Going Insane

The guys work long hours, and have the constant hum of heavy equipment in their ears. I’m sure it doesn’t faze them a lick, but poor Miatek. He spent the better part of 10 hours listening to his bulldozer’s computer screech an alarm “BEEP…BEEP…BEEP”. That screech is something you cannot ignore; in fact a deaf man can hear it. The serviceman from the company said there isn’t anything to worry about, and that he’d come by tomorrow and put a stop to it. I don’t know if that was fast enough for Miatek. With a couple hours left to go in his day switched machines and got his buddy Janek to enjoy the sweet sounds of torment.

Afterward: The service man showed up 8 operating hours later and fixed the computer glitch in 15 minutes. It must have been like banging your head against a wall…it’s so nice when you stop.

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

Dr. Dirt

Every project needs their Dr. Dirt. Ours is Anton Morbach from Walsrode, Germany… a gentleman I’ve used on several occasions. He comes in, does a soil analysis of the site, checks the physical and chemical properties of the soil, and tells us how we should treat the different areas.

Rarely is a site homogenous, so some areas will require different care. He will also tell us about the soils we can use for building the foundations of greens and tees. What material we have suitable for the rootzone mix, if any, the chemical characteristics of the soils and dozens of other questions. He also took samples from quarries in the region for testing.

After he runs a battery of test and creates the recipe for blending the materials, we blend a small mountain according to the formula he prescribes. Every so often we send samples to him for testing to ensure we have matched the recipe (test twice build once). Most critical is the 30cm or so (1 foot) of rootzone that serves as the growing medium for the putting greens. Once we get the OK…that we have indeed matched the recipe, only then will we transport the rootzone to the green for installation.

Consistency is a key concern today. In the old days a golf course would have the greens play differently due to the use of differing materials and construction methods. It was up to the golfer to take these differences from green to green into account. This made maintenance more challenging, as each green required very specific, not generic care. Today’s science based golf course construction makes courses more consistent, predictable to play and easier to care for.

I loved Anton Morbach’s joke (all good jokes have some basis in truth) about consistency... “The course should be built either equally good or equally bad, that way nobody will notice the differences.”

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

Acts of God; Riders on the Storm

This is our worst nightmare. It would really be a huge if the course were “growing-in”. "Grow-in" is when construction is completed, the ground has just been seeded and/or the plants are young and have not stabilized the soil. It is a time when the project is highly vulnerable and tremendous damage can be done with God’s irrigation system. Luckily, we are not at this stage, and the worst a storm can do now is shut us down for a day or two. This storm yesterday evening came with phenomenal acoustics and light show, but fortunately didn’t deposit the mess we anticipated; big bark, small bite.

May we continue to be so lucky.

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

Diesel Anyone?

What it takes to keep a group of machines going is either a tanker truck coming to fill the machines daily or your own station. When the day gets to be 16 hours long, the tanker truck coming once isn’t enough. To solve this problem we have a 5,000 liter (1321 US Gallons) tank to service the guys whenever their machines are thirsty. Cost for the tank was about 4,000 Euros ($5,400 USD), and to fill it is another 5,000 Euros ($6,725 USD). Diesel costs about a Euro a liter, or $5.40 (USD) per gallon.

We’ll see how long it takes until we have to refill the beast.

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

The Marek Trophy

The Marek Trophy

Most golf clubs and tournaments, even on the PGA Tour have generic trophies. There is little personal about them. At Sand Valley they’ve latched onto a trophy for the Club Championship or a huge national event hosted by the club that is literally a work of art. Donated by Marek Majewski, a local businessman who owns the beautiful Guesthouse Megi www.pensjonatmegi.com , and a factory in Indonesia that manufactures hand carved furniture www.meblestylowe.com, he had one of his staff craft this 1.70 meter (5 foot 9 inch) teak golfer.

In decades to come, people may wonder about the Asian eyed trophy with the Polish name. All they’ll have to do is look in the club records to learn more about its roots… Marek the furniture mogul.

