Looks like Congressional is getting a re-design. (Pic from above)

There was an article on golf advisor late last year or earlier this year talking about courses getting upgrades. Congressional Blue course was one of them

The restoration of Congressional has been known for some time. Membership is trying to bring it back to its original layout. The restoration hit a road bump as the architect chosen for the restoration had some serious legal issues and ended up in jail. The work is continuing under a different well regarded architect.

Was Keith Foster doing it? Or did another architect get into trouble and put in jail? Foster had is hands in quite a few projects when getting locked up if so.

It was Foster. He lost both that and Olympia at the same time.

OK, we need some backstory on the Keith Foster/jail tease.

Google has all of it

He was working the Harvester in Iowa too. I know the renovation was finished there, but not sure if he was the one that finished it. He was caught smuggling/selling endangered animals. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/golf-architect-gets-30-day-sentence-for-smuggling-products-made-from-endangered-animals/2019/03/08/3753e9b0-40f5-11e9-922c-64d6b7840b82_story.html

What a dummy.

As others have stated it was Keith Foster.

i sure hope they do not make it an Avenel type

He's been hanging out with Tiger King too much apparently.

From what I've heard, Congo Blue isn't really be re-designed, so much as getting the Oakmont treatment. Almost all of the trees have been cleared out, and the surfaces/bunkers are being completely re-done. Holes and routing are staying similar/the exact same, but this info is through a lot of second hand sources.

Andrew Green is doing the design and if you've seen any of his work it should be fantastic.

1.2 Million/hole they want to be a top 5 course in the country and decided to blow the whole thing up. I believe they are still awaiting the architect bid coming down to green, hanse and the faz.

I can't see how Congressional will ever be a top 5 course in the country. It's good but it doesn't have the land / design. It is about 50 in my book. Sadly the DC area does not have any great courses.

1.2 Million/hole they want to be a top 5 course in the country and decided to blow the whole thing up. I believe they are still awaiting the architect bid coming down to green, hanse and the faz.

Hard to figure out these last few posts - anyone able to figure out what's up with the two "different" accounts posting the exact same thing? But they are the same, but not, but...

Screw it, I'll have another bourbon

Best I can tell one is the dad the other is junior. Kinda like Indiana Jones

So I'm friends with the assistant super there (no he can't get me on), they're doing a full restoration back to the original Emmet design. Andrew Green is the architect in charge, and they are doing a lot of tree removal. It is supposed to finish in April of next year, and the course shut down last September. To echo another comment, I don't think they could ever be a top 5 course in the country, and I don't believe that is their intent. The DC/Baltimore Area, as a transition climate, doesn't have the land for golf. It gets too cold in the winter and too hot in the summer to sustain a very highly rated golf course. I definitely think there's a handful of great courses in the area, Congo, BCC, Caves Valley, and RTJ are all very cool, but none of them will come close to a top 20 spot in the US in my opinion.

Get rid of the trees, let it dry out to let the ground game come alive and let what little wind you might get impact as much as it can.

So when everyone is saying original design. Does that mean the original routing ss well, where they go back to # 18 becomes a boring downhill par 3?

As opposed to the more challenging uphill No. 10 as it is now.

You do realize a lot of the top 50 courses are located further north then the Maryland/DC area. Please re read what you typed and then go look at where most of the top 50 in the US are located...

You should also reread what he said. The climate is harsh in the winter and summer. Courses further north don't deal with 100 degree summers and courses further south don't deal with ice/snow/freezing temps.

Isn't the current 10th at congressional a downhill par 3? Just the old 18th flipped over the pond

The original Devereux Emmet routing was broken up in the 1950's by RTJ. The front nine was mostly retained as the front nine on the Blue course with a whole new back nine constructed by RTJ. The original back nine was folded into the creation of the Gold course along with all new original RTJ holes across the road. If they are completing a full restoration of Emmet's design, does that mean that they will be restoring the original routing in its entirety? They could presumably have one course start on the current 10th of the blue course, play through the hole across the road, and returning to finish up on the current 18th of the blue course.

Two other changes to the course that I'm curious if they will address, the current par 5 9th was originally a par 4 followed by a par 3. While the current par 3 7th and par 4 8th was originally a par 5. Will those holes be put back into their original condition?

With The current 18th on the blue course commonly held in high regard, I can't foresee the club removing that hold from their championship routing. That hole is a RTJ original. So at best I would think they could "restore" much of the front nine of the blue course to Emmet but keep the back nine all RTJ. Sadly, in preparing the course for various US opens much of the property had been flattened and I can't see them bringing in enough dirt to restore many of the blind elements that existed on Emmet's original routing.

I'm not looking to get into an argument but average summer temps between DC and Boston vary by about 10*... Sure there is hot stretches but everyone has them. I know a fair amount about C3 grasses if you wanna take this into private chat we can discuss further.

Not sure why you're getting offended over my post when what I wrote is factual. You think I don't know about the better clubs north of DC or that it gets colder north of DC? Having lived north of DC for the majority of my life, I can firmly state the summers here are worse than everywhere further north that I have lived. And everywhere I've lived has had better golf courses and conditioning. Weird.

To be fair, I'm not 100% sure what the exact hole-by-hole plans are, but I've heard from two very reliable sources that 18 is changing, but not going back into the old Par 3.

Are there any great courses in the transition zone?