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Michigan architect Ray Hearn will by the architect working on the Lincolnshire Fields bunker renovation project.
LINCOLNSHIRE FIELDS Country Club has launched a full course bunker renovation with architect Ray Hearn.
Lincolnshire Fields Country Club located in Champaign Illinois, a 1976 design by the late E. Lawrence Packard, is undertaking the project as part of the masterplan created by Hearn in 2022.
“My goals and objectives with a great club like Lincolnshire are very simple,” Hearn said. “As I do with all my projects, I want to make sure the renovations reflect what the club desires for their course and that they are strategic for golfers of all skill levels.”
During the master-planning stage, Hearn noticed that the green and fairway edges had moved away from the bunkers in the four decades since the original construction.
“We’re tuning that up, bringing the bunker edges closer and we are also making some significant design changes to certain bunkers,” Hearn said. “They were originally constructed in the mid-60’s (first nine) and mid-70’s (second nine) and that was the era of big capes and bays in bunker design. The club is now looking at bunkers in a more Golden Age style. So to appear that they were constructed in the early 1920’s by the legendary architects of that period.”
Bunker work has started at Lincolnshire Fields.
Hearn says the course will now have a historic look and feel, when work concludes.
” A lot of clubs are gravitating to the historical look with their bunkers because of the classic appearance,” said Hearn. “Capes and bays have become higher maintenance items. So I have given Lincolnshire a design with beautiful bunkers that I feel will play more strategic.”
Hearn expects the project will be completed by next spring, and adds that General Manager Rob Walls and Superintendent Paul Sermershein are great to work with.
Walls says that,” we aren’t fully able to execute (Ray’s) plan at this time. But the bunkers are a key first step to the level we want to reach. The Golden Age shaping will have a greater effect on play.”
Hearn calls Lincolnshire country Club one of the great clubs in Illinois. “So I look forward to a continued relationship with this tremendous club. Lincolnshire Fields first review the project in 2012 under late Superintendent Werner who passed away in March.
The American Society of Golf Course Architects (ASGCA) have awarded Hearn five design Excellence Awards since 2012. So to learn more about this project, please visit rhgd.com.