Good Floods

As the general scheme sets in, becomes second nature, all becomes familiar, ideas begin to flood. The multiple ways to refine, alter, what has been put to paper.

Walking the property which I did a fair bit today…have to admit…I also drove around and stared for hours through the front window of the 4x4…the wind was that biting. Even the natives complained, but with good rain pants (it was chilly enough to make the natives complain) and windbreaker it would have been a great day for golf. Nevertheless, the more you look at something, the more you walk the property, the more ideas and opportunities flow...sometimes like a river.

I need a new fangled digital Dictaphone. The old one with cassettes doesn’t offer enough storage capacity for my blabber mouth and all the things to come. I’d end up with an archive of cassettes about the size of an elementary school library. Hey Piotr…where can I get one?

View of what the first greensite from the Landing Area. The previous builders had made some interesting choices and taken some wild shortcuts. Now the job is to figure out how to put it all back together again. Below is the first of many conceptual illustrations to come.

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

Polnglish and Those Crazy Finns

Woke up this morning, a bright clear morning like all the others but this time found a thin layer of frost on the front window of my Nissan 4x4! Say what? This after some nice days of beach weather?! It was 2 degrees Celsius at 05:30 and there were two Finns sitting outside at the hotel in their t-shorts talking up a storm after a good night of fun…those crazy Finns. Have to admit, my parents are Finns. I know where it comes from.

While in Rostock they taught me it doesn’t matter which way the east wind blows, it always brings something nasty with it! Today was an ideal spring day for golf; crisp, clear, and a wee bit windy. The guys in Rostock weren’t 100% correct.

Good thing building golf courses can be reduced to a few words, numbers, making sculptures in the dirt, arm waving, and sketches because I slept through my Polish courses in school. Now I have to learn everything I missed. Below is my first Polish lesson, and as I learn some Polish the boys in the machines are learning English. When it’s all done we’ll be fluent in Polnglish.

For those who speak Polish…apologies.
Doek = Cut
Gurka (just like pickle in some languages) = Fill
Spadek = Slope
Prasovach = Steep
Luckily plus and minus are the same in English and Polish…they just pronounce them differently, but they do that in South Carolina too!

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

Another Bit of Equipment and Some Conceptual Illustrations

Yesterday evening we accepted the arrival of our second bit of equipment; a 17 ton excavator. Not 12 hours later we were putting it to work, filling the Volvo dumper with 10 to 12 cubic yard loads and sending it on its way.

While helping the guys get started, I spent the rest of the day scouring the 1^st, 2^nd and 3rd holes, running through a variety of ideas, and producing some rough illustrations of the first green site. I’ll post some of the refined versions later.

Tomorrow may be Sunday, but we have work to make up, so we’ll be out there plucking away.

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

Calling Herr Morbach, Calling Herr Morbach

Soil engineer Anton Moorbach was contacted today. He is the expert who creates the formula for building the greens. I’ve used him on past projects and his greens have worked fine, and were cost effective to build.

He will take sand, soil, gravel, and organic material samples back to his lab. Sand and gravel will be in 10 liter buckets and go through a version of the Mad Scientist’s Olympics for soils. After testing their character, identifying personality problems (we hope to find one without any disorders), and to see who behaves well with their downstairs neighbor (the gravel layer), he creates the magic formula. This version of a cake mix for putting greens should have them drain quickly after heavy rains, and hold just enough moisture in the rootzone when it is hot and dry.

Building quality greens requires the right materials, and then testing the material delivered or mixed every so often. Get it a little wrong and it could spell headaches for the superintendent for years to come. As the saying goes…test twice, build once.

Anton Moorbach must be quite busy. He doesn’t have a website!

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

Short List of Current Challenges

If I didn’t hear the natives speaking Polish, I’d say it’s another sunny Southern California day. Not a cloud in the sky.

Out getting more familiar with the site, the work that has been completed, work required and the challenges ahead. Every project has its challenges. Right now our challenge is to assemble a yard full of machines and to get the operators going. Time is of critical importance to meet an autumn deadline for seeding, and when the machines get here, not a minute can be wasted.

I foresee a lot of design decisions being made on the fly. The good thing is there will be no waiting for these decisions to be made, and they will be made with days, weeks and months of all-day, everyday on-site reflection.

We also have to get soil samples taken and tested so we can start blending the mountains of rootzone mix, the sandy based growing medium, for the tees and greens. But first things first, we need to get the machines here, fueled, greased and going.

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

Day 1 Electric Line Discussions

We are in the middle of changing contractors, but that doesn’t mean it has been an uneventful day. There is always something to do, always something to learn, always opportunities to discover and reflect on.

Together with Kai, we made a walk though of the property, discussing completed work, future work and a variety of design schemes and possibilities that hit on virtually every aspect of the design.

Golf architecture is an adventure, because what is planned on paper doesn’t always turn out in the field. There are always opportunities to uncover that couldn’t be foreseen during planning. It is why one famous contemporary architect said “Plans are only the starting point” and Donald Ross, a historic architect said “Design on land not on paper.” They know what we know; Design and construction are not different jobs, but different parts of the same job. It’s all about design.

Opportunities present themselves often and randomly, and the best courses have someone present with authority to refine the design as construction progresses. Otherwise they are lost. Missing opportunities do not show up on the plans as errors, but they are errors of omission; valuable natural resources gone to waste. It is why Donald Ross’s best course is Pinehurst No.2. He crafted it over 35 years. We don’t have that much time, but we have 24 hours a day to seek and think about opportunities. We have maximum flexibility. These are luxuries we have that most modern projects lack.

One of these elements of exploration and after thought is the bunker style to be implemented. Plans were made for a formal bunker style that would cast shadows in the early morning and late afternoon. A design trait Pete Dye instituted and others have repeatedly copied. But what about the rest of the time, when there are no shadows and most golfers are out attacking the course? Others styles offer drama and a richer beauty regardless the position of the sun. They also offer an individuality that is difficult to copy. Time will tell if the gravitation will be towards the handcrafted, raw, natural bunkers advocated by Robert Hunter in his book The Links, or if the formal, clean model will be used. The benefits of the raw, natural bunkers are multiple. They would be dramatically different from virtually every other course on the continent. They reflect nature, and here at Sand Valley the banks of the river have these natural tears and erosion, making the handcrafted, raw, naturalized bunker concept entirely complimentary. Only time will tell.

A decision for placing the electrical supply under ground was reached on-site this evening with the local authorities. Moments like this can be a tug-of-war, a learning experience, and some good laughs. Today we had all three.

Discussing where the last mast is before the electric line goes underground. A railroad parallels the length of the 6th hole. Many of the great older courses were built in close proximity to rail lines.

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