Greg Nye has been renovating the Blue Course in his head for the last decade. Now the Penn State men's golf coach is one of many people excited about the drastic changes being made to the home course of Penn State's varsity golf teams.

The Penn State Blue Course is currently undergoing an extreme transformation from old-style public golf to a championship caliber course, just in time for the 2007 Big Ten Men's Golf Championship and the Women's Championship in 2008.

The changes, including an added 600 yards of length and more than two dozen bunkers, are the combined creative efforts of Nye, PGA Head Golf Professional Joe Hughes and Golf Course Architect Dave Heatwole. The project will cost an estimated $600,000.

With players hitting the golf ball longer than ever, Nye said the added distance was a main redesign goal and is crucial to keeping the golf course competitive.

"It's a 6,500-yard golf course right now, and I'd have to count the number of wedge shots that we were hitting into greens," he said. "It was really not a super sight to host a collegiate golf tournament. It was far too short."

Sophomore men's golfer Robert Rohanna, whose play this fall has been described by Nye as "tremendous," was one of many players who had been taking advantage of the Blue Course's lack of distance.

"I can hit the ball like 280 [yards]," Rohanna said. "I can drive like four of the greens [on par fours]."

Longer hitters are going to struggle to overpower the new Blue Course, with two par fives lengthened to more than 580 yards, five new 400-yard par fours and a new 200-yard par three replacing the old eighth hole.

In addition to the new length, the new Blue Course plans to challenge golfers with more severely sloped greens and 25 new bunkers placed strategically around the course, including in popular landing areas on the third, fifth, ninth and 18th holes.

A signature "Lion Paw" bunker has been added on the 12th hole and a revamped pond will hug the left side of the second green, while also being in play for tee shots off the fifth tee.

The course has recently had problems with turf conditions, including two greens on the front nine, something Hughes and his staff made a priority to fix. They hired ArborCom Technologies Inc. to run a shade study analysis on struggling areas of the golf course.

The ArborCom study found more than 100 trees on the course that were blocking needed sunlight from greens, and 90 have since been removed.

"You ideally need anywhere between eight to 10 hours of direct sunlight on your greens," Hughes said. "The trees that we did remove are going to keep [the greens] healthy throughout the whole year."

There are also aspirations to install a new irrigation system, which would only expedite the maturation of the new turf.

Unfortunately, the course has been in terrible condition this fall. Golfers have been playing on temporary greens and, in some places, through bare dirt.

Players, coaches and course employees agree, though: The course changes will benefit the golf teams, the course as a business and the university's professional golf management program.

"I think the improvements are really going to make the course a lot better test," said Dan Venezio (junior-professional golf management).

According to Venezio, the opinion of the changes among other students in his major is one of indifference.

"For me and the seniors, we won't be around when it's fully done. We might get a semester out of it, but definitely the changes are going to improve the course for the future," he said.

Also being installed are new varsity golf team practice facilities, including new practice tees at the back of the public range and a short game practice area on the edge of the course.

The course and practice facility work is expected to be complete by July 2006. When all the earth has been moved and the turf has matured, course officials and Nye expect the Blue Course to rival other top-notch facilities in the area.

"We want to host championship-style tournaments," Hughes said. "We're the No. 1 jogging area in the community, but we're the No. 4 golf course, and there's only four in the area, and we took that to heart."