Turning the Corner

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Restoration Blog 

We’ve reached an exciting stage in the restoration — where rough shapes become playable surfaces, greens take form, and turf starts going down. Over the past five days, the pace of transformation has noticeably quickened, and the golf course is beginning to look and feel like Hyde Park again — only better.

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Green Light on the Greens

This past week’s major milestone was the placement of greens mix in the 15th green — the final new putting surface to be constructed. This marks the end of heavy green construction and the beginning of finish prep and sod work in this area.

As of now, all greens are sodded except for Holes 1, 8, 15, 17, and 18 — a powerful indicator of how much progress has been made.

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Features Taking Shape

McDonald & Sons continued refining key features and expanding progress across the course.

Demo has now begun on Holes 18, 1, and 17, marking the start of the final shaping corridor on the west side of the property. Additionally, the last of the Zoysia sod will be removed from the range field, wrapping up our internal sod relocation phase and allowing full focus on installation.

Paving is close to complete on Holes 4, 5, and most of 6, improving access and defining future cart path flow.

The majority of bunkers across the course are now roughed in — echoing the strategic features of Donald Ross’ original layout.

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Below Ground and Behind the Scenes

Golf Preservations and McDonald and Sons continues to install  fairway and  drainage, currently totaling:

• Over 15,000 LF  feet of 2-inch slit drainage

• 1,108 feet of 4-inch pipe

Ley Irrigation, has installed new irrigation on:

• Holes 2 through 7 in full

• Portions of Holes 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16 and 1

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Turf Establishment: A Major Milestone

We’ve officially entered the grow-in phase. Recent turf accomplishments include:

• 4 acres of Turf-Type Tall Fescue sod installed in surrounds and green complexes

• 007XL Bentgrass approach seeding completed on Holes 3, 4, 5, 10, and 13

• Tee seeding and hydro-mulch applied to Holes 3, 4, 5, and 6

• 3 acres of Fine Fescue seeded on out-of-play slopes

• 7 acres of Tall Fescue seeded in roughs

Each turf zone is being matched to its intended use and environment to ensure long-term performance and aesthetics.

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Grounds Team in Action

The Hyde Park Grounds Team has been hard at work supporting every phase:

• Watering, sodding, and seeding new turf daily

• Mowing and managing grow-in areas

• Aerifying newly sodded greens to improve smoothness and root development

• Collaborating with partners on irrigation, shaping, and finish work

Their focus on detail and consistency is making a big impact course-wide.

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What’s Next

• Sod installation on the final greens

• Final shaping of bunkers and surrounds

• Continued Zoysia sod relocation

• More bentgrass and fine fescue seeding

• Drainage and irrigation progress through the center of the property

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Thank You

To our Hyde Park members — thank you for your continued support and trust.

And to our partners:

• Tyler Rae Design 

• McDonald & Sons 

• Golf Preservations 

• Ley Irrigation

• Technical Choice

• Hyde Park Grounds Team – the glue holding it all together

We’ve turned the corner — and every day brings us one step closer to welcoming you back to a course that’s both restored and reimagined.

Thank-you for your questions and feedback-grounds@hydeparkcc.com

Pat O'Brien,

Grounds Superintendent  

Rolling Forward- 51 Days of Progress

This past week was another productive step forward in the golf course restoration. Thanks to the collaboration of all of our partners — McDonald & Sons, Ley Irrigation, Golf Preservations, and our own Hyde Park Grounds team — we continue to make steady progress on greens, bunkers, drainage, and fairway work.

Our schedule has been challenging and fast-paced, but the team has worked long days to stay on track. Favorable weather  this week gave us an excellent window to advance sod work on key greens and surrounds, push forward with fairway drainage, and continue shaping and irrigation installations.

Several important milestones have been achieved: the Putting Green, Holes 4, 7, 3, 5, 11, 12, 16 and 9 (tomorrow) have all been sodded. The Putting Green, 4 and 7 have been already been aerified, rolled, and mowed multiple times, which is part of our process to build smoothness and promote healthy rooting. Each of these greens is showing good early progress.

The 5th 

~2,900 Square Feet Added to the 5th

The 3rd 

Looking ahead to September, our focus will turn to completing the sodding of all remaining greens. By the end of September, all 18 greens are scheduled to be grassed, an important milestone in the overall restoration timeline.

Next Week- 

The teams will 

• Prepare additional greens for sodding holes 10, 13, 6 and 14 keeping the sequence moving toward late -September completion.

• Advance bunker shaping and tee construction across several holes.

• Continue fairway drainage and irrigation installations, keeping pace with our planned approvals.

• Work with Tyler Rae and his design team during the site visit, which will focus on green approvals, bunker layouts, and planning the next stage of sodding.

We also want to thank you for the feedback you’ve provided during the project. Tours of the course, social media updates, and these weekly emails have been well received, and we’ll continue to share progress in multiple ways so members can see this historic restoration unfold in real time.

With everyone’s continued hard work and cooperation — and more good weather — we continue to deliver a revitalized golf course that honors the Donald Ross design while improving playability for years to come. We can be reached at grounds@hydeparkcc.com. 

Thank-you,

Pat O'Brien

Grounds Superintendent