Properties, much like people don’t always behave rationally. Sometimes it requires a little digging to discover the reason behind the quirks. With people you don’t always want to know, with properties you do.
Right of the 4th hole in a ditch far out of view or play had many wondering why the water simply disappeared as if in a black hole. The ditch looked to drain from both directions to this point. After the recent rains water was flowing at about a half liter (about half a quart) a second. This is too fast to simply vanish into the ground. We walked around the corner of the property along the rail lines where a ditch (to be piped in the future) drains the low area in front of the green…and Viola Watson!...Water bubbling up from the bottom of the ditch, churning the fine sand in the process. The “black hole” is actually a drainage pipe. Mystery 1 solved.
Mystery Two requires more faith.
The 11th fairway is about a meter higher than the 12th, the 12th closer to the river, yet about 10 cm of water accumulates in the trench at a depth of -1.30 on the higher 11th hole. On 12, the lower hole, no water accumulates at a depth of 3 meters (we stopped digging at this point). Our conclusions: either there is a layer of clay or clay like material holding the water back from draining into the wetland buffering the river, or all the water coming from the hills has conspired to form an underground creek that makes its way from the Sand Valley to the wetland, and eventually the river. Either way, the seven test holes on the 12th show the mystery on 11 is local.
Tony Ristola
agolfarchitect.com
+1 (909) 581 0080
Tony Ristola
- www.tonyristola.com
- A rarity in golf course architecture: Working with the builders, crafting the details of my designs in the field on a daily basis.
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Short Project History; The Good and Bad
This blog reveals a snippet of the daily challenge of building a special golf course. The only value in something like this for future investors and golf architecture aficionados is to tell the truth; warts and all.
Before arriving at Sand Valley the project was being constructed according to the "detailed plans" of another golf architect using a "golf course construction company" that had built a number of courses. They broke ground in June 2006. After 10-months the builder had proceeded to rape 14-holes and was fired.
I have been brought in to fix the problem, using locals to build the course. In the process all plans except the general routing scheme have been abandoned. The current course is being designed in the field, seizing every opportunity to improve the course as we go. That's the value of time. You can see the project from all angles, in all conditions, you have time to think about the problems and come up with the best solutions, and then refine them with the guys doing the building... in real-time. This is how many of the great courses were constructed. It only makes sense. More time, more input, more communication produces the best possible result.
That's why Sand Valley, though it had a rough start (using the "Typical Method") should have a fantastic finish.
Before arriving at Sand Valley the project was being constructed according to the "detailed plans" of another golf architect using a "golf course construction company" that had built a number of courses. They broke ground in June 2006. After 10-months the builder had proceeded to rape 14-holes and was fired.
I have been brought in to fix the problem, using locals to build the course. In the process all plans except the general routing scheme have been abandoned. The current course is being designed in the field, seizing every opportunity to improve the course as we go. That's the value of time. You can see the project from all angles, in all conditions, you have time to think about the problems and come up with the best solutions, and then refine them with the guys doing the building... in real-time. This is how many of the great courses were constructed. It only makes sense. More time, more input, more communication produces the best possible result.
That's why Sand Valley, though it had a rough start (using the "Typical Method") should have a fantastic finish.
