Bunkers on 5

This is a short par-4, 290 meters long. This is the hole which we built the Buffer Wall, some 7 meters high in places. The Wall has been shaped so golfers can fly a couple bunkers, get a turbo kick and end up either on or near the green. Either that, or if someone hits a shot tight to the bunkers, they'll do fine too.

The idea is to shape the green so it's more challenging from the center left of the fairway. We have a mass of sand waiting for me to get on and shape. Can't predict when it will happen.

Today the bunkers have been gouged out of The Wall at about 250 meters. One large and deep, the other all of 3 to 4 square meters.

INSERT PHOTO

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

Old Quarry

Some of the Old Quarry on the 12th was lowered so much that it gets wet periodically. We've put some drainage in, and now that we've had a stretch of dry weather... are putting in more.

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
















The Northern bank of the old quarry.

Fairway and Tees 1

I've pretty much shaped fairway 1. Down to the landing Area, now I've got to wait a bit. In the meantime Tex is in his trusty Cat 315 excavator, ringing the 1st tees with topsoil, cleaning up a bit here and there.

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

Remember 13 tees?

I said it was a tough area to get material to?

Tex had shaped the back tee, and as I'd been able to get down 1 fairway, guys are finally able to get sand to the front and middle tees, so we can build their foundations.

Nice to be picking off the tough spots.

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

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The title of the thread says it all. I'm damn near euphoric.

I didn't think we'd get to Nr. 1 fairway this early. The weather has been good, so it's off to shape this hole while we can. The start is heavy clay, then transitions to sandier material, then transitions to clay past the Landing Area and towards the green it's a mix.

The fairway was stripped of topsoil by the previous builders, and left to erode during the rains last summer, autumn and winter. All we could do is look on and cringe. We did manage to put a handful of catch basins in, and I hoped to shape to them last year, but the weather didn't give us a break. Now I'm shaping to these basins. Should it rain, we'll finally be able to control the flow of water.

Damn this feels good.

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

Nr. 3 Comparison photos

Today the pondside banks of green 3 were brought to form, and a tiny greenside bunker carved into the front right.

The previous construction company left us with useless material, and did not stockpile it properly, even if was decent clay. If clay isn't stockpiled correctly, water gets into it and you end up with goo. This greensite foundation material was a mix of clay, topsoil, and chunks of wood.

Like all greensites and tee areas started by the other builder, we had to haul it away, and begin preparation of the greensite properly. This means stripping away all organic material. then brining in clean fill; in our case sand.

This par-3 is a pulpit green, and will have a large bunker blending into the pond left. A small bunker is carved into the front right.

The green is anything but flat.

INSERT BEFORE AND AFTER
INSERT GREEN SKETCH

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

From the Diary

DIARY Thursday 24-04-08 Clear and Sunny; Thick frost in the morning then Warm

1. 06:05 to 18:00
   
2. Cowboy loading topsoil from 11 for 9 fairway
3. Cowboy stripping crap fill along north of 9 fairway valley
4. Cowboy doing banks on west side of 3 green
5. Cowboy loading a couple load of debris from 4 fairway
6. Blondi driving dumper for Cowboy
7. Drainage on 17 green; Sepp, Nikolai, Bulldog
8. Drainage on 5 fairway; Sepp, Nikolai, Bulldog
9. Happy digs out pipe on 4 fairway (in wet area)
10. Happy with irrigation
11. Kai and Antti transplanting

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

Dust!

It's nice to see dust again.

After the rainy summer, winter... now dust!
Ahhhhhhhh.

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

The **it spreader

Fairways 6 and 7 are created from sand. A huge expanse. The sand needs some organic material to help establish the grass, so we've borrowed a manure spreader and have gone about spreading sandy topsoil over these fairways.

Once the soil is spread, we'll get a cultivator, work it in, harrow the surface, and then go about getting the stones out (stones that came with the sand).

Then we'll be on our way preparing the surface for seeding.

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

Adding a third

Yesterday Tex scraped out two bunkers by green 2. One tight to the green, another larger, higher and further from it. This larger bunker will create "dead space", or foreshorten the area between the bunker and green, making the distance appear shorter.

Today, after a night's sleep, we looked at the complex again, and added another small bunker to the left and behind the Big One. Now there's more harmony.

INSERT PHOTO

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

Nr. 2 Greenside bunker

The green has been shaped, and now Tex has gone in and slashed out the greenside bunker. I say slashed because we don't want the bunkers looking like they were too much the product of a big machine. So, we carve out the raw form, and leave the remainder to handwork and the bunker rake.

