With yesterday’s rain we decided to go golfing, and played a course that on the surface is nice, but one the ownership is in the process of making uglier and less fun. It seems they don’t know what type of golf course they want. It’s designed with the mounds and humps covered in long grass that was all the rage in the 1980’s and 1990’s. To contrast that “rugged” design style, they have fronted many tees and water hazards with stone walls; it looks incongruent. They haven’t stopped there though…
The club is making many of the holes longer in an effort to create the longest or one of the longest courses in Europe; a shame. What they are really doing is blighting the landscape with tees that look like volcanoes, and eliminating variety. Now the par-4’s are of similar length or soon will be…boring. In some instances tees could have been added, but in others it would have been far more interesting to have shortened the hole a little to create elements of risk, or simply added bunkers to the scheme, and fixed bunkers that are featureless or fit poorly into the landscape. They had a nice course to start with, but that is often the problem with clubs with money; they don’t know when to leave well enough alone, and make fundamental mistakes trying to impress.
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.
