Perdido Bay Golf Club in Pensacola, Florida

If it's been a while since you've played Perdido Bay Golf Club in Pensacola, Fla., you might want to re-visit.

Architect Bill Bergin came around in 2000 and revamped the golf course, which opened in 1963 from a Bill Amick design. Before Bergin got a hold of it, Perdido Bay was known as a heavily treed, parkland course.

After Bergin and his bulldozers finished, the course looked completely different. With help from Hurricanes Ivan and Dennis, Perdido Bay now sports a wide-open look with almost a links-like feel.

"It used to be ridiculously heavily treed," said Todd Rice, the director of golf. "It's a completely different way of playing it now."

The wholesale removal of trees, from both architects and hurricanes, helped in other ways: It opened up the course for more sunlight and air movement, for example, cutting down maintenance costs and keeping grass healthier. The renovation included installing TifEagle greens.

The original routing remains much the same, with only a few holes changed, but Bergin did use his bulldozers in other ways, scooping up mounds and hillocks to give what is essentially a very flat piece of land some needed movement and flow.