How the bunkers are finished after the grass grows in will really determine how "machined" they will look.

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

Comparison photos 4 Tee

Before I arrived the previous construction company had piled the highly organic material where the tees should go. Not the stuff to build tees from. The photo reveals how well these piles were growing last spring.

Building this area was a struggle

I'd had a pond scraped around existing rushes, the tees surrounded buffering water on one, two, or three sides, and what I like best was having the pathway meander through the trees; a nice nature walk. Otherwise there would have had an autobahn alongside the tees.

INSERT PHOTOS

Gone golfing with visitors

Kai's father came to visit with a group of friends. The same guys that visited last year about this time. A lot has changed, but one thing that didn't was the evening of stories, drinks, laughs and endless food.

Today, the lot of us... a little hungover... headed to play golf. It seems only the drivers were awake for the journey to and from the course.

Kippis (Cheers)!

We had some rain recently so there isn't a lot the guys can do... pretty good timing to go golfing.

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

Topsoiling the banks of 7 tees

The back tee on 7 is in the elbow of the river. The tee has bPublish Posteen built up about 1.6 meters (5 feet). Today Martin and Jin Ling brought in topsoil for the banks, raked it out and seeded it.

It will be fun getting rootzone (the sand-soil mixture which the grass will grow in) to this isolated tee.

INSERT PHOTO

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

Bringing in replacements

When The Monument was created by the previous construction company, they stripped away all the topsoil in the process. Where it went nobody knows. Perhaps they sold it.

In any event, that area, plus some, approximately 2 acres needs topsoil now, so we're brining it in from one of our nearby stockpiles.

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

Routing Changes

Since my arrival, I've been pushing for the 9th hole to be changed to a short par-3 from a short par-4.

I think the hole as a par-3 is vastly superior because:

1. You get a better, more spectacular angle and view of the sandy gorge. Played as a par-4 you don't get this view, unless you accidentally lay-up to the very edge of the canyon. (INSERT COMPARISON PHOTOS)
   
2. Everyone gets to tee up the ball and knows the exact distance.
3. Women would have a far easier time; a 70 to 80-meter shot, from the edge of the canyon. Played as a par-4 most women would play it as follows: tee shot, pitch to layup, and a much longer approach to the green from a fairway lie... somewhere about 90 to 120 meters. The average female hits the ball about 100 meters from the tee, so this hole as a par-4 is next to impossible for most.
4. Golfers have to fit their tee shot into a slot when played as a par-4. If they don't they're screwed.
   

The arguments against the par-3 is the walk from 8 green to the tees for the par-3 9th. Less than 2-minutes; about 200 meters maximum. I value excellent holes over shorter walks, though you'd love to do both. In this instance it doesn't fit.

With that in mind, we've spoken about changing the outing so the 8th would be a short par-4 on the fairway side of the canyon, followed by the par-3 I'd suggested. This is an even better solution.

Let's see what happens.

INSERT SIMPLE ROUTING SKETCH

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

Odds and Ends

The tees on 8 and 11 are being ringed, fairways and the 9th green are being grubbed. Not an eventful day of new exciting work, just grinding away.

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

Rain Delay

It's Sunday, and we'd usually be out in the field for some hours work, but we're taking it easy today due to the onslaught of rain.

Let's hope it's not the start of a repeat of last year.

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

Ringing the tees

Today topsoil has been placed around the tees on 11. On holes 2, 8, 11, 15, 17 the tees will be surrounded by sand on 2 to 4 sides. The banks will be slashed and gashed, so the forms are raw and broken, then we'll flash sand up some of the banks.

It's another bit of construction work you can't draw plans for. We're building, evaluating as we go, and editing when necessary.

INSERT PHOTO OF TEES

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

Building 13 Tee

Today Tex was building the tees on 13.

It's along the river, with the back tee in the corner of a turn. Getting material back there has required a lot of patience.

INSERT PHOTO OF TEE.

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

Another wall of sorts

The Monument (to stupidity) was something the previous construction company created. They were supposed to make a big cut for the 8th green and drive that material for filling other areas.

Somehow they figured it was cheaper to move material twice????????????? They pushed out an area of about 50meters by 50m by 1.5 meters into a mountain. That's... The Monument (to stupidity). We spent a few hours driving away the monument to The Buffer Wall on Hole 5 and left about 30% in its place.

As we drove the clay away a bank was created and from that came the spark of an idea. We'd used similar banks on Holes 6 and 7, to the right of the first half of Hole 8... so now seeing this product of The Monument we'd use the concept again.

Today Tex is creating an extension to this new bank.