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

Problems = Opportunities

Hole 6: The Old Dyke Wall

The previous construction company left a mass of inferior material at the greensite and in the fairway on the 6th hole, and we didn’t want to go through the hassle and cost of trucking it away. What to do? What did farmers and others do to protect their properties from flooding? They created a dyke wall. Ours won’t be a typical dyke wall, but one that looks as if the river blew through it long, long ago. It will provide an abrupt elevation change within the hole, run from the greensite along the river, splitting the large fairway and work its way towards the tee. This eroded wall will also allow us to connect to the earth buffer (disguised as a hill) on the previous holes. Problems do equal opportunity. That’s the plan, at least for now.








The previous construction company placed inferior material directly over the unprepared greensite (topsoil should have been removed before the fill was placed). It is planned to be moved 40 meters and used as fill for the "Dyke Wall" flanking the left side of the green.





















The bottom conceptual illustration reveals the general "Dyke Wall" Concept.

What is funny is at a previous project in a flood control basin, I had the Dyke walls hauled away, and used in a buffer wall. There the walls cut through the holes perpendicularly and the walls were contaminated with all manner of debris, from iron to concrete slabs to tires. As we ripped the dyke walls down, we separated the garbage and non-mineral debris from the soils and drove it to the local landfill. Here we are taking lemons and making lemonade.














How the wall could look. As if farmers from long ago tossed in all manner of soil, rock and debris. The sketch above loosely resembles the "Dyke Walls" at the previous river project where we removed them. A footpath would be woven through the wall.

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

The Spine for Things to Come

We have to cap a couple fairways with about 1 meter (1.093 yards) of sand. To get the sand in to cover these low wet areas we need a 9 meter wide road. That’s big enough for 2 Volvo Dumpers side-by-side. The road will be 360 meters long, and built from a layer of sand 50cm thick (20 inches). 9m by 360m by .5m is 1620 cubic meters (about 1750 cubic yards). This material will require digging a hole 40 meters (44 yards) by 40 meters by one meter deep…about a third of an America football field, or a bit less than half of a soccer field. In our case we’ll actually be cutting a one meter deep strip 25 meters wide by 65 meters long.

The procedure: The bulldozer will free the future road of organic material, the trucks will bring in the sand, and the bulldozer will spread the sand to the required thickness. The trucks will only drive on the sand they import. Once this road is built, we’ll then have the fairways on both sides of the road stripped of organic material; about 5 to 10 cm (2 to 4 inches). The trucks will haul this organic material to a point not far away and then race to our excavation area to bring in the sand to cap the fairways. For a short while they’ll be loaded with material coming and going, but only for a while. Once the trucks reach the point of only bringing sand to cap the fairways, filling these fairway go fast, as our source for sand is only a few hundred meters away.





























The roadway between the 6th and 7th holes will see a constant stream of dumpers loaded with 30 cubic meters of sand. The road is vital for keeping things moving when it rains, and keeping damage to a minimum. The trucks will not leave this road. They will deliver the sand and bulldozers will push it across the fairways.

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

Safely Home

On April 28 I’d written about unloading machines from transport trucks, and the dangers that can ensue. Well, we didn’t have problems unloading a our latest addition at the site, a Volvo EC210Blc, about 21 tons of dirt scooping fun, but the machine had to be loaded and of course unloaded twice.

Not long after it began its journey something happened, what exactly I don’t know, and the machine had to be taken off the original transporter and loaded on a new truck. There were complications with unloading the machine so it could be reloaded on the second transporter, the one that brought us our glowing yellow D6N XL Caterpillar earlier in the day. Just happy to report everyone is OK.













Our Volvo EC210Blc. In the background, and used by the previous builder is a antique dumper from the communist times.















D6N XL with a 6-way blade. A great bit of multi purpose machinery.

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

Growing Pains and the Hand of Man

Growing Pains and the Hand of Man

Whether from sea, land or airplane there should be a sign at every port of entry declaring “Poland…Under Construction.” The nation is busy repairing the ills of communism at a furious pace. It shows. The country’s lot has improved drastically and continues to improve. It’s beautiful to see. But…this sweeping progress comes with one ill side effect for projects like this ours. Getting the exact machines we would like quickly isn’t easy.

