Sustainability Spotlight: The Restoration of the Great Dunes Golf Course, Jekyll Island, GA

Written By Andrew Szunyog

The par 3, 5th hole is short but challenging as it’s the first to be played along the ocean, making it susceptible to gusty winds. Credit: Jeff Arnold/National Links Trust

In October, myself and two fellow National Links Trust co-workers were invited to participate in the exclusive grand opening preview event of the newly restored, Walter Travis-designed, Great Dunes Golf Course at Jekyll Island Golf Club, in Jekyll Island, Georgia. About 20 months previous to the preview event in early 2024, NLT hosted a webinar featuring key players in the Great Dunes restoration project, Brian Ross and Jeff Stein, the project’s golf course architects, and Noel Jensen, Deputy Executive Director of the Jekyll Island Authority. The episode highlighted the collaborative efforts and steps taken to draft the project plan and prepare the site for the restoration and was the key reason we were offered the invitation to participate in the grand opening event.

Never one to turn down a once in a lifetime opportunity to play a golf course for the first time, we quickly made travel arrangements and waited patiently for October 20th to come. I can say firsthand, that the outcome of this project will no doubt put the Great Dunes Golf Course as one of the best municipal golf courses in the state of Georgia and across the United States. So for this edition of the Sustainability Spotlight series, we travel down to Jekyll Island, Georgia to learn more about this amazing golf course project.

Setting the Stage

Jekyll Island is a Georgia state-owned park that is operated by the Jekyll Island Authority (JIA), a self-supporting, entrepreneurial state entity responsible for the overall conservation, development, management, and stewardship of Jekyll Island. This type of structure is unique across other Georgia State Parks and requires strict fiscal responsibility as JIA can only spend what it makes.

Originally, Jekyll Island was privately owned by and served as the winter playground of America’s elite early 20th century families, think the Vanderbilts, Rockefellers, and Pulitzers, among others. In the early 1940’s, during World War II, the elite families left Jekyll Island as fears of German U-Boats patrolling the Atlantic Ocean waters off the Island’s coastline mounted over time and they never came back. In 1947, Jekyll Island was purchased by the state for $675,000 as the families didn’t want to pay a hefty tax lien and thus, the Jekyll Island Authority was formed.

One major recreational outlet for Jekyll Island in the 1900’s was golf. The Great Dunes Golf Course opened in 1927 and was designed by Walter Travis, one of the premier Golden Age golf course architects of his time and widely considered to be one of the best golfers of the early 20th century. By the 1950’s, the back nine of Travis’ 18 holes were lost to hurricane damage and commercial and residential development on the island. The remaining nine Travis holes joined three other Jekyll Island golf courses for a total of 63 holes of golf managed by the JIA.

Jekyll Island encompasses about 6,500 acres of land and restricts commercial and residential development to just 1,300-1,600 acres, leaving the remaining land as conserved natural habitat and recreational area. Overall, the Island has undergone nearly $390M in public/private partnership developments that include new hotels, shopping, restaurants, and a convention center. The JIA includes robust conservation and historical departments that oversee strict environmental and historical regulations that include height limits on structures and the limitation of developed acreage on the island.

The fairway and green of the 11th hole, where reduced turf grass has accentuated the natural sand dunes. Credit: Jeff Arnold/National Links Trust

The Restoration of Great Dunes

About 10 years ago, the JIA was concerned about the overall health of the golf courses they managed. Poor turf conditions brought on by aging irrigation and infrastructure and poor drainage left the courses unplayable for days after rain storms. As recently as 2022, the Oleander Golf Course was only open 146 of 365 days because of wet turf conditions and poor drainage, drastically reducing the vital revenue necessary to maintain the health and wellbeing of the island as a whole. As an entrepreneurial entity, the JIA can only spend the money it makes through revenue earned from tourism, including golf, hotel stays, and convention business, as the Georgia State Park system provides no supplemental income to manage the park.

Around 10 years ago, the JIA understood that a 63-hole golf course operation with mounting deferred maintenance projects would require significant investment to revitalize a precious revenue source. So, the JIA decided to act and put together a master plan that included the restoration of the Great Dunes Golf Course, as well as the renovation and updating of one of the other 18-hole golf courses.

That plan eventually led to Brian Ross and Jeff Stein winning the RFP to restore Great Dunes. The two architects understood the significance of the task at hand: they were now responsible for the restoration of one of three Walter Travis- designed municipal golf courses in the country (East Potomac Golf Links in Washington, DC, one of the NLT managed courses, is one of the two other Travis munis). Most of Travis’ golf courses are private facilities, making it difficult for the general public to explore and play his characteristic designs. For Ross and Stein, it was vital that they create a golf course that is architecturally engaging, affordable, accessible, and environmentally and economically sustainable so Travis’ vision for golf on Jekyll Island would continue on for future generations, but that was no easy task.

