Gil Hanse will lead a restoration of all 18 holes at Mid Ocean Club in Bermuda, recovering the design principles of Charles Blair Macdonald and Seth Raynor across Macdonald’s only course outside the United States.

The club announced the appointment on July 10. A clubhouse renovation will come first, with the course scheduled to close for earthworks in fall 2027. The restoration will follow a phased programme, while Golf Digest reported an anticipated reopening in late 2028.

Mid Ocean is No. 44 in Golf Digest’s 2026-27 ranking of the world’s greatest courses outside the United States. Its routing contains Macdonald’s interpretations of classic British holes, including the Redan, Alps, Eden, Short, Biarritz, Punchbowl and Cape.

Macdonald designed the course with Raynor during the early 1920s. Mid Ocean records a semi-official opening on March 3, 1923, followed by its full opening in 1924. Macdonald later wintered in Bermuda at a home overlooking the fifth hole until his death in 1939.

Robert Trent Jones Sr. altered tees, bunkers and the course’s length in 1953. Hanse and design partner Jim Wagner are studying those changes alongside construction photographs, aerial imagery, member collections and family pictures to determine how the earlier architecture can be recovered.

“Ultimately our goal is to be faithful to Macdonald and restore his work,”

Hanse said in the club’s announcement. His previous work on Macdonald courses includes Sleepy Hollow Country Club, The Creek Club and Yale Golf Course.

The Fifth Hole and Mangrove Lake

The par-four fifth, Mid Ocean’s signature Cape hole, will receive substantial work. From an elevated tee, players choose how much of Mangrove Lake to challenge on a diagonal drive. The fairway and green then sit at a different angle, making position as important as distance.

Hanse’s plan will reconnect the hole visually and strategically with the lake. The green will be expanded, while bunkers will return closer to their original scale and reach. Work around the water’s edge is also intended to restore the broader dimensions visible in historical photographs.

Hanse said the fifth ranks among Macdonald’s boldest Cape holes and “one of the greatest holes in golf.” Harris Kalinka has used the architect’s hand-drawn plans to create a computer-generated animation of the proposed work.

The ninth presents another opportunity to recover lost scale and sightlines. It plays from an elevated tee across water into a valley before rising to a green on higher ground. The restoration is expected to address its greenside bunkering and reopen views along the right side of the green complex, where trees have obscured the earlier design.

A New Position for the 18th Green

The 18th will contain the project’s only feature that Hanse classifies as non-restorative. Its green is due to move farther right and back, restoring the expansive view down the beach that existed before development beyond the course changed the finishing hole’s setting.

Although the location will change, Hanse intends to reproduce Macdonald’s original green complex through laser mapping. The plan is to preserve its contours and strategic principles while placing it where the ocean again shapes the view and approach.

“We usually don’t like to go off script like this, but it was too strong of an opportunity,” Hanse told Golf Digest.

A 1926 Film Offers New Evidence

The project’s archival research has also uncovered what may be the only known moving footage of Macdonald. Mid Ocean member and restoration researcher Rick Skelly found the silent 1926 film while searching the Smithsonian Institution’s archives for images that could help Hanse and Wagner.

Skelly was reviewing a longer film about Bermuda when the footage shifted to Mid Ocean’s first tee. An older, heavier-set golfer appeared and took a backswing that Skelly immediately associated with Macdonald.

“I was blown away when I found the footage. I was reviewing a longer film with classic 1920s Bermuda images when it suddenly switched to Mid Ocean Club and the 1st tee. And I see this older gentleman, thicker set, take this backswing and immediately I’m just stunned and think, ‘That’s C.B Macdonald right there!’”

According to the club’s media presentation, the film shows scenes around the course, what appears to be Macdonald putting on the first green, footage of the fifth and a horse-drawn carriage that picks up members at the clubhouse.

The identification is not yet definitive. Experts are continuing to examine the film, although the club said a preliminary consensus supports Skelly’s conclusion.

Course Work Includes a Conservation Plan

Mid Ocean has been working with Bermuda’s government and Department of Environment and Natural Resources on an Environmental Management Plan. The club says the agreement is the first of its kind in Bermuda and is intended to deliver a net conservation gain throughout the property.

Measures include mangrove enhancement targeting a 2:1 net gain, expanded Diamondback Terrapin habitat, a proposed shoreline population of the endangered Bermuda Skink and management of invasive plants to encourage native Beach Lobelia. Ecological work will also support nesting areas for local bird species.

The clubhouse project will precede the course closure, with a new south façade, refurbished interiors, a performance centre and a new golf shop planned. Once that work is complete, Hanse and Wagner are expected to begin earthworks in fall 2027, guided by the photographic record and a film that could provide the first moving view of Mid Ocean’s original architect.