As a self-avowed “golf architecture nerd,” Kyle Franz was committed to embracing the Sandhills area and its rich history of golf design when he was based in the area from 2010-11 working for Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw on the restoration of Pinehurst No. 2.
He checked out area golf courses during evening hours. He visited the Tufts Archives and pored over old drawings and photos. He talked to guys who had been around a while.
And the enterprising young construction worker and design wonk from Oregon took the initiative to approach Kelly Miller, president and CEO of the ownership group of Pine Needles and Mid Pines, in 2012 about restoring the golf course at Mid Pines and bringing the original look, feel and playing characteristics of Donald Ross’s 1921 design.
Construction began late in 2012 and continued through the spring of 2013. Then the course was closed for the summer and the greens were resurfaced with MiniVerde, the ultimate warm season turfgrass for putting greens, tees and surrounds. The greens had not been rebuilt since the late 1930s, when they were converted from their original sand-and-clay base to grass.
“The Mid Pines project had huge potential, and the project turned out amazingly well,” Franz said. “I’m proud of the way we were able to regain the feel and strategy of the original course. You lost some of that with the narrow fairways and heavy rough. Now we have some width and you can plan your shots—aim to the proper side of the fairway to give you the best angle into the green.”
The result was designated by GOLF Magazine as its “Best U.S. Course Renovation” of 2013. The magazine termed the work “brilliant” and added, “While Pinehurst No. 2 will likely always be the region’s top attraction, fans in search of authentic Donald Ross should flock to Mid Pines.”
That project led Franz to handle restoration jobs in 2016 at Pine Needles (Ross design, 1928) and in 2021 at Southern Pines Golf Club (Ross design, 18 holes open 1923) after the company purchased that course from its long-standing owners.
All three projects have included green and bunker renovations and adjustments to fairway contours. Franz replaced the standard treatment of uniform mowing lines and thick Bermuda rough with native hardpan sand, wiregrass and “volunteer vegetation” that gave Sandhills area courses their own visual flavor dating to the early 1900s. “The first thing that comes to mind when I think of Kyle is his passion,” Miller says. “He has an incredible passion for the game, and knew what he wanted to do at a young age. Kyle is an uber-talented guy. I think he’s going to become the guy, or certainly one of them if he’s not already. Not as many people in the industry are fully aware of Kyle — they think of Gil Hanse or Tom Doak or Coore and Crenshaw — but Kyle will be at the head of the next generation of architects, amongst that top tier.”