The new Great Dunes Golf Course combines the restoration of nine of Travis’ original design with the reimagining of nine holes of the Oleander Golf Course. Oleander’s other nine holes were used to create a new practice facility (about one hole’s worth of land) with the remaining land given back to the JIA as a wildlife corridor and conservation area that includes walking paths for the general public.

Ross and Stein’s biggest challenge was seamlessly blending the bones of the Travis nine with the remnants of the Oleander course so any golfer would not be able to tell the difference between what was restored and what was created. To do that, they would have to overcome some major hurdles. Much of the distinct, natural sand dunes were smothered with maintained Bermuda turfgrass and overgrown native and invasive vegetation, cutting off sitelines and connectivity to the community, limiting the growth of native sand dune habitat, and unsustainably consuming resources, considering the amount of water, fertilizer, and manpower needed to maintain 170 acres of turfgrass.

The placement of hazards and bunkers makes for a challenging tee shot on the 6th hole. Credit: Jeff Arnold/National Links Trust

Project Outcomes

It’s quite possible the most significant and impactful outcome of this project is that fact that, regardless of the strict conservation and historical restrictions afforded to any development project on Jekyll Island, Ross, Stein, and the JIA were able to create and execute such an all-encompassing environmentally sustainable golf course. Here are just a few of the significant outcomes from this project:

  • The establishment of seashore Paspalum turfgrass instead of Bermuda turfgrass.

    • The project reduced maintained turfgrass by 55%, from 170 to just 80 acres!

    • Paspalum is a saltwater tolerant turfgrass so the irrigation system was updated to handle brackish water that can be pulled straight from natural collection areas.

    • The salty brackish water acts as a natural weed suppressor as non-native species cannot survive with that much salt intake.

    • Paspalum grass also requires less nitrogen so fewer fertilizers are needed to maintain turf health.

    • The irrigation system only waters fairways, greens and tees with new sprinkler heads that only rotate about 180 degrees (360 degree sprinklers tend to water more than the golf course).

    • The use of brackish water eliminated the need to pull from the local freshwater aquifer, which had been depleted due to historic development and use on the island.

  • The control of invasive species and re-establishment of the native sand dune ecosystem.

    • The use of controlled burns to mimic natural ecosystem rebirth removed old and invasive vegetation and sparked the regrowth of dormant native seedbanks hidden under acres of turfgrass and vegetative overgrowth.

    • The removal of vegetation opened sitelines into and out of the golf course, better connecting the community to the golf course and the golf course to the community. Views of the Atlantic Ocean are now prevalent throughout the new routing.

  • The natural beauty is the byproduct of limitations of development on the island

    • Many of the electrical wires along the oceanside golf holes were buried underground to provide unobstructed, historical views of the Atlantic Ocean.

    • The island features 23 miles of bike trails, 54 holes of golf in which you encounter no houses, just nature, and one of the country's best sea turtle rehabilitation centers.

  • Stormwater management and improved drainage improve playing conditions and course resiliency.

    • The installation of seepage drains and siphon pumps help move rainwater away from playable areas to collection areas for use in irrigation.

    • All asphalt cart paths were removed and replaced with permeable limestone screening to improve water absorption in the ground.

  • The project worked hand-in-hand with JIA conservation department to establish a wildlife corridor for native and migratory species, including rookeries (breeding colonies for birds and other animals) and pollinator gardens.

Driving the Green Take:

Even if you don’t play golf, do yourself a favor and take a detour to Jekyll Island. The golf course is a true testament to what can happen when sustainability and conservation are at the forefront of a golf course development project. I am so impressed by the work of Ross and Stein and their willingness to work within the parameters of the JIA’s development restrictions. 

While my round of golf during the preview play event was nothing to write home about, there were a couple highlights from my day at Jekyll Island.

As we were coming down the 15th fairway, my group witnessed quite the dramatic exchange between three birds of prey. It started when an osprey dove into the nearby pond to catch a fish. As it emerged from the water, fish in talons, it was harassed for several minutes by a magnificent bald eagle, until the osprey dropped the fish into the lake. Then the bald eagle scooped up the fish and flew away, all while a red-tailed hawk circled above, overseeing the entire exchange. Wishing I had the exchange on video, the chase for the caught fish included several low swoops over our heads as we watched in awe from the fairway.

The approach shot into the par-5, 4th hole is the best shot on the course. Two huge sand dunes, named for the famous curves of the beautiful Mae West, guard a punchbowl green of which you can only see a tiny sliver of it from the fairway. Upon cresting the hill to the green, you get your first unobstructed view of the vast Atlantic Ocean, stopping you in your tracks to take in the sheer beauty of Jekyll Island.

The approach shot into the par 5, 4th hole is guarded by two sand dunes. Credit: Jeff Arnold/National Links Trust

Andrew Szunyog

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