Topeka Country Club begins largest renovation in decades

TOPEKA (KSNT) - The Topeka Country Club announced it has recently started an extensive golf course renovation project.

The project funded by private donations will include laser leveling of tee boxes, installation of new drainage systems and the addition of 12 new fairway bunkers, country club spokesman Rob Myers.

Club officials said all bunkers would be modified, reshaped and rebuilt with a more advanced drainage and liner system and a cascading water feature would be added to the 15th hole to feed a pound in front of the 17th green.

Invasive trees will be removed to open up playing corridors and open the area up to additional sunlight and air circulation, according to Myer. Removal of trees will also improve long-range views, according to club officials.

Approved by stockholders in 2022, the project marks the first major renovation since the Perry Maxwell-design opened in 1940, according to Myer. The Maxwell design added nine holes to the Thomas Bendelow-design nine-hole course which opened in 1906.

“In remodeling Topeka Country Club for the 21st Century, we seek to install as much Maxwell authenticity as we can,” said Todd Clark with CE Golf Design. “His wonderfully contoured greens are being preserved while reclaiming a few front and back corners to recapture lost hole locations. The bunkers protecting the greens will all be new and be shaped in a Maxwell style with playable bright white sand and contain the most efficient drainage component. We're also adding fairway bunkers to a number of holes where none previously existed, to add both definition and challenge to certain tee shots and second shots.” 

The new renovations are being designed by Clark and designer Ron Whitten, according to club officials. The work is being conducted by Mammoth Golf Construction and is expected to be completed by mid-summer of 2023.