Some machines we want, we can have, but they come with an operator. Thanks, but we don’t want the operator; we have our own local guys. At one project the developers desperate for a machine rented a bulldozer, only to have the operator who came with the machine sit on his hands for months while another plied his earth shaping skills. I guess some would call that a dream job.

Our challenge of getting machines is one we are fast overcoming.

Manpower is another story. There we have no problem at all. This abundance of labor is a big factor in the manner the course will be designed and maintained.

Manpower allows detail to be accomplished no machine could achieve and is why the really old courses often feel and look so good…They reflect and have all the subtleties of Nature because their construction equipment was small; Horses, mules and manpower. They were forced to embrace Nature and make the most of what the site offered. Most of the natural contours, the little stuff…rolls, bumps and hollows remained intact. The features, because they were also maintained by hand could be designed full of intricacy. That’s a huge difference to most modern courses that are smoothed out, massively contoured by giant earthmoving machines and designed for ease of maintenance…machines. Though great effort (and expense) is the result of many modern projects, they often look sterile or plastic.

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

Cutting them down is the easy part.

Trees that is. Hauling their trunks away isn’t a problem either. What takes time is ripping out the stumps and clearing the soil of cellulose debris. The technical term is called “grubbing”, and the work sounds exactly like the word.

After the stumps have been ripped out and put into the dumper, they’re driven off to their final resting place, a 40 meter long by 20 meter wide by 2 meter deep hole in the ground. It is where all organic debris will call home. When filled, The Hole will be covered with the excavated material, and will form part of the berm/wall/sound barrier. When finished this berm/wall/sound barrier shouldn’t look like one, but should look like a hillside that borders the course.

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

How to get fired

There is a language barrier here, but I’ve worked in places where I have had this challenge in the past. In every instance this barrier has been overcome. Sketches, arm waving, photos, drawing in the dirt, exchanges of a few words we both understand, a dictionary with both languages always seemed to get the intended task communicated and accomplished. It usually didn’t take long either. For virtually everyone here this hasn’t been a problem. They all get the picture after a few minutes. Then there are those who for whatever reason don’t. This is only the second time this has happened in all my projects.

Here I’ve had a guy who just doesn’t seem to get it, and with the pace of things to come, I haven’t the time to keep calling one of our staff to translate and discuss, and then wonder if he really understands. I take no pleasure in doing it but he’ll be finding work elsewhere, where he doesn’t have to make an effort to understand. I wish him great success.

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

A Round with Kai

And a living lesson about builders and architects

This Sunday afternoon we played a round of golf at one of the courses in the region. The course is easily better than most in Scandinavia and Germany. Much of this is due to the pretty piece of raw, open, rolling land it is built upon. The architect had ample of this land to route the course over. The routing is good, but the course only decent. It could have been so much better. Many opportunities to achieve excellence economically were squandered.

The developers had a 500 horsepower car in the raw land, and because there was virtually no direction from the well known design company (the builders were left on their own) only 100 horsepower was utilized. Had all 500 horsepower been maximized, this would have been a very special golf experience. But it is still enjoyable, and a nice nature walk.

The developers used two different builders. One for the front-9, another for the back-9, and the contrast between the two are noticeable, if not stark. The builders interpreted the architect’s plans wholly differently. That’s not surprising. We’re all human and shaped by our experiences. No two people will interpret plans identically. Only the architect knows exactly what he wants, and without leadership from him, the developer won’t be able to maximize the horsepower of his architect’s dreams (plans), the site or budget. What will result is a product different from what the architect envisioned, regardless of how “detailed” his plans may be.

This course can serve as a laboratory for developers to learn from. The Lessons: Though a known architect was selected, the end product clearly illustrates the influence of the builder and the great cost (lost opportunities and refinement) that comes with a lack of direction from the architect during construction…Especially in places like continental Europe.

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

Another day in the woods, the rabbit from hell and Tribal Eating

Another day in the woods, the rabbit from hell and Tribal Eating

The guys continued clearing the trees on Hole 2, and I kept looking and picking away. We carefully cut away some trees to reveal and preserve some beautiful oaks, beech, and pine trees.

