Hazeltine to get facelift

Office buildings have stood on the left side of Hazeltine Boulevard for years. The clutter recently increased with a Kohl's department store built on the right side.

Once you clear the commerce, there are homes to the left and a large open field to the right. There's hardly a hint that you're entering Hazeltine National, a championship golf course.

"There's nothing we can do about what people see when they first turn off [Hwy.] 41," club manager Matt Murphy said. "What we are planning to do is completely change what you see for 150 yards before the front gate. The entry experience was one of the first things talked about when discussing changes."

The road into Hazeltine will make a sweep to the right and offer a view of golf being played before members reach their parking lot. That's also what the 12-man rosters from the United States and Europe will see when they arrive for the Ryder Cup in September 2016.

This change and others still have to be confirmed by Hazeltine's board of directors at a September meeting. The membership previously voted in favor. And with revenues from this PGA Championship exceeding projections, the board figures to issue final approval.

This is a modernization that Hazeltine definitely needs -- to its facility, and to the poanna greens that caused too many putts to bounce rather than roll in the final major of 2009.

The clubhouse -- it's the original -- is quite a dump when compared with modern facilities such as Interlachen, Golden Valley and Medina (formerly Rolling Green), to name a few.

The turf is another issue. The plan calls for the fairway grass to be killed and the greens to be dug out to a depth of 16 inches, starting next July 6.

Why kill the fairways? Because poanna is more weed than grass, and it has taken a firm hold in Hazeltine's fairways.

It wouldn't be too bright to spend a couple of million growing bent grass and creating new drainage for the greens, and then have members and guests dragging along fairway poanna in their soft spikes and again infesting the greens.

Hazeltine is going to kill the poanna and have bent grass everywhere -- tees, fairways, greens.

The clubhouse will disappear before the poanna. Demolition is scheduled to start the first week of October.

What Hazeltine will not be spending money on is a swimming pool. Irv Fish, a former member and currently the treasurer on the U.S. Golf Association's executive committee, said:

"Pool is a four-letter word here. Hazeltine's mission is to advance golf and host championships."

There's no major event definite after the Ryder Cup, although there is expected to be a push to bring back a U.S. Open in the 2020/2022 range.

To maintain a reputation for golfing excellence within the club, Hazeltine started a junior membership -- players 38 and under with full privileges and reduced fees -- a few years back.

"We have 23 'juniors' right now, and several were outstanding college players," Murphy said. "They have been winning all the club events, but only at Hazeltine could you hear the older members say, 'I guess I'm going to have to play better.'

The uniqueness includes the fact this sizable project -- entryway, clubhouse, greens and fairways -- will bring no members' assessment. The club would make a large down payment with its cut of this PGA Championship, borrow the remainder and pay it off after the Ryder Cup.

Come 2016, Hazeltine is going to look much more like the world-class golf venue it has become, and the greens should be rolling as perfectly as the game's stars now expect.

What will be different is that Mike Schultz, the head pro at Hazeltine for 34 years, has said he will not be on the job seven years from now.

"We would like to convince Mike to stay that long, but I don't think it's possible," Murphy said. "That's going to be a sad day at Hazeltine, when Mike Schultz says, 'This is it.'"