Green plan sketches

Yesterday's thread hit on the greens production method and efficiency at Sand Valley. Today Ive posted some "Conceptual Illustrations" for the 2nd green... you can call it thinking on paper. Each hole has an array of such ideas. The last illustration shows how the green was eventually built. With these sketches I haven't put in elevations. I'm building them myself, so I'm feeling the situation as I go. Funny enough, I don't bring these into the field with me; instead i reference them before I leave and then let moment influence the end result.

With this hole we've put a bunker down the right side of the entire fairway. Play tight and the green opens to you. Play left and you'll have a shallower, less receptive target. That was the whole goal with this green. Even if we didn't put any bunkers left of the green, we wanted to have the golfer faced with a significantly more difficult approach.

In the end we added one small bunker, about 6 feet deep cut into the center left of the green, and two bunkers in front of the greenside bunker. The "two bunkers" create dead space, creating an illusion the green is closer than it really is.

Bottom photo: The green as it was constructed. It doesn't resemble any of the "Conceptual Illustrations" closely, but reflects the major ideas of a couple.

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