Davis Love’s new Birdwood design is for everyone, even LPGA players
Posted on Monday, Jun. 29, 2020, 8:42 pm
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By Jerry Ratcliffe
Photo: Boar’s Head Resort
Golfers of all ages and skill sets are likely to fall in love with the “new” Birdwood Golf Course at Boar’s Head Resort. Designer Davis Love III kept that in mind when he brought Charlottesville 18 holes for everyone.
“I always say we designed for my mom, who just kind of wanted it down the middle, bounced everything up on the green and was hoping to get up-and-down for par on a lot of holes,” Love said when he was talking the art of golf design.
“She didn’t want to have a carry of 250 yards over and over again to get over trouble or play short of it,” Love said. “You force yourself into playing an ezra shot just because the architects made you play over things over and over again.”
That’s not the case at Birdwood. Love’s design team made the course challenging for all skill levels, but made allowances that his mom would have appreciated when it came to giving everyone a chance at par.
As mentioned previously, Birdwood is for everyone, the high handicapper to the college player to the professional.
Two pros got their first taste of Birdwood last Friday when former UVA women’s golfing standouts Lauren Coughlin and Anna Redding played the new layout. Both of them loved it … see the video interviews below of their experience at the “new” Birdwood.
Coughlin owns the lowest single round in UVA women’s competitive history, a 7-under 65 during the UCF Challenge in 2014-15. She owns tour cards for both the LPGA and the Symetra tours and works with Kevin Kirk, also the swing coach for PGA Tour member Patrick Reed.
Coughlin is married to former UVA offensive lineman John Pond.
Redding, who plays out of Charlotte, N.C., managed to get in one event on the Symetra Tour in early March down in Florida before the sports world was shut down by the pandemic. Both she and Coughlin will return to professional play at the end of July when both tours reopen.
