Sand Valley Golf; Design and Construction Blog: Filling Green Pad 6

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.

Monday, June 11, 2007

Filling Green Pad 6

As Kai put it, today was our first day doing some actual construction. Not quite true, but I know what he meant. It was our first day actually building a feature of the golf course. We are filling the greensite on Hole 6 with sand, and at the end of the day we’re half way home with that job.

Good news on the machine front as well. We’ll be adding another dumper and a D6R bulldozer to our D6N. This machine will be used for stripping areas of topsoil, organic material, and building tees. The D6R is a fair bit more powerful.

Racing home. It’s 21:45 when this was taken, and the operator is putting the D6N away after a long day’s work.

Tony Ristola
agolfarchitect.com
+1 (909) 581 0080

Tony Ristola

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Short Project History; The Good and Bad

Monday, June 11, 2007

Filling Green Pad 6