Then we had a BBQ.

It’s all about getting the guys together and having fun after a long week in the field. About 10 seconds after this photo was taken we were all having a gut wrenching laugh. Cannot tell you exactly what was said. The sanitized version is this is now the Designated BBQ Chief of The Sand Valley Golf Course Building Tribe proudly exhibiting a trophy kill. The rabbit from hell did not partake in this event.













This photo earned Darek the nickname "Chief".

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

Those Pesky Beavers!

Clearing of trees has been progressing and now the 2nd fairway is being freed. After the trees are fallen, they are taken to a storage area, will be processed as needed and used elsewhere on the project.

From this point we will be picking away at trees and looking, looking, looking from the tee to get the desired effect, which is to get enough width for sunlight, to make the hole enjoyable, and to ensure the forest cut will not look like a straight line. It should be more like a drunken logger who released his frustration on a few trees. It takes decades to grow one of these guys, and only a few minutes to knock one down, so we are taking great care to get the best result.













Trees have been cut on both sides of the center line on the 2nd.

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

Clearing of the trees for Holes 2 and 9 are coming along because the rain has put any other work at a stand still. In the coming weeks we will be able

Clearing of the trees for Holes 2 and 9 are coming along because the rain has put any other work at a stand still. In the coming weeks we will be able to work in the rain, because we’ll be working with and in sand, but for now, it’s all about the trees on Holes 2, 9 and in the near future Hole 4.

“And that’s all I’ve got to say about that.” Forrest Gump

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

Waiting for the irrigation system to be repaired

Waiting for the irrigation system to be repaired

The last two nights somebody forgot to turn off the irrigation system. Not ours, Mother Nature’s. Following days with periods of clouds and sunshine, the nights have been filled with heavy showers. At the moment this reduces our work schedule to playing Paul Bunyan…cutting trees.

With this bit of free time provided by the forces of Nature, I took in the sights of the regional capitol city Olsztyn, about 90 minutes away. It’s a beautiful place. A lot of work has been accomplished here in the last 17 years.

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

Sand Valley stocks anyone?

The Investor Memorandum for the stock offering is being completed as I write. It may have reached that point. I’ve perused and edited the English version, as well as creating a couple pen sketches to grace the cover of the offering. These are posted below. The greensite is hidden behind the wall of trees.


















































Blog Update: The greensite was covered in trees when the illustrations were made. Now free of trees, it reveals the foundation which the hole will be crafted upon. The leaning beech tree was an unforeseen bonus. A product of selective clearing. Photo taken April 15, 2008.

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

Hitting Free City Gdansk…Danzig

I visited the Free City of Danzig and Sopot, part of a tri-city coastal connection today on my first day free in a few weeks. It’s a little more than an hour from the golf course on the A7 highway that runs from Warsaw to Danzig. What a beautiful place, and in the coming years will only grow more so.

Having seen photos of the post war destruction, and the mess communism left Eastern Europe, what the Polish have accomplished here is tremendous. I wasn’t awaiting such a beautifully restored section of Old City. One of the locals tells me Krakow in south Poland, undisturbed from World War II, is the prettiest in the country…that really must be something because I love the atmosphere in Danzig.








The Old Crane towering in the background to the left originated in the 1300’s. This restoration is from the 1400’s. Powered by men walking inside large wheels, it was at one time one of the largest in Europe, up to the mid 1500’s.

For more info about Free City Danzig, how it got its name and other facts, click the following link:
http://www.answers.com/topic/free-city-of-danzig

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

Hunting for Nature and finding it near an Oil Refinery

I’m always on the lookout for inspiration, and visual aids to help get my views across. Sometimes they’re photos, sometimes sketches, sometimes scratches in the dirt or sand box sculptures. On the way to the Danzig airport I saw a beautiful stretch of constructed wetlands near the highway leading into the city. It reflects a portion of the general scheme we are aiming to accomplish with our constructed wetlands.