INSERT PHOTO OF BANK

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

12 Green Shaped

The 12th is a short par-5 set into the quarry. Sand banks some 2 to 3 meters high will frame the length of the hole.

Golfers will tee off from up high, the fairway set into the quarry. The second shot can be played through the gap in the quarry or high to the left where the fairway will meander. From there it's a pitch (for those that don't go for it in two) to a rolling green. From the pitch angle the green will be set behind a ridge and fall away. For those attacking directly over the ridge of bunkers (natural as they're part of the old quarry) the green will slope from left to right.

INSERT SKETCH AND PHOTOS

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

The Islands Experiment

We constructed islands and will be constructing more in the future in the seas of exposed sand. What we had started building has influenced the style of what how we've gone about creating the islands. They are a mix of heights (within the islands too), and shapes but the general form is boxy.
I had Tex, the excavator operator extraordinaire take the piles of dirt placed throughout the waste in front of 8 and 11 tees and with a few general ideas let him do his thing. They looked pretty angular when they were spread, slashed and slammed... but we knew they'd emerge wholly different after they'd been raked out.

This is only part 1. After they've been planted with dunes grasses and seeded with Fescue, we'll go back in and chunk out areas with shovels, pick axes and rakes. Then flash sand in the exposed areas.

INSERT SCAN OF SKETCH
The following sketch over the photo shows the islands partially transplanted with dunes and with the fescue starting to grow.

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

Removing topsoil from around 15 Tees. Surprise!

In front and to the left of 15 is a wetland. We are stripping the topsoil around the tees to reveal sand, and as we dig this material out we're seeing that the topsoil layer is thicker and thicker. About a meter at its deepest. The farmers must have filled this area over the years to bridge the properties and win a little extra farm land. By accident, the elevation change has made the area around the tees more dramatic... and left us with a new question to answer.

Do we flash the sand up the new bank or do we rip the bank down to the height of the wetland and let it creep a little up the sandy waste?

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

Waste-d

Today the Cowboy did some road cleaning and stripped topsoil from around the tees on 15. This area, about 70 meters long (could be 300 meters long if connected to the tees on 12 and the fairway waste areas) will be one big sandy waste. Wasn't planned exactly so, but like most things here... if we see something to expand upon and it fits, we go ahead and do it. We have maximum flexibility, are open to improving general concepts. Fact is, the greens have been shaped only on general ideas; not one has been staked for contours.

The only constant in the entire scheme is the routing, and even that has seen changes in several green and tee positions.

I have sketched dozens upon dozens of concepts for reference. Ideas that give the spark for a general concept. Now that we've got some stuff built, other holes are on the verge of being shaped or completed I'll start publishing these sketches and compare them to the finished product.

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

Ringing the bunkers with topsoil.

Today the bunkers have had topsoil placed along and inside the bunkers. We are transplanting dunes grasses, will seed the open soils with fescue and see what comes out. After growth has been established the forms will be finalized.

Sometimes building these things is painful. Knowing they are critical to the aesthetic of the golf course, you want the features to look wholly individual, and you want them to tie into everything around. It would be easy to just dig a hole and grass them to the bottom, leaving a flattish sole as has been done on thousands of projects by lazy architects during the past 20-years. Hey! That’s an idea… Not.

(Should have used the last bit of this as an April Fool’s (April 1) post.

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

JCB today, gone tomorrow

This company is not known for the quality of their construction equipment. How we ended up with one I’ll never know. We had the JCB mini-excavator delivered just a couple days ago, and today it doesn’t work. Enter a Volvo mini-excavator of the same size.

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

The Final Pass on 11 Fairway

Like 15, about 100 meters on 11 had to be finished before the irrigation team could go in, and today that was completed.

Now the guys can put in the irrigation mainline on 11.

An die Arrrrrrrbeit!

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

Transplanting

We have dune grasses along the banks of the river and in other sandy areas throughout the property. Behind the 7th green we carved out a bunker from these grasses, and created some spines (capes and bays) from native soil. These spines were covered in the dunes grass transplanted by Tadek and Janosh… and now the bunkers look great. As they grow thicker, they’ll look even better.

This “transplanting” is something we are looking at doing for most of the fairway bunkers and waste areas.

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

Great weather. 16 and sunny. Simply beautiful.

No that’s not an April Fool’s joke.

The bank along the 8th fairway was raked and seeded today, just in time for the forecasted showers. We have also cleaned around the catch basin on several holes, so the water can make a clean pass into them.

Let’s hope the forecast was wrong, an April Fool’s joke, but it looks like a solid wall of wet weather coming our way.

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