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Welcome to The Turf Zone podcast. This episode features the article “George & Giles Leading Major Renovation at Lexington” written by Beck Stanley, Executive Director of the Virginia Turfgrass Council.

It’s been more than two decades since Lexington, Virginia woke up to the good fortune of golf holes being crafted into its rolling mountain landscape. That drought is ending with the highly anticipated Lester George/Vinny Giles renovation of Lexington Golf & Country Club, one of Virginia’s oldest clubs and certainly among its most beautiful layouts. George is following the iconic Ellis Maples, and the VTC was fortunate enough to visit the site in April to see the progress.

George inherits good bones at LGCC, better views than any of his previous Virginia projects, and an intact grounds staff that includes Peter Danaher and Kramer Johnson. The Club will unveil in 2027 a new clubhouse, practice facility, the renovated Maples course, and even a new name – Tribrook Club, an homage to its original farmland roots.

Tribrook will land in the realm of George’s other notable Virginia projects like Kinloch and Ballyhack, probably right between the two. I italicize these courses because they aren’t places. They are works of art, and although the former was better received, there is no question Ballyhack has had a major impact on golf tourism in the Roanoke region at the hands of traveling Dormie Club members hellbent on swiping plastic.

This Lexington renovation, on the other hand, is a thoughtful collaboration of resources between the Club and Washington & Lee University, mirroring how this is the first historic George/Giles course renovation collaboration.

W & L’s men’s and women’s golf teams succeed in the top tier of Division III. Last year, the men’s team had the national player and coach of the year and finished fourth. This year, the men finished sixth, and two players tied for third place. The women finished fourth at the NCAA Division III championship, the best performance in the school’s history.

I sat down with George, Giles, and Superintendent Peter Danaher to discuss the progress, and how golf in Virginia continues to evolve to meet the needs of a growing, diverse game. At the VTC, we are certainly proud to be a part of that evolution as we continue to represent Virginia golf courses and golf professionals, both public and private, and to fight for the interests of the broader turf industry in the General Assembly. What drew us to Lexington’s renovation was its Maples history, George’s and Giles’ participation, and the chance to witness the shaping and renovation process firsthand in a mountainous terrain.

The first thing to notice is the tree removal – more than 2/3rds were removed to make way for higher, longer tee boxes and open up broad mountain vistas, but it also restores the original agricultural look of the property, and as so many legislators and industry outsiders forget, turf is agriculture. Golf courses protect land and natural environments, prevent erosion, and steward water resources in a way no housing or commercial development ever could.

George and Giles seem to enjoy the nuts and bolts of renovating golf courses, like a Twain character tricking everyone around into thinking that whitewashing a fence is fun. But in reality and beneath that appearance — and far separated from the benevolent forces making such projects happen — are two committed, serious minds collaborating, yearning for legacy, blending engineering and playability with how young players might see this game fifty, a hundred years from now. Of course, that all comes with making the course fun and playable for all skill levels. The many retiree members of Tribrook will appreciate the attention George and Giles have given to making the course adaptable. “The course will be enjoyable from 7,100 yards all the way down to less than 4,000,” George commented. At almost every turn of our tour, both murmured aloud thoughts on making shots longer, landing areas tighter, pushing both the game and the course to be more.

Their shapers and project managers from Aspen Corporation were on hand, furiously cutting bunkers with pickaxes and perfecting mounds and visuals. Their professionalism and obsession with detail did not go unnoticed, down to the inch on distance readings and slopes. Adam Bagwell of Aspen was especially tuned in, completely aware of every little nuance of the project and rapid to answer questions as they arose.

Giles, the Lynchburg native who played on four Walker Cup teams, captained a winning squad in 1993, won the U.S. Amateur, British Amateur, U.S. Senior Amateur, and countless other tournaments too many to list, has done as much for the game of golf in Virginia as any one man could in a lifetime. Aside from being the low amateur at the Masters in 1968 and the 1973 U.S. Open, he still had all this time on his hands to accrue a valuable vault of stories, my favorites being those about Alvis Hylton, his instructor and head pro at Boonsboro Country Club who he claims, “could always fix my swing.” Hylton went from a worker on the N&W Railroad to golf professional following an accident that injured permanently his left arm, an unlikely sequence of events that led him to Vinny. Figures like Hylton may now be forgotten to most, but we would all be wise to remember him.

As we traveled over the raw earth, George immediately took us to the new 6th green. It’s a short par 3 with a 30-yard deep tee box, offering wide latitude for staff to set the hole up for competition. George began instructing his Aspen crew to fix minor details on the visual, the barely visible bunker line to the left of the green reminiscent of Seth Raynor’s style. “The new sixth hole was created to make room for the new practice facility. It gave us this great opportunity to build a Raynor/McDonald template hole known as a Biarritz. The par 3 is surrounded on both sides by trench bunkers, with an amazing horizon view and swale in the center. The green is seventy paces deep,” George told us. “We have to serve everyone with this design. That means a new look, a new excitement for past, present, and future members. Our changes have done that.”

The sun began to set on our visit, and we wrapped up our tour of the grounds before I took the long walk back to where I had parked, by the old clubhouse at the back of a small neighborhood just outside of town. There was a kid in his front yard chipping balls into a small net, and a few had trickled down the road into the asphalt. I walked them back up the hill and asked him what he loved about golf. “It’s the best game there is,” he said. “And when I get older, I’m going to play at Washington and Lee.”

More info on the Architect: Lester George incorporates his creativity and passion for the game of golf in every golf course design. The blending of his terrain reading ability and his lively interest in the history of golf enables him to visualize imaginative course designs. With over 35 years’ experience in the design, renovation and restoration of numerous golf courses throughout the United States and Japan, Lester has been established as a leading golf course architect.

Serving as a design coordinator for Golf Services International, Lester worked with other golf course architects studying the intricacies of course design. During this time, he co-founded Virginia Golf Development. Then, in 1991, Lester opened his own firm, Colonial Golf Design, Inc., which has evolved into George Golf Design, Inc.

Stanley serves as Executive Director of the Virginia Turfgrass Council. He can be reached via cell at 540-871-9001.

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