This bit of constructed wetlands is in front of the modern Lotos Oil Refinery on the outskirts of Danzig. Not exactly where you’d expect to find inspiration, but if you’re looking, you can find it in the oddest places. You’ll pass this fine work if you take the A7 highway into the city.

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

Opportunity

The previous construction company deposited about 70 truckloads of fill with out doing the proper prep-work for the 10th greensite. Added to that the fact we are changing the construction method for the greens, we have about 800 cubic meters (880 cubic yards) of fill that has to find a home. So, instead of a greensite built-up about 1 to 1.2 meters (3 to 4 feet), the downhill par-3 will change to a low, rolling green. The mass of fill will be pushed in front of the greensite to cut off and redirect water flow from the hillside to the wetland right of green 10, and we’ll slash a series of bunkers from them. I think it’s a better solution than the original hole. The mass of bunkers fronting green 10 will make the perfect transition to the waste area that runs for 500 meters left of Hole 10, and the wetland to its right.




Standing on clay pile up for the 10th greensite. The clay was dumped on the greensite without stripping the organic material under the green first. The hillside is another bit of the previous builder's wunderwerk; another story for another day.

With the tees on a hill, and the bunkers now calling for a forced carry, we’ve opted to have the ladies play from the men’s back tee, a wee bit more diagonal angle of attack, and turn this hole into a short par-4 for them. It’s better than benching a tee into the hillside (which I find unsightly) to make the hole playable. It will make a fun short par-4 for the ladies while preserving the panorama from the tee high on the hill.

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

Pure Sand Greens

Piotr, a regional superintendent visited today.

It was nice to run into a superintendent that speaks English and seems to love what he’s doing. Got to banter with the guy, talk about construction, the problems with contractors and their shortcuts, golf course maintenance, his headaches, and had some laughs…a really nice guy.

The greens on Piotr’s second 9-holes were built with pure sand, but the builders used sand with too many fine particles...not enough larger stuff in the mix. Having a mix of some larger particles of sand is important for stabilization. His are so unstable he can't drive a sitting greens mower on them because they make light ruts.

At Sand Valley, by pure luck of the draw, we have about 60cm (2 feet) of finer, organic sand sitting directly atop a little more than a 30cm (a foot) of larger sand, all this capped with 30 cm of sandy topsoil. This combination of sand covers an area of about 10 football fields. We the two sands together (perhaps we also use 5cm of topsoil) and this combo should, in theory, make an excellent greens mix. It will also be cost effective.

The lab will run tests of this material, and tell us the optimal combination to achieve our goals of firm, fast and well draining putting greens.

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

Timber!

It’s wet, and the work we can do is limited to getting rid of trees both large and small. The trees have begun falling to make way for the 2nd fairway and 9th hole. That’s the big stuff. The small stuff is removing the small birches that grow like weeds in the sandy soil. We’re using an excavator to scratch them and their root systems away. Then these small fry are loaded into a tractor with trailer and driven to their final resting place.

In the old quarry, Basket Willow has invaded some of the lowest areas and is predominant along the river banks. In the old days they would remove the young branches and make baskets from them, hence the name. We have taken a section of young Basket Willow from the quarry and begun transplanting them along the banks of Tee 13 and Green 15 in an effort to stabilize them from further erosion.
http://www.derkleinegarten.de/800_lexikon/803_gehoelze/salix_korbweide_weidenzaun_weidenflechtzaun.htm

The stumps grow new shoots which are removed annually. We have some in this condition near our Green 15.

http://www.forestryimages.org/browse/detail.cfm?imgnum=1379031

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

Playing Sherlock Holmes

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

Last Night it Rained Buckets

The farmers really needed it badly, so good for them.

This was my first opportunity to see how the property behaves after a heavy rain. Such events are valuable and reveal a lot. Trouble areas are easily identified, and this is the greatest value of having it “pour cats and dogs”.

We’ve had enough rain. The wet areas are identified and the solutions fairly obvious. It’s the old common sense adage about drainage... “If you don’t have enough common sense, put in more drainage.” We’ll do that, and use another great asset we have on site…sand.

