Digging it at Miacomet Golf
BY STEVE SHEPPARD INDEPENDENT SPORTS EDITOR
They've been digging and moving earth for 13 weeks so far and, if the weather holds, the refurbishment of Miacomet's original nine holes should be finished and ready to winter over early in the new year.

With six holes on the back nine already completed, and work progressing nicely last week on the 10th and 11th fairways, course superintendent Sean Oberly was looking forward to the finish on 18 when, like a good round, everything will be wrapped up with a spectacular finish. As of Monday, crews were right on schedule, working on the new 18th green.

The official reopening won't take place until late summer, perhaps, after the new fairways and greens have had a chance to grow in; the greens require the most care because they're all growing in from seed. Oberly, for one, can't wait. "It's going to look like it's always been there when it's done," he said.

Ever since the new nine opened at Miacomet in October 2003 island golfers have anticipated the revamping of the original nine holes so that the course has a similar look and feel from front to back. The work includes some widening, some lengthening and, yes, a little heightening as well. There are some new looks and angles to the holes, but the basic footprint of each is unaltered. A few new features golfers can look forward to include:

PHOTOS BY ROB BENCHLEY/The Independent

• A raised green at hole number one that affords a view of the ocean;

• Lots more sand around each hole, including a nasty little trap fronting the second green and

• No more pond on hole number fourteen.

The man-made pond on fourteen has been filled and displaced by long traps skirting both sides of the fairway. "Sand replaces water," Oberly said, pointing out that the new layout will prove harder on low handicappers who will risk landing in the traps with long drives. At 521 yards from the back tee, fourteen is also the longest hole on the course. (Oberly also noted that as soon as the liner was removed from the pond, the water took little time to drain out. He also said the empty pond didn't reveal as many golf balls as you'd think.)

They're rolling up the turf at the Miacomet Golf Club (top), where the original nine holes are undergoing a major facelift. Course superintendent Sean Oberly (top, right) points out the new elevations and sand traps while all that's left to be done on the first fairway (above) is for the newly-seeded green to grow in.

The improvements were designed by Howard Maurer (who also designed the new nine) and the work is again being carried out by NMP Golf Construction of Williston, Vt. NMP supervisor Martin Lambert, who guided the course layout four years ago, and who, among other projects in the meantime, oversaw construction of 36 holes at Foxwoods, is again in charge of the course work.

Work to the fairways included rolling up the old turf on each hole, shaping and recontouring the land, digging out new waste bunkers and traps, widening and, in some cases, moving greens and laying down new sod after all the reshaping was completed. Lambert said each hole requires a week to a weekand a-half to shape and that forming the bunkers properly takes the most amount of work.

The old sod is being used to fill in the new roughs. The new fairways are a combination of fescue, bluegrass and bentgrass, a combination that requires less watering. "Anything to use less water," Oberly said, who also spoke of Miacomet's new watering system, where specific areas throughout the course can be targeted through one of 2,500 individual sprinkler heads rather than sprinklers that cover a wide swath of land, whether the ground needs watering or not. "Even though there are 2,500 sprinkler

heads, we should be running less water, so it

should be perfect," Oberly said. Each new green is underlaid with an extensive system of pipes that drain into nearby waste bunkers.

The original course was a pretty consistent 26 feet above sea level, but some holes will rise up to 33 feet in the new configuration. Nowhere is this more evident than on the very first fairway, where the green has been elevated seven feet, providing the new water view. Apart from the new fairway grass that is grown in Rhode Island, the sand, sod and dirt used in the reconstruction are taken from the golf course site.

"In all honesty, this golf course is really going to be nice," Miacomet general manager Alan Costa noted, while pointing out that the work on the fairways is just part of the refurbishments. Over the winter the pro shop will move across the cart path to the golf course management building, giving the pro shop more room but also freeing up space for the restaurant.

In the meantime, holes three through nine remain open for play. The restaurant is also open for lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Thursday night is "wing night" from 5 to 8 p.m., and dinners are served Friday and Saturday nights from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. There is also Sunday brunch from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Call 325-0333, ext. 100 for more information

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