Mark Mungeam, ASGCA, (Mungeam Cornish Golf Design) is leading a significant bunker and course restoration project at Fox Hill Country Club, Exeter, Pennsylvania.
The Times-Tribune reports:
The club is restoring dozens of bunkers throughout the course as part of a four-phase plan. It will add several bunkers across the course to improve playability and aesthetics.
The final part of the restoration will include some extensions of fairways and tweaks to the landscape.
“It is one of the most important improvements to the golf course that we have done in our 95-year history,” Fox Hill general manager Shane Bradley said. “It will help set us apart from the local clubs and maintain the high expectations the members and guests have when they play the course.”
Mungeam has been in the business for 30 years, working at clubs like Olympia Fields in Chicago, which hosted the 2003 U.S. Open. He was mentored by Geoffrey Cornish and Brian Silva. Cornish has local roots as the architect of Wilkes-Barre Municipal Golf Club among his 200 designs. Mungeam has previously worked with Fox Hill in 1993 and brings his pedigree to this project.
Fox Hill and Mungeam want to restore the course with original designer A.W. Tillinghast in mind. Tillinghast is a world-renowned golf architect with courses like Winged Foot, Bethpage Black, and Baltusrol on his resume.
“The first thing we thought about was restoring it in a manner true to A.W. Tillinghast’s design,” Mungeam said. “Some features have been added because the golf course changes over time, but that is what we are trying to do.”
Mungeam started his research for the restoration with a 1938 aerial photograph of Fox Hill’s layout and an old plan Tillinghast produced for the golf course.
From there, Mungeam began working to incorporate some of Tillinghast’s trademarks like steep bunkers with flat floors.
The addition of several fairway bunkers will challenge players to approach the course more strategically. The restoration also includes eliminating and adding bunkers as well as manipulating the landscape to provide and maximize the beauty of the course.
“The game has changed a great deal from when Tillinghast’s designed the course,” Mungeam said. “The distance that players hit the ball is much greater. We thought we could add some features that would make the game more strategic.”
The playing experience will be improved by new quality turf grass sod surrounding the restored and additional bunkers.
The high-quality sand being used will also benefit the playing experience because it is more consistent and less penal. The project is designed to complement and accentuate the first-rate Fox Hill greens.
The project is already showing progress as Mungeam and his team have put in the framework for the new bunkers. The finished project is estimated to be complete by Memorial Day 2017, with 75 to 80 percent of the work being done this fall.