Levelling up

Fazio Design has led a project at the Interlachen club near Orlando that will help its course withstand extreme weather events, while making it more playable for members. Richard Humphreys visited the revitalised layout with lead architect Tom Marzolf.

When the Joe Lee-designed Interlachen course near Winter Park, Orlando, was built in 1985, 1.5 million cubic yards of earth were moved across the low-lying 270-acre site. Forty years later, Fazio Design moved some more.

Lee’s original design for the private club involved the excavation of numerous lakes – water is in play on almost every hole – to create fill that he used to contour the course.

Fazio Design was hired by the club in 2024, and Tom Fazio and senior design associate Tom Marzolf created a masterplan that would see the entire course raised by around a metre. “The land the course sits on is very gentle and relatively flat,” says Marzolf. “We listened to the members, who asked for drier, firmer conditions, on a site prone to seasonal hurricane flooding and slow-to-dry soils.”

Indeed, as the club was preparing to move ahead with the renovation, Hurricane Helene hit the southeastern United States. Winter Park escaped the worst of the devastation, but there was flooding across Interlachen’s course and a strong reminder that raising levels would help the course withstand future extreme weather events.

The seventh hole alone had over a metre of standing water. Construction foreman Alec Klotz from Total Turf Golf Services and his crew enlarged the lake to the left to generate the required fill and created several catch basins to a new drainage network.

Similar work has been completed across the course, with lakes extended to provide the fill needed to raise landing areas and over 400 catch basins created to improve surface drainage, all helping to create greater separation from the water table. For Fazio Design, this is a familiar process, having worked on over 70 courses in the state. “In tropical Florida, so much of the work we do relates to drainage Interlachen, we worked with the local engineers to drop the lake elevations slightly, which helped to lower the water table in the soil.

The drainage work is, however, just one aspect of the overall project at Interlachen. The entire course has been reshaped to a new design, and then regrassed – with TifTuf bermuda, TifGrand for approaches and surrounds and TifEagle on greens (see box). Extensive tree removal and undergrowth clearance has opened views and allows more sunlight to reach the turf. Interlachen’s out-of play areas now feature pine straw, adding a layer of aesthetic definition to the course. Vegetation has been removed in and around lakes, to be replaced with thousands of aquatic plants, such as canna lilies, that provide a burst of colour.

Railroad-style bulkheads that previously lined the lakes have been removed and reshaping work has been done to address steep slopes, allowing course superintendent Bryce Gibson and his team to more easily mow grass near the water’s edge. This work also gives golfers more recovery options, Marzolf points out, highlighting the par-four fifteenth, where steep slopes roll the ball into the water, which made the design quite penal.

Another hole that exemplifies how Fazio Design has reevaluated Interlachen’s relationship with its lakes is the par-five eighteenth. One of the objectives of the redesign was to make the course more playable and enjoyable for members and the closing hole features a large lake to the left of the landing area and another body of water to cross before the approach area of the hole, making it a particularly tough finish. A new forward tee allows shorter hitters to progress further from the tee, while the landing area has been reshaped wider to keep more balls in play. The hole can still be lengthened for better players, from a new back tee, and a short par-three over water to an angled green, where moving the pin back brings more trouble – in the form of water and bunkering – into play. The eighth, which was a 220 yard par three, has been extended to a par four that added a much “In tropical Florida, so much of the work we do relates to drainage improvements” the green has been moved forward slightly too. It now blends into the new practice putting green, providing the club with an impressive feature, alongside the clubhouse patio, that it can use for putting competitions.

The ninth, which is also in view from the clubhouse patio, is entirely new. Previously a par-four, it is now needed dogleg left on the front nine. “This has been one of the biggest improvements,” says Marzolf. “It’s a strong hole where you have to hit a long way to get to the corner, before it turns left towards the well defended green.”

Bunkers have been repositioned throughout the course, with bold sand-flashed faces that makes them feel imposing and contributes to a new identity for the course. They are complemented by more natural exposed sand areas that frame holes and help to blend the sand coquina shell cart paths into the landscape. The positioning of hazards has been evaluated on every hole, to promote strategic play and to create the greater challenge for longer hitters.

The average golfer, on the other hand, will find Interlachen much more approachable. “If you focus on helping golfers keep the ball in play and creating a strategy that keeps your mind thinking, while also making it beautiful and fun to play, you’ll be busy for your whole life,” says Marzolf. “Listening to the customer is key. It is their home course, and it needs to be a place they will be proud of and enjoy.”

Turf decisions

Adam Moeller of agronomic consultancy Turfgrass® provides insight into grass choices at Interlachen. The Interlachen project involved a full peer review of agronomic specifications, material evaluation and laboratory testing oversight in partnership with Kansas-based Turf &Soil Diagnostics.

TifTuf is a popular fairway choice in Florida because it maintains excellent turf quality and requires less water than other bermudagrass varieties. It offers excellent playing quality while also being environmentally sustainable.

TifGrand was selected for the approaches and collection areas because it performs well at low mowing heights, allowing golfers the ability to putt from off the green or hit pitch shots. TifEagle performs extremely well on greens at high-end clubs throughout Florida and the southeast. This variety can be maintained at low cutting heights and produce exceptional ball roll when managed properly.

The combination of these grasses allows Interlachen to maintain high-quality playing conditions while also being environmentally responsible.