of one of those things that usually comes in late that last week or two leading up into the event to get really get that rough up and growing I’d rather be lucky on the front end in the golf course Construction have that ready and and have to struggle through the back end but you know the clock’s ticking and we’re we’re losing time quick so we got a lot of concrete going down and and finishing up these little out of the way areas you know button up before people show up it’s amazingly satisfying to be here now and seeing the whole thing come together seeing it today for the first time after about a month and a half if you’re standing on the 16th green and it’s perfect I mean we wish I had a bow and a putter now just to kind of hit a few to see the greens I mean they are Immaculate I mean to be in that great condition at this point in time and if we get a little bit of heat we feel like we’re going to get the fairways and the rough right where we want them to be so to my eye I’m really very very pleased with all the things we’ve altered the way the green sit in the way they tie into the bunkers really I think beautifully the presentation of the bunkering we’re really excited about the flash sand with much more natural Edge to them some of the islands in the bunkers as they were originally presented they always talked about pictures from 1941 US Open that was his vision and that’s what he wanted to see happen and you can see it I mean you can see the the natural flowing Creek that’s running through the middle of the branka the the grasses having talked to Marty Leonard the founder Marvin Leonard’s daughter she was almost overcome with emotion when she saw this golf course being restored back to the way it was and her memories as a young girl being out here and so when you get that kind of validation it’s a it’s really it’s incredibly gratifying I knew they were looking at restoring this golf course and when I was asked to be a part of it I was honored flattered to be honest with you my role I guess was to really talk about from a tour player standpoint on how the golf course is played how we want to see it played what we don’t want to see done and Gil was very open to that and we were able to sit down and talk to him about what we wanted to see and and make sure that we kept this golf course the way it was cuz a lot of players I talked to pretty much says don’t touch it they love it they love coming here and playing it and we talked about are you going to change any greens are you going to come in and put any Your Design into him cuz last we what we wanted was him to come in and change this golf course up and I was at ease after an hour sitting there talking to him and yeah we were skeptical obviously but he won me over very quickly I had a great time talking to him I came out and watched him when they were moving dirt so to see Gil in a bulldozer and really working on it that just shows you his love and his passion this is one of the few holes they redid totally most of them are still the same but this one whole redo of this number8 is um Spectacular from the green being way to the right from about 195 yards to now the green pushed to the left side up against the banka the natural Creek they have installed now it makes it even that much more of a pictures hole you got the three bunker surrounding the green now I always thought number eight didn’t really fit this golf course um but now with everything restored and the way he did the bunkering more natural looking bunkers are more shallow not so much cookie cutter look you’re going to see that this hole fits so perfectly up against this Ravine I’m now on the back left corner over this left bunker they put in and it’s going to set up for a draw shot that’s the only shot you can hit here you get a tree overhanging a little bit and they put this pin on the left side and as you can tell most guys that make that mistake and hit it left one h and your ball’s gone I mean you’re making bogey if not five so uh this is going to be one of the more risk reward pin placements that’s for sure if you want to take it on if not the way the green is sloped you can play it to the right portion of the green and use the slopes that they put into the screen to allow the ball to release and get close to the hole in this left side yeah this is one of the biggest changes and I think one of the best changes they made the biggest thing Gil did was restoring it back to what it looked like back in 1941 I’m on the middle of the t- boox here which is one big T box now so they’ve got so many options on where to put the tea box each time what you’ll see up here on the green is pretty dramatic they lifted the green up about 6 ft and push it back into the slope a little bit I think it’s probably going to be more of a demanding shot than before I mean obviously no waterers in play but what people don’t realize water was never in play they said there were six balls total in the water last year so I think with the bunkers now you’re going to see guys having to really focus more on hitting a good shot here just to give you a little idea on how dramatic they did right about here is where the green was at so we’re this this much lower to what you see now how the graen was so much more raised off the water here one thing unique about this green now is what you’re going to see there’s little mouning here and there but you got a right portion of the green which is going to be one of your smaller Landing areas but this new back slope which I put into deep in this green can cause Havoc cuz if the pin’s on the left side and you miss it right you’re dealing with one of the more harder putts I mean as you can see how much higher it is I mean I’m seeting at the top of the slope and it’s a ball here is going to it’s go this way right or left or back back towards the front of the green so you can actually play somewhat conservative and utilize this area of the green to get a ball close to either the right side of the green or the left side depending on where the pin placement is I think it’s going to be make for some entertaining golf the unique thing about what we did here was just the Shifting the green left missing it left now is very big no no but now you got a small drop off to the right it won’t go in water but you’re sitting in a low area with a difficult pitch shot to a green that runs right to left and downhill so pretty similar shot to what we used to hit in years past but the Green’s not as severe as it was plus now obviously no more bunkers but knowing that you cannot hit it left anymore here it’s going to make for a a pretty good difficult shot I think this used to be like a concrete Creek if you want to call it but it came in took out the bunkers on this left side and pushed this green up against up left against this baranka and you’re going to see visually more more natural flowing stream I think it just made this hole that much more special more picturesque going up 17 Fairway right of 18 Fairway restoring it to its natural beauty so love what Gil did was he lasered the greens and tried to put them back to what they were before over time the green on 16 was getting way too severe and I think he softened up a little bit but he still kept the Green Design to what it was with that you know the right part being a little higher you got a low area on the front right portion and now with the running off into a little short game pitch area he kept the green what it was and that’s what I was happy to see [Music] I think it’s exceeded everyone’s expectations we haven’t had obviously anyone come out and play it yet but overall I mean everyone is extremely excited with the changes and how the golf course looks and definitely want to get out here and play sooner rather than later I’ve been sending pictur to Scotty and Jordan today already so I’ve sent a picture of a few of the holes and hopefully we can get on it here in about a week or so before the tournament kicks off and get a little extra round in you when the guys teed up here on Thursday of tournament week I think there’s going to be a ton of Pride number one in in all the efforts and everything that the team put into getting this thing ready I think the thing I’m most proud of is the team we put together and how well we work together and the amount of work and the level of work that we accomplished in such a short time I think you all asked me a while ago you know what keeps you up at night and it was this tournament you everybody said oh we have a year to get it done well actually you don’t we had 10 weeks to get the greens done so we could get them grasped in time for the tournament thinking about that schedule and you know the time and the energy it took from our contractors labar Golf and Heritage Golf Links and Rich MacIntosh and his team Josh mcfaden who led our team out here is there some relief yes but I think we kind of knew about middle end of September that we were going to hit the mark but those three or four months prior to that everybody was pulling in the same direction but we weren’t sure we were going to cross the finish line it’s almost shocking to be honest with you I mean I remember talking the Gil when we first met walking around and talking about timelines he goes if it was his way he’d had 18 months and he had less than 11 since the day the tournament was over back in May and we could play today it was a Herculean effort I don’t want to try and make could sound like we cured cancer or anything but it was a lot of work and it was a lot to try and get it ready so that’s what’s going to hit me I mean it’s obviously love watching these guys play golf and love watching them tackle the challenges we’ve put in front of them but I think it’s going to be on a more personal level just along the lines of the thank you to all the members of the team who got it done the colonial membership should be very very thankful I know I am blessed at this cough course and what we’re going to have to play you I think guys are in for a treat I think Charles Schwab the fans I think think they’re going to see a beautiful Golf Course a golf course that’s going to be challenging and the tourist is going to love it [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]