Below are some details on the changes.

Every hole was redesigned with new tees, fairways and greens. Square tee boxes created a more traditional look. Much of the mounding was softened, creating better sight lines for players and improved views for fans. White-faced bunkers added definition to fairways and greens. And about 200 yards were added.

Weibring turned one of the least favorite holes, No. 11, into what could be an exciting, drivable par-4. He enhanced No. 17, the popular par-3, by clearing viewing areas on both sides and around the green. A stadium feel was created with grandstands and luxury boxes framing the hole. The 18th hole is highlighted by a series of four ponds with waterfalls.

The 11th sounds intriguing – the 18th sounds boring. White faced bunkers sounds typical and not at all Texan.

Looking at player/architect D.A. Weibring’s website where he discusses the changes, we find more detail.

Every tee box, green and bunker has been redone. About 165 trees have been moved.

Other parts of the landscape have been altered for shot value and to improve views. Mounds have been softened. A new irrigation system is in place. It’s a clean, less-is-more look that should intrigue pros, members and resort guests. When fans arrive at the April 24-27 tournament, they will find open viewing areas that will bring them much closer to the action.

Removal of trees sounds great. It would be nice to know what “softening” means to mounds. I have no idea what the cliche “clean, less-is-more” has in the context of golf course design.

“You hear competitive and you hear challenging, but the word you have to hear is fun,” Weibring said. “It’s got to provide all levels of player the visual opportunities to play a shot. Do they have a bailout? Can they bounce the ball on the green? Will they remember the holes?”

I think Weibring meant bounce the ball on TO the green. Weibring was very critical of Pete Dye’s design at Whistling Straits with regards to the ground game, so it will be interesting to see if the TPC actually does allow for the ability to play a ground attack.

Sources familiar with the negotiations said an agreement between the Piedmont Triad Charitable Foundation, the nonprofit group that runs the Wyndham, and the Nisshin Corp., which owns Forest Oaks, is expected to be announced in February.

The sources, who requested anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the negotiations, said time is rapidly becoming an issue in the deal with this year’s tournament eight months away (Aug. 14-17). The sources say that, because of Sedgefield’s image and proximity to Greensboro and Winston-Salem, tournament officials think they can sell significantly more corporate sponsorships to companies than they have at Forest Oaks.

While it’s not set in stone, the story did mention that an outside contender for the tournament is the remodeled Pete Dye course called The Cardinal.

Either location will make for an interesting venue, although Forest Oaks was certainly not a bad course.

There was some discussion of reversing the nines – which might be interesting only from the standpoint that the front 9 appears to be more interesting and entertaining than the back 9.

“If you flipped the nines, you’ve got a short par 3, a short par 4, another short par 4 and a good risk-reward par 5. That could be pretty exciting,” Arron Oberholser said last week at the BMW Championship, where he failed to qualify for the Tour Championship.

The front nine was also the site of Tiger’s 28 on Friday. (Although, Zack Johnson shot 29 on the back in route to his incredible 60 on Saturday.) Of course, there is some reason that the front nine is likely more interesting and entertaining than the back nine.

Designer Rees Jones, who did the makeover at East Lake in 1994, cringed at the idea. “Please don’t do that,” Jones said. “I just souped up that back nine.”

“Souped up” is code from Jones for “made more boring” – as in added length, added or deepened bunkers, planted trees, added water. In any event, the wet conditions brought on by both rain and less than ideal green conditions (which turned out to be blown WAY out of proportion) resulted in conditions that allowed the golfers to fire darts all week.

Here’s Tiger’s take on ending on a Par 3.

“I’ve never been a big fan of the last hole being a par 3,” Tiger Woods said. “I think you should have to hit more shots to determine a champion than just one shot. I think you should have to play two or three shots to get to a flag, not just one shot.”

Hmmm… the champion has likely hit between 250 and 290 shots over fours days to determine the outcome of a tournament. The champion, unless he hits a hole-in-one will also have to hit at least two shots, including a putt, on a par 3.

The most extensive work will be on the greens. Often criticized for being too spongy, they will be completely redone. Each green also will have a SubAir system, which will suck the moisture from the green in wet conditions. The result should be much firmer and faster greens.

“Obviously, it’s going to become more challenging,” said Trevor Immelman, who won the last Western Open. “Once you put in the SubAir system, you really can control the firmness of the turf. It’s going to improve the golf course and improve the event.”

