Regents Approve New Golf Practice Facility Design
MGoBlue.com is reporting that today the Regents approved designs for a new Men's and Women's Golf practice facility.
The $2.5 million, 10,000 gross-square-foot facility designed by Ann Arbor Architects Collaborative will be funded by athletic resources and gifts. The new building, set off South Main Street on the west side of the driving range of the U-M Golf Course, will provide space for functional training, meeting and practice for golf teams.
The golf practice facility will provide year-round practice with a putting and chipping area and driving bays to utilize the existing driving range. The facility also will provide a team gathering space, coaching staff offices, locker rooms, a conference room and storage. Construction is scheduled to be complete in summer 2011.
Men's Golf Coach Andrew Sapp:
"This facility will be an incredible asset for our players as we prepare each winter for the spring season."
Women's Golf Coach Cheryl Stacy:
"This facility will enhance our program's ability to practice during the winter months, providing an environment for our players to continually work on their technique. It has been an enjoyable experience working with the designers and seeing this project from the ground up and we are looking forward to its completion."
Based on the location description, the facility will be located right around here:
It's great to see that the Athletic Campus upgrades are accruing to so many sports.
The golf team very much needs this; and the new practice facility area is about a mile from the current clubhouse, which very much needs to be repurposed as just a nice little clubhouse, and not a major college team training and meeting place, which it really isn't.
And the two golf teams are doing great things, particularly under Andrew Sapp.
[As to location: No, it will not even be within sight or shouting distance of the current clubhouse. It will be overlooking Pioneer, across S. Main, near what is the new golf team practice area.]
Just great all the way around. Nice job. Go Blue golfers!
...you're right. My Google Maps linking skillz need an upgrade. I moved the picture over to where I think it's going (next to the team's driving range) but I guess the URL didn't change as I moved the map. I'll fix.
And your Google Map skills are probably much better than mine. Nice job by you!
Can it second as a bar for gamedays?
I have long seen the golf program as a "sleeping giant." They play on a great course designed by Alister McKenzie, who also designed a course with which a few people may be familiar: Augusta National. The "State Street Break" is enough to provide a unique home-course advantage; merely mentioning it at the right time can get into an opponent's head and stay there the rest of the round.
I don't know how much the team can expect to do on a national level because people in warm-weather states can pretty much play year-around, but they should be able to do very well in the Big Ten; better facilities should help a lot with both development and recruiting.
...as well, but check out this DetNews article by Greg Dooley of mvictors.com on Charlie Green, Clubhouse Manager. I thought this was particularly intereting:
A decade ago, pro golfer Ben Crenshaw visited the course -- he was part of a delegation looking at sites for the PGA Tour's Buick Open -- and Green gave Crenshaw a guided tour.
Crenshaw ended up quashing the proposed location. Hosting such a tournament would require adaptations that, he believed, would change the course for the worse. According to Green, Crenshaw declared, "Anyone who touches a blade of grass on this golf course ought to be shot! This course is a classic."