Now we can go back to the California-like conditions.

Please.

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

Enter Walter

I had Walter, an engineer friend come here to check a couple sections of the property.

Normally you need drainage in the greens, but these could be built up from fine quality sand, directly on the sandy subsoil…negating the need for drainage! It’s not normal, but I have done this in the past with great success. In fact, instead of drainage we had to install a fine layer of sand so the greens didn’t drain too quickly. We’ll have to wait and see what Anton Morbach, the soil engineer’s analysis reveals.

As famed golf architect Dr. Mackenzie noted long ago, consulting experts in their fields, drainage, soils, agronomy is the best way to guarantee results. The architect should have knowledge of these areas, but a few dollars spent on consulting and testing ensures results. It’s the old, “test twice, build once” story.

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

Let Me Sleep on It

Yesterday I touched on idea generation for several holes, and the challenges of designing the 4th hole. In Dr. Alan Snyder’s study of idea generation, he found people could generate a burst of new ideas after a short break. The study was about listing as many different uses for a simple piece of paper…he found:

Participants had generally run out of ideas by the end of the first session, yet
they produced a burst of new ideas in the second session, even though conscious
effort on the task was not required during the break (they were told the task was
over) and, in fact, was precluded by performance of a cognitively demanding and
distracting task. Both the number and the pattern of responses, especially the burst
of new ideas produced after the break, indicate that solutions for an original problem
may continue to be generated.
http://www.centreforthemind.com/publications/Nonconscious_idea.pdf

This explains why the truly great courses had the architect leading the effort. Plans only get you to the starting line, as a host of improvements and alterations can be “discovered” as construction progresses. Stuff you just couldn’t foresee at the drawing table. Donald Ross was right on the money when he said “Design on land, not on paper.”

This “burst of new ideas” occurred today on the 4th. Not trusting my memory I had my handy dandy digital Dictaphone at hand to record them. The design is 90% complete...in my mind. Will new ideas come? Surely…and the fun is mining and evaluating these opportunities. It’s like mining gold.

Dr. Snyder’s work is fascinating stuff. You can get more about his research into the genius, champion and autistic mind at: http://www.centreforthemind.com/newsmedia/WHATSHOT/index.cfm

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

Today was a Day of Staking and Thinking

Today was a day of staking and thinking. Today was a day of staking and thinking. Staking work to be done, and thinking about how to get a few holes to work.

The 8th has a big cut at the greensite, and the solution here was simple. Just extend the cut further backwards so it all flows seamlessly. There is a small natural valley that makes this transition easy.










Before my arrival the previous builder made the mammoth cut made from the hillside for the 8th greensite. Thephotos are taken from the seconding landing zone (lower photo), and one the center of the green. The deepest part of the cut is about 3-meters (10 feet). It will be interesting to see what evolves from this "Monster's Footprint."














The initial conceptual sketch of the 8th greensite. I'm sure there will be scores to follow.


The 9th hole, (the par-3 version) is a hole 80% completed by nature…if not more. We can elevate the tee site about 1 meter with ease, and have it look like it was part of the natural grade. From below on the 8th fairway you would never be able to tell the tee was bumped up a little. The greensite will require a little cutting and filling. The exact shape, size and contour of the green is still running through the brain.

The 4th hole is the most challenging of the few I spent the day thinking about. At 535 meters we begin by teeing off amongst wetlands. The fairway corridor is wide, about 90 meters with forest on both sides. The fairway is low with light ripples and rolls. Then… BOOM! ...a greensite with a 3+ meter wall to buffer the noise and sight from traffic on the road behind. My preliminary idea is to create a series of flash faced fairway bunkers (where you can see the sand); a half dozen of so should do. This will add character and definition to the hole, but at the green? So far, my concept is to work more high contours (with bunkers slashed into some of them) back at least 100 meters from the green and have one of the fairway bunkers past the tee shot landing area also higher and large. This one high and large fairway bunker would connect to the increasing elevation changes at the greensite, making it all a little more believable. It all has to flow…as if we discovered it and merely formalized it to make a golf hole. The dimensions and scale have to be believable.

