The San Francisco feat

Jim Urbina is redesigning the venerable Ocean Course at The Olympic Club near San Francisco. It’s a dream project: Olympic is the oldest athletics club in the U.S., dating to 1860, and the Ocean Course recently marked its 100-year anniversary. The assignment is made more pleasurable and productive for the head of Jim Urbina Golf Design by the support of Troy Flanagan, the club’s director of golf course maintenance. Troy will be at Jim’s side every step of the way, adding design and construction assistance from a ground-up perspective.

Their partnership is a masterclass in how a designer and a superintendent complement each other’s experiences and strengths to bring a vision to life. The success of the relationship is grounded in three characteristics and qualities they share.

1. Humility

While Jim has worked alongside Pete Dye and comes to the club with endorsements galore, he was determined that his design authentically represented the club’s time-honored spirit and culture. Jim and Troy emphasize that their work is motivated by members’ wants and needs, not personal résumé building.

Troy says the Golf Course Architect Advisory Committee at Olympic Club liked Jim because “he wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty.” The club also worked with Gil Hanse on the 2020 renovation of the Lake Course, which has hosted six U.S. Open championships. Jim worked his way up the architectural ladder, bringing with him an uncommon depth of intuitive knowledge.

When asked about making features at The Olympic Club resemble his popular work at Old Macdonald in Bandon, Oregon, Jim professes his pride in “Old Mac,” but is clear that “The Olympic Club is not Old Macdonald. We must create the golf course that fits its setting.” That humble professionalism makes Jim and Troy a good team. Drawing from his Penn State turf background and stints at Cypress Point and Round Hill Country Club, Troy brings his own boots-on-the-ground approach for matching design, construction and club at the Ocean Course.

2. Historical appreciation

Jim hearkens to the club’s storied past, as designed by Sam Whiting and Willie Watson, with the intention of restoring the basic design concepts, including enlarged greens and fewer sand bunkers. He notes that the club’s greens committee of four men and one woman “has a very high golf IQ” and brings “great insight and wisdom” to the project.

Beyond the usual requirements for renovating irrigation and drainage, Troy will upgrade turf conditions and eliminate Poa annua. Jim’s refocus is on shot-making requirements that allow golfers of various skill levels to bounce shots onto the enlarged greens. “These are the design characteristics that Whiting and Watson made core elements of the Ocean Course,” Jim observes.

Understanding the historic features and playing characteristics of the course are points of emphasis for Jim. Troy sees his role to “create and sustain turf care consistent with the designer’s vision.” It’s a satisfying ham-and-egg collaboration.

3. Efficiency

“I sincerely believe the investment in the course in its entirety today will save us money in the long run, as we will avoid the piecemeal approach to future modifications,” Troy says. The practicality derived from years of working as a shaper for Dye enables Jim to envision factors with which Troy and his team will reckon. Multifaceted projects such as the one underway at Olympic’s Ocean Course bring with them layers of stakeholder expectations that stretch beyond the membership. For example, an important part of the permitting for the project is review and approval by the California Coastal Commission. This mission-critical review ensures the sustainable approach and outcomes desired by the club’s members and staff.

In terms of understanding and accommodating the history of the club, Troy notes three important considerations that guide his and his course maintenance team’s work:

• “Integrating the naturalized areas, which some people consider to be native, is important to blend into the final design.”
• “Creating dunes requires that we will need to harvest sand elsewhere on the site.”
• “Reducing the number of bunkers enables golfers to appreciate the great topography on the Ocean Course — too many bunkers have been hiding the terrain.”

Successful renovations that bring new energy and longevity to a course require more than talent and experience. As Jim and Troy are proving at The Olympic Club, they also rely on partnership and collaboration.