‘Quirky’ rebuild for Old Dane

Canadian golf architect Trevor Dormer, a longtime Coore and Crenshaw associate, is to embark on his first course design project, a total rebuild of the nine hole Old Dane course, with the assistance of owner Will Andersen.

Dormer, who has worked largely with Coore and Crenshaw for the last decade, including spending more than two years on the construction of the new Cabot St Lucia course – he is currently working for the firm on the new Torch Cay project in the Bahamas – came to know the Andersen family when working on the build of the nearby Landmand course for architects King-Collins a few years ago. “I had Trevor for two weeks, and I have been a fan ever since,” says Will Andersen. “Even in that short time it was obvious what a talent he was, both as shaper and as a human being. He was the real visionary behind Landmand’s fourth hole – he created a great green that really made the hole. When I thought about rebuilding Old Dane, I had a chat with Rob Collins, and he confirmed my thought that Trevor would be the right candidate to do the job.”

The Andersen family bought the course that became Old Dane in 2007 – then eighteen holes – and rebuilt it as nine at the time. But Will Andersen has been aware ever since that the job was not really complete. “This project is about finishing what we didn’t completely do when we built the course originally,” he says. “We bought the course because my dad wanted a place to go and hang out with his friends, and we achieved that, but we didn’t do that much with the golf course. The irrigation system is 23 years old, and it’s falling apart.”

Dormer’s plan for Old Dane calls for the 93 acre property to be completely rerouted, giving a twelve hole course with six, nine and twelve hole loops. The course’s driving range will be eliminated, giving space to build the extra three holes. The almost entirely flat site – there is a total of five feet of elevation change on the entire property – will be reshaped using fill from the excavation of a two acre lake.

“When Will asked me to look at the property, I did so and said to him ‘I’m not sure there is anything out here that is really worth saving’,” says Dormer. “To his credit, he told me just to propose what I thought was the best solution, and that’s what I have done. There will be quirk out there – the eleventh green is going to be elevated by about fifteen-twenty feet – and the fairways are going to be significantly wider than what is out there now. I don’t want eighty yard fairways, but I do want people to have enough room that they’re not always worried about losing balls. The third and eighth will play on a shared fairway. The third green is going to be like a loaf of bread – it will roll off on all sides. There will be different ways to play the course – I just wanted to get as much golf on the property as I could. It’s a dead flat site, so I’m trying to do some different, quirky things – a tee shot over the previous green for example. I think it will be significantly more fun and more interesting, and I hope it raises some questions among those who play it. I want people to get out there, families and kids, and experience the game. Removing the range is a brave thing for an operator to do, but Will gave me carte blanche, and I thought ‘The more room there is to play actual golf, the better’.”

The golf course will be completely rerouted. “There will not be a single square yard of ground on the property that is untouched by the plow,” says Dormer. The new-look Old Dane will be a walking-only course. “I’m turning it into what I want a golf course to be,” says Andersen. “It’s flat, it’s easy to walk and that’s how golf is meant to be.”

Old Dane will close its 2024 season on October 1, and then Dormer and his crew will move on to the property. “We will hit the ground running hard,” the architect says. “This October/November this year, we’re going to dig the lake and establish concepts for the greens. This fall I can probably get eight or nine greens roughed in, and we will finish construction next year.” Andersen says he expects the course to reopen late in the 2026 season.

Andersen says he expects Old Dane’s green fees – which are currently $15 for nine hole and $25 for eighteen – to remain substantially the same. Trevor Dormer is understandably excited by the opportunity. “I can’t wait to get started,” he says. “Will is a dream client, and this will technically be my first golf course. I’m not going to put in a safe, vanilla design, I want to do something interesting!”

Canadian Trevor Dormer has been working in the golf architecture industry since the early 2000s. He has worked for architects including Ron Prichard, Rod Whitman and Nicklaus Design. For Gil Hanse, he spent eighteen months building the Ballyshear course in Thailand, an homage to C. B. Macdonald’s Lido on Long Island. He has spent most of his time over the past decade working for Coore and Crenshaw, including two years on the island of St Lucia, building the Point Hardy course at Cabot St Lucia. He worked on the Landmand course developed by the Andersen family for King-Collins, and also on the re imagination of the nine hole public Overton Park course in Memphis. Old Dane will be his first project as architect of record.