Oak Tree National reopens with focus on majors

EDMOND, Okla. (AP) — The 13th hole at Oak Tree National golf course is nicknamed the postage stamp. Now, the green there is even closer to being that size.

The changes were part of $6 million in renovations to the course that hosted the 1988 PGA Championship and the 2006 Senior PGA Championship that new owner Ed Evans hopes will attract more major championships down the road.

“It is certainly our goal to attract major events out here again,” Evans said Wednesday in unveiling the makeover. “I think it’s unlikely that you would see a regular, annual tour stop out here. We’re more focused on something that would be every two to three years out here.”

The initial focus is on 2014. Evans plans to visit next week with U.S. Golf Association officials at the U.S. Senior Open at Crooked Stick in Carmel, Ind., to continue making his case to host one of the group’s main events. The USGA already has named venues for the U.S. Open and U.S. Women’s Open in 2014, but still needs to announce a site for the U.S. Senior Open or U.S. Amateur that year.

“I believe in 2014 we’ll have our first event out here. I think we’re pretty close to it now,” said Evans, who bought the course in April 2008. “I think in 90 days I can probably announce something.

“I think we’re going to have to prove ourselves there before we sort of get to the next level on what we can do.”

Every fairway and bunker was redone as Evans’ ownership group sought to put the course back to the condition it was in when Pete Dye designed it in the 1970s, but with some modern updates.

A strain of U-3 Bermuda turf that’s common now was put in on the fairways, 22 bunkers were added, the tee boxes were laser-leveled and the greens were modified to play more like they did when the course opened.

Other greens on the back nine received similar treatment after Dye was brought in to provide guidance on the makeover. While Dye had redesigned the greens on the front side prior to the 2006 Senior PGA, Mark Hayes did the ones on the back and Evans said “what we ended up with were two different nines.”

“We changed a lot of the backstops that used to be on there — sort of uprising areas in the back where if you were to sort of miss a shot a little bit, they were a little bit more forgiving than what they had been in the original design,” Evans said.

“Our goal was to sort of return it to what it originally was. We wanted to make chipping a premium and to make sure that good shots were very well rewarded, shots that were slightly off a little bit maybe not so much rewarded.”

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