Seminole Golf Course reopens

Just like that, it's six months later - and the Florida State Don Veller Seminole Golf Course has a whole new look.

Closed to full play since March for a $1 million renovation, the course opens again Friday.

One of the most heavily played courses in Tallahassee, the 40-year-old course got a major makeover: All 18 greens and tee boxes, as well as every greenside bunker, were bulldozed, redesigned and rebuilt.

Each hole now has five, instead of the three, tee boxes. Each green is nearly double its previous size. Some greenside bunkers were eliminated and others were put in new places.

"Tees and greens are the heart and soul of a golf course, so it really will have a new look," said golf course designer Robert Walker, who also designed St. James Bay in nearby Franklin County. "There is nothing we tried to save from (the former tees and greens). This is a complete renovation."

After Friday's opening, the Veller Seminole course will host private tournaments on Saturday and Sunday that will close play to the public (except for a few remaining Sunday morning tee times). The course opens in earnest on Monday.

FSU has kicked fees up only a notch after the renovation - such as from $35 to $39 for a weekend round in a cart - while FSU faculty (10 percent) and students (20 percent) will continue to receive discounts on all rounds. Walking is allowed Mondays through Thursdays ($19 greens fee), but only after 4 p.m. on the weekend ($20).

"Bob (Walker) designed the course so it's very challenging for the better golfer and very user-friendly for the average golfer," said Tim Melloh, general manager of Veller Seminole. "This golf course is going to fit the bill for everyone."

Longtime patrons will find striking changes to several holes. The 14th hole, a previously straightaway par-4 whose green struggled to keep grass, has been turned into a dogleg-right, par-4 with a small pond now occupying the site of the former green. The 4th and 15th holes, both long par-3s, had their green elevations lowered to better hold tee shots (and bunkers on the right of No. 15 were eliminated). The 9th and 18th holes, which formerly played as a par-4 or par-5, are now both par-5s - making the entire former par-72 course a par-73 course.

Yet officials believe the greens, rebuilt to USGA specifications, are the most exciting new feature. Since the course opened in the early 1960s, Walker said, the greens had gradually shrunk from the natural intrusion of more aggressive fairway grass and averaged only 3,500 square feet per green before the renovation.

Now the greens average 6,200 square feet each, have multiple tiers and are planted with Tiff Eagle grass, a smaller-bladed type of Bermuda grass that grows more densely, allowing for closer mowing and smoother greens. Tiff Eagle is the same grass used on the greens at St. James Bay and Tallahassee's SouthWood golf course - and they will make Veller Seminole greens noticeably faster.

Melloh said Veller Seminole greens used to average about a 6 or 7 on the Stimpmeter, a device used to measure green speed. Now they figure to average 9 to 10.

"These are going to be like a cue ball rolling across a pool table," Melloh said. "Very smooth, very consistent."

Walker called Veller Seminole superintendent Doug Abbuhl and assistant superintendent Russell O'Quinn the "unsung heroes" of the renovation for getting the course ready for its on-time re-opening.

"It's a tough assignment to plant grass in June and have it ready in September," Walker said. "It takes a full growing season, sometimes two, for a course to look its best. But they've done a great job. It will look good (for Friday's opening)."

Source: The Tallahassee (Fla.) Democrat