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

Paul Bunyan

Today the forestry official was out to mark trees for cutting. Poland’s Paul Bunyan will be here next Thursday to begin falling trees.

Tomek and Martin were out staking centerlines and cutting brush outside the fairway on the second hole (not in straight lines), so the wild ones will be able to find their ball and slash it forward through the trees with ease.

The fairways at Sand Valley will be wide, you could say like Augusta National once was, and so many of the great courses once were. With width about a dozen bunkers will be strategically placed centrally in the fairway. This will make the golfers think a bit before hitting, and create multiple ways to attack the hole.

The only bone of contention is the bunker style. Some want clean, grass faced pits among our rugged naturalness (the remainder of the bunkers and wastes constructed are raw and natural in style.) I prefer the idea of continuing the raw natural bunker theme throughout the course; creating these central bunkers to look totally individual, a variety of shapes, sizes, and forms, with bursts of long grass here and there. They would fit into the folds and rolls of the land more seamlessly, though the grass faced pits would be much easier on Yours Truly, taking a fraction of the time to design and build.

Squabbles

We’ve had clear and sunny weather for over a week.; some warmer, some cooler, some windier, but all great for golf.

Today was a day to review the walk-through from yesterday, squabble over a few parts of the design and finalize the machine list. Squabbling over the design will probably continue to the end of the project, and that’s a good thing. You can only plan so much, building isn’t just building; it is the most permanent and expensive design phase. It's what makes potentially average projects very good, and good projects great.

‘By hand or cad, no architect will ever produce perfect plans but even if one did, a constructor left alone for days, weeks or months will never build the golf course the way the architect envisioned. For these reasons, planning and construction are not separate tasks, but different parts of the same task.’

Tony Ristola

Value That Money Alone Cannot Buy

Golf Course Architecture, A Worldwide Perspective Vol. 3

Tony,

Nice to hear from you...

I have to admit we use this quote in every masterplan we do - it is perfect - and its amazing how many committees seem to think it’s an exact science that can be done on paper.

Mike Clayton, Golf Architect

Golf Course Architecture, A Worldwide Perspective Vol. 3 can be purchased through Paul Daley at www.fullswinggolf.com.au Yours truly has contributed Institutionalized Fraud, Prostituting the Royal and Ancient Game for Volume 1, The Test of Our Time for Volume 2 and Value That Money Alone Cannot Buy

For Volume 3. All three volumes, plus other excellent books can be purchased through Paul Daley at Full Swing publishing.

Review of Project to Date

Today Lasse Pekka the planner, and Kai the Head Honcho read the 11 page Review of the Project to Date.

Lasse Pekka was here to find out what had gone on since his last visit a couple months ago. A long list of adjustments had been discussed. These touch virtually every hole, and I broke down the work accomplished by the previous contractor during our walk through more thoroughly than could be handled in the Review of the Project to Date (For the full story you’ll have to read the upcoming book about the project. It’ll probably be Chapter 1.)

A few of the major changes:

• The bunker style will be changed from formal, deep, grass faced circular scrapes, to raw, natural bunkers, with edges like a broken down stream bank (actually like sections of the river here).

• The waste areas will be expanded by about double. Their management will be an evolutionary project.

• The 2^nd-hole lengthened by 30 meters, the 3rd shortened by 50 meters. This offers an opening with a short par-4, long par-4, and short par-3 with a wetland left of the green.

• The 9^th hole converted from a short par-4 to a medium-short par-3. It will be a spectacular hole, much better as a par-3 than a short par-4. I’ll have conceptual illustrations forthcoming in the not too distant future.

Gotta stop here…if I went on with adjustments the blog would go on for pages.

Mother Nature's Best

The day started in the construction trailer thinking about the 8^th green, sketching ideas, then establishing the construction roads so machines and trucks aren’t driving all over the course, especially the fairways. Fairways are not roadways. Then with Kai, the Head Honcho at Sand Valley, we drove to look at Mother Nature’s best. To be inspired by the forces of wind, water, the natural bunkers, and enjoy the smell of the sea.