Sand Valley Golf; Design and Construction Blog: Going into Goat's Valley

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.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Going into Goat's Valley

This was a slash out of the landscape when I in arrived in April 2007. It was the first place we began working, and was supposed to be a long cut up the 18th fairway. Well, as anyone reading this blog knows by now... the original plans were trashed, and the scheme for this hole too.

We moved the green, we moved the tees, and the long cut never materialized. Instead I took the start of the cut, and turned it into a wild, rugged canyon, called Goat's Valley. It's called Goat's Valley because the plan is to have the goat's on the hill near Green 1, and in this valley which connects to it.

Today we're in Goat's, edging the forms, hauling the spoils and getting it ready for sand.