When we started fixing the mistakes of the previous builder last year, the theme for the place wasn't clear. It came to being bit by bit.
Upon finishing the fill for the 6th and 7th holes, I'd left banks as a clean transition to the areas below. These combined with the banks of the river, one dividing 13 fairway, and the 20 plus meter bank splitting the property had entrenched one part of the design. Clean banks. They can be found on 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 15, and 18 in some form or another.
A second theme was "flat top mounds". We have created some mounds, but most cone into play. They aren't designed as decorations to separate holes. The majority of mounds we have created tend to be flat on top. More on that for a future post.
Bunkers will be interesting. We have created the initial forms, but the final forms will be worked out in the field after the bunkers have a significant amount of growth.
Tony Ristola
agolfarchitect.com
agolfarchitect@yahoo.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.
Associated Blogs
Blog Archive
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.