The other major changes call for a pond to be built on the right side of the seventh fairway. The intention also is to have the water come more into play around the eighth green. And if you didn’t think the par-4 18th hole was hard enough, Jones said the new green will be shifted closer to the pond.

The fairways bunkers also will be repositioned to accommodate today’s power hitters.

“With the fairway bunkering, we’re establishing the locations so they match the original intent of the hole,” Muirhead said.

“I like what they’ve done,” said Aaron Oberholser, who tied for second. “I think they could do even more.”

That is exactly the plan.

“Some of the holes, you look at them and half the hole has been changed. That side has, but this side doesn’t have the same look,” Waugh said. “The course plays differently, more strategically because of Gil’s work.”

Faxon designed the Bay Course in Mattapoisett, Mass., and now is working with another native Rhode Islander, Stan Abrams, on a project in Wells, Maine — the private, Maine National Country Club.

Whereas Faxon worked with Hanse in making significant changes to TPC Boston, he’s teaming with award-winning golf course architect Brad Booth on the Maine National design.

“We feel we’ve created a design that will complement the outstanding terrain, and we can’t wait to see it come alive,” Faxon said. “We believe the golf experience (at Maine National) could be something exceptionally distinctive.”

“It’s the mental aspect — we’re trying to make them think,” he said. “That’s the whole idea. You want to be able to test the players and make them come up with a game plan.”

On the 15th hole, there’s a bunker on the left, but if a player steers clear of it off the tee, he has a clear shot at the green, but one he cannot see as he makes it. Blind shots, chocolate drop mounds and strategically placed fescue grass, the long stuff that just hides balls, is prominent on the remodeled TPC.

“I like the changes,” said Tiger Woods, who will defend his title against the top competitors including, for the first time, Phil Mickelson. “Being a playoff event, we knew the caliber of the course would need to be improved and I think they’ve done that two-fold.”

Woods had input on every hole, but he did not dictate changes. The world No. 1 made suggestions, and the spirit in which they were intended spawned some of the changes.

“We took his suggestions to heart,” said Hanse. “If he suggested a bunker on the first hole on the left — there’s no bunker, but we did put a chocolate drop mound there.”

One thing Woods agrees on, based on a film he viewed showing the revised layout, is the TPC poses a challenge now befitting a mini-major.

“Before (the changes), that really wasn’t the case,” he said. “If you got it going, you could take it pretty low.”

Vijay Singh took it very low in the third round last year, shooting a 61 and taking over the lead. Woods came back to win, but had to shoot a 63 on the final day to do it. Those low numbers won’t be likely this year.

“People get fixated on difficulty as quality, and I think that’s all wrong,” said Hanse, whose primary objective wasn’t to make the course tougher — that was included — but to make it more New England-esque.

I think the best quote of the bunch is Hanse’s last – difficulty absolutely does not equal quality. Despite what the USGA or Augusta National may want us to believe.

Thanks to a mild December, the job was done in about six months, and the course is ready to go for Friday’s start of the Deutsche Bank Championship.

“We redid everything,” Hanse said. “We moved most of the bunkers and rebuilt all of them. We built five new greens and tried to make them smaller. We wanted to create a golf course that felt older than it is. Actually, we made it shorter.”

Hanse said that the idea to shorten the course “raised a lot of eyebrows,” but that the purpose was to make players think their way around the course more. The new design added fescue around the bunkers and a few more blind shots.

“We wanted to make it more interesting,” Hanse said. “The guys have to make decisions off the tee. They have to think their way around the course and explore different options.”

While this may not be a Hanse “original”, this week will definitely be highlighting the architectural side of golf.

Sales and marketing director Tiffany Nelson said the root structure on the course has deteriorated since 2000, when it stopped irrigating with Central Arizona Project water and switched to reclaimed water.

The reclaimed water has high salt content, which drains into lakes on the course and then is pumped back onto the course for irrigation. Nelson said plans are to install a new drainage system next year, which will filter out the salt.

It will require all of the fairways to be resodded. The course will reopen on August 28th.

The future of many golf courses lies in the use of reclaimed water for irrigation. The impacts to turf are likely to be varied depending on the quality of the water, but the use of reclaimed water is a win-win situation for both the golf course, which gets a price break and a more reliable water supply, and the government, which generates income of off lightly treated water and doesn’t use the potable water supply for irrigation.