The Ohio State University Golf Club’s Scarlet Course has been well-known as a course of champions. It has been host to the NCAA Men’s Golf Championships 10 times and the Women’s Championships 13 times – with the 14th Women’s championship being held at the course in 2006.

To insure that the reputation of the course holds well into the next century, a $2.8 million restoration project is being undertaken at the course.

Areas of focus on the project include reshaping all bunkers, revising bunker drainage, expanding the driving range, adding several championship tees and recontouring selected greens.

“The Scarlet course has always been one of the premier courses in collegiate golf and the nation,” said Greg Letsche, senior design associate of Nicklaus Design Group, which is working with National Golf Builders, Inc on the restoration of the course.

He said the companies are going to try and make the course more like its original design.

“The greens themselves have just become smaller over time, and we want to take them back to more of their original design,” Letsche said. “We are also taking a look at some of the (Alister) MacKenzie bunkers and updating them to how his design might have been.”

The Scarlet course was originally designed by Alister MacKenzie, a native of England and one of the chief designers of Augusta National Golf Course. McKenzie died in 1934 due to a heart condition, leaving work on the course incomplete. At the time of his death, the university was in possession of MacKenzie’s design of both the Scarlet and the Gray courses. The remaining work and oversight of the project then fell to a group of university professors that saw the course to its completion in 1938.

Nicklaus Design Group is owned by renowned golfer and OSU alumnus Jack Nicklaus.

Work on the course is being paid through the endowment income from the Al and Martha Phipps gift to the OSU golf course.

No new date has been finalized for the completion of the course because of unknown factors such as weather conditions that might hinder construction.

When work is complete, Letsche said he is looking toward a course that is enjoyable for all skill levels.

“The course will definitely be challenging with the positioning of the bunkers and the work on the greens … but will be very playable by the average member of the course,” he said.