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When Rees Jones, president of Rees Jones Inc., Golf Course Design, and Keith Evans, vice president of Rees Jones Inc., first visited Lakewood Country Club in Rockville, MD in 2002 after being asked by a friend to consider doing its redesign, they both thought “it had the makings of a wonderful golf course,” Jones says. “The site was pretty darn good,” he adds. The members of the member-owned course may not have realized what they have. And what they have, says Jones, is “a great piece of land.”
Closed since July 2003 after two-thirds of the 510 members voted to redesign the course and take it to another level, Lakewood Golf Course will reopen this spring after much anticipation. Rees Jones has taken the course “from a decent course to a phenomenal course,” says Ian Altman, 2004 president of Lakewood Country Club. “We were very fortunate to have been able to work with someone who is arguably the best golf course architect in the world.”
Son of Robert Trent Jones, Sr., also a golf course designer, Rees Jones says his company is “hands on.” From initially walking the site to presenting conceptual drawings to attending meetings, Jones and Evans have been active in the process. Member meetings with Jones have been the best attended in the club’s history, says Christopher Ayers, Lakewood Country Club’s certified golf course superintendent.
“Better use of the existing terrain,” Ayers says, is the focus of the course now that Jones rerouted some holes to gain distance, changed contouring or directions of holes, and added signature old-style bunkers and visually interesting styling. “Letting the holes flow with the land” is a key element of a redesign, Jones adds.
“It’s beyond my wildest imagination,” says Altman. “Most members won’t recognize it” when they get out to play. The former course was well maintained, but lacked that “wow” factor that now exists, Ayers says. At least a dozen holes offer wide-open vistas, he adds, because Jones designs a course, not just one signature hole.
And incorporating a balance of risk and reward is crucial to this more challenging, more sophisticated course. Jones makes his golf course designs challenging as well as enjoyable for players so that they can accomplish their goals. “Players have to earn their scores,” he says, but if a player shoots par, then he or she should be able to accomplish this goal on one of his courses. Players will need to “learn the golf course a little more” at Lakewood now, he says. They’ll have to find out which holes have the easier drive or the tougher approach. Players will have to make choices. It will take a few rounds for the extent of the renovation to sink in, Ayers says, but when it does, the “blah” course of yesteryear will give way to the “wow” course of today.
Jones, called the “The Open Doctor,” is known for his redesign of courses for tournaments including seven US Opens and six PGA Championships. He has redesigned more than half of the courses that will be used for US Open Championships within the next seven years. Jones also has redesigned other local courses, such as Congressional Country Club’s Blue Course, as well as designed more than 100 courses in the last 30 years, mostly in the US.
“If invited, people make a significant investment to join a club like Lakewood,” Altman says of Lakewood Country Club members. So being able to access the course more readily is the driving reason behind lowering the membership cap from 510 members to 475 once the course reopens, says Jorge Massa, general manager of Lakewood Country Club.
Benefits of belonging to Lakewood Country Club do not stop at the course; the sense of community is the real luxury to the members. “It’s about a lot more than golf; it’s about community,” Altman adds. Even with the golf course closed for almost two years, the club has been as busy as it’s ever been with fine dining including wine dinners and chef’s tables, tennis, pool amenities, and exercise facilities.
Lakewood’s “land just flowed so beautifully … now it will be used as it should be used,” Jones says. He adds that the best part of his job is “the excitement of members when the course is done … exceeding their expectations. I like leaving a legacy on the ground.”
