The Latest News From Bergin Golf Designs

Bill Bergin, the Atlanta-based golf course architect whose reverent and skillful renovations have won him widespread acclaim in recent years, will continue that work in a major way in 2008.

Bergin is redesigning two southern courses that have a rich history serving their respective states as amateur tournament venues.

First is Pinetree Country Club in Kennesaw, Ga. Construction begins in February at Pinetree, which has played host to the prestigious Georgia Amateur Championship in 1976, 1985 and 2003. Bergin is well familiar with that tournament, having won it at Dalton Golf and Country Club in 1981.

Bergin has also signed a contract to renovate Hoover (Ala.) Country Club, which in recent years has become a staple tournament venue for the Alabama Golf Association, having played host to, among others, the 1999 Alabama Mid-Amateur, the 2002 Alabama State Amateur, the 2003 Alabama State Match Play and the 2004 Alabama Senior Amateur.

Bergin relishes the challenge of working with courses that have consistently served as tournament venues.

“I would tell you that any course I design [or redesign] is tournament ready,” Bergin said. “We design courses for competition always. But [at Pinetree and Hoover], we’ll of course pay particular attention to the challenges and shot values from the back tees, knowing that those courses have hosted several major state amateur events.”

Bergin’s challenge at Pinetree and Hoover, just as it was at historic Chattanooga (Tenn.) Golf and Country Club earlier this decade, will be to find more length. Even long-time members were amazed at how Bergin was able to do that at Chattanooga, a course that in 2007 was ranked in Golf Digest’s Top 10 in Tennessee for the first time in its long history.

Bergin will also carve out additional fairway bunkering at Pinetree and Hoover, and the latter course will also undergo a creek restoration project.

“We’re excited about that,” Bergin said. “It’ll be as environmentally friendly as it is beautiful.”