DragonRidge Country Club is getting some tender loving care from original course architect David Druzisky over the summer of 2023. A course renovation project was started May 1 and will run through a scheduled reopening of November 2023. Druzisky looks forward to the challenge of renovating a course he originally created.
“This is the first big renovation of one of my earlier designs,” said Druzisky in the pages of The Highlander Magazine and to writer Charlotte Evans. “As an architect, you never want to be done with anything. You evolve with your ideas and experiences and you want to keep applying those things. No matter what property I worked on that I go back to, I see something I wish I could improve. This opportunity is rare, and it’s exciting.”
The greens and tees are part of the process.
“We’re basically going to tear up the golf course at the greens complex and the tees,” he said. “We’ll dive in right away and the greens will be gone in short haste. We’re going to make a big mess, and then we’ll put it right back.” As it evolves, he says onlookers will see that the project involves surgical precision and artistry.”
Druzisky, who worked on the original design with Jay Moorish, also said that there will be some shaping and moving of dirt on the course as the green surfaces are restored and some new pin positions created.
“The last thing you want to do is make a golf course difficult because then people don’t enjoy it,” said Druzisky. “I’m creating an experience, and golf is just part of that. The things that make this golf course challenging are already in place, such as the desert, the elevation changes, the slopes on the greens.”
The private DragonRidge is located in the heart of the MacDonald Highlands community and features a state-of-the-art clubhouse with dining plus a teaching academy anchored by hall of fame instructor Mike Davis. Tennis, fitness, dining and social events are all part of the DragonRidge story.