The Cliffs at Walnut Cove will ask PGA Tour players to begin the Biltmore Championship Asheville by relearning the order of the golf course. The nines have been reversed for the tournament, shifting which holes frame the start and finish and changing the sequence competitors must prepare for before Thursday.
The ground presents another layer. Superintendent Steve Shand’s team has worked through extreme heat and wet weather since early July, including record high temperatures in recent days. Bentgrass covers the tees, fairways and approaches, while the greens and collars combine bentgrass and Poa annua. Kentucky bluegrass waits beyond those primary playing areas.
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The event runs Sept. 17-20 in Arden, North Carolina. Players will spend the practice rounds learning the new order, but the more revealing work begins after the ball lands.
Reversed Nines Put the Holes in a Different Order
Reversing the nines does not alter a single contour, bunker or green. It does change when each hole arrives, which holes frame the start and finish, and how a player organizes a practice-round plan. A sequence commonly played one way will be presented another way under tournament conditions.
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A hole encountered before a player has found a rhythm does different work than the same hole with six left to play. The club may not change. The player’s patience might. Thursday’s first groups will show where the new order creates hesitation, especially around holes that used to belong to another part of the round.
Watch how quickly players become comfortable with the order. Caddie notes, preferred misses and the location of the next tee all become part of a new tournament map. The holes remain familiar to the people who know Walnut Cove. Their placement inside an 18-hole competition does not.
A Difficult Summer Is Part of the Setup
Conditions since early July have been extremely hot and wet, with record high temperatures in recent days. That combination has challenged the maintenance operation. It also makes any confident forecast about firmness, rollout or scoring premature until players test the course themselves.
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A tournament setup is often reduced to visible decisions such as tee locations, hole positions and rough height. The harder work begins earlier. The staff has to manage plant health, moisture and consistency while preparing the property for a four-day event. Hot and wet weather narrows the margin for getting every playing surface to respond the same way.
Shand will have 23 staff members and 44 tournament volunteers beside him this week. That puts 67 people on the maintenance side of the event. If their work holds up, most viewers will never think about the weeks of heat and rain that came before the first tee shot.
Firmness cannot be assumed. The first useful look will come when a long iron lands on an approach, a tee shot catches a downslope or a player tries to control a recovery from the bluegrass. If the reactions differ across the property, somebody will recognize it early and somebody else will need several holes.
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The Turf Profile Gives Players Their Homework
Bentgrass covers the tees, fairways and approaches. The greens and collars are a bentgrass-Poa annua mix, while the rough is Kentucky bluegrass. Players must learn where the playing surfaces change and how the ball reacts as it crosses them.
Players will sample those edges during practice. They need to see whether a low approach skips through the bentgrass, what the bent-Poa collar allows and how the club moves through a bluegrass recovery. Two misses separated by a yard could leave entirely different next shots.
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Putting practice will not finish the homework. Players will compare the speed they felt early with the first few putts that count. If balls keep finishing a foot farther than expected, the correction has to come quickly.
Walnut Cove Surface Map
The useful question is not simply which grass is present. It is what the ball does when a shot lands, runs across a collar or comes out of the rough.
Greens and collars
Bentgrass and Poa annua
Track pace on putts and how the ball reacts when a chip or approach crosses the collar.
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Tees, fairways and approaches
Bentgrass
Watch carry, first bounce and rollout before assuming how aggressively a shot can land.
Rough
Kentucky bluegrass
The early test is control: how the club moves through the lie and how much speed the ball retains.
Do not assume firmness: The course endured extreme heat and wet weather beginning in early July, followed by record-high temperatures in the days before tournament week. The first competitive shots will provide the evidence.
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Steve Shand’s Familiarity Is the Course’s Constant
Shand has been the superintendent at The Cliffs at Walnut Cove for 14 years and has spent the same length of time as a superintendent. His staff includes assistant superintendents Brenden Leis and Thatcher Schlup, equipment manager Taylor Robinson and landscape manager Jay Fojtik. Rich Niedergerke is the club’s PGA professional.
That continuity matters during an unusual preparation stretch. Shand knows the property beyond a single season, while his background includes work at Charlotte Country Club, an internship at Augusta National Golf Club in 2004 and a decade on the crew at Tarratine Club of Dark Harbor in Maine. The person directing the work brings long familiarity with Walnut Cove and experience from several very different golf environments. The condition presented Thursday will supply the judgment on how that work came together.
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Jack Nicklaus is the course architect, with the design dating to 2005. The tournament version will be defined by the reversed sequence and the surfaces Shand’s team delivers after a demanding summer. Those are the details players can test in practice and carry into the opening round.
Inside the 67-Person Agronomy Operation
23
Agronomy employees
44
Tournament volunteers
67
People preparing the course
Leadership
Superintendent: Steve Shand
Assistant superintendents: Brenden Leis and Thatcher Schlup
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Equipment manager: Taylor Robinson
Landscape manager: Jay Fojtik
Shand at a glance
At Walnut Cove: 14 years
As a superintendent: 14 years
GCSAA member: 23 years
Previous experience: Charlotte Country Club, Augusta National Golf Club and Tarratine Club of Dark Harbor
Why the staffing matters: The group must produce consistent playing surfaces after a prolonged stretch of heat and wet weather. If the work succeeds, the operation largely disappears behind the golf.
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Practice Rounds Become a Working Map
Practice rounds will be used to test shots rather than tour the property. Players and caddies need a working record of what released, what stopped and which misses left enough control for the next shot. Because the nines have been flipped, those notes also have to be rearranged for a different sequence of decisions.
For viewers, the most useful early evidence will come from the ball after it lands. A drive that stops near its pitch mark, an approach that releases through a target or a chip that comes out unpredictably can reveal more than a published yardage. The opening round will also show whether one section of the course is asking a noticeably different question than another.
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What the Reversed Nines Change
The tournament does not change Walnut Cove’s individual holes. It changes when players encounter them and how every practice-round note must fit the competition routing.
What stays the same
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The contours, bunkers, greens and shot demands of each hole
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The Jack Nicklaus design, which dates to 2005
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The consequence of a miss in the wrong place
What changes
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Which holes establish the round and which ones decide it late
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How players and caddies organize targets, misses and club-selection notes
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The point in the round when patience or aggression is tested
Thursday checkpoint: Watch which groups look settled over their opening targets and which players are still reorganizing the course after the round has begun.
By Thursday afternoon, the players’ notes will hold the useful information: where tee shots finished, which rough lies cost control and how each nine felt in its new place in the order. Walnut Cove will have answered through golf shots.
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PGA of America Golf Professional Brendon Elliott is an award-winning coach and golf writer who serves as Athlon Sports Senior Golf Writer. Read his recent “The Starter” on RG.org, where he is their Lead Golf Writer. To stay updated on all of his latest work, sign up for his newsletter or visit his MuckRack Profile.
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This story was originally published by Athlon Sports on Sep 16, 2026, where it first appeared in the Golf section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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