Maximum Flexibility and The Devil is in the Detail

Along the right of fairway 2 there was no waste area planned. We found sand off the tee and near the green and decided it’s ideal for a waste area, both aesthetically and strategically.

Today some test holes were dug between the greensite and landing area. Off the tee to the turning point we knew it was all nice and sandy. Up by the green and 100 meters back we knew it was all nice and sandy too. Between these two areas...Surprise! Surprise!... we have a 30cm (1 foot) layer of sand-sandy clay atop a thick layer of clay. Surprise! Surprise!

Because we are designing as we go we’ve decided to just strip the topsoil, leave the thin sand layer exposed and seed it. The result will be a mix of sand and grass separating the two waste areas.

There are decisions of this nature to be made on a daily basis. Shall we do this? Do that? Here’s an opportunity? Stop here, look at this. Should it be bigger, smaller, stronger, or softer? This is why the best courses have an architect present who has the authority to make sweeping alterations. He can evaluate all the elements, look at them in perspective of the entire project and make timely decisions. Otherwise you leave it to the builders, who usually aren’t golfers and want to get the project finished as soon as possible. And hey, if the architect isn’t around to care about the details, why should the builder?

Details. Devil. The pursuit of excellence. The investment of time. It's hard work, not a part-time hobby.

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

Pudding Anyone?

This is why we work the hours we do. We have to take advantage of every good day just in case we get a summer like this one.

Last night the golf course got slaughtered by rain and most of our roads resemble pudding. Luckily we have a couple corners where guys can get some work done.

Hey! Who ordered the rain anyway?

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

Fast Week and a Little Humor… Very Little

Hard to believe but it’s Friday again, a signal for most that the work week is coming to a close. Not so in the golf construction business, as this blog makes evident. We’re at it whenever we can, but some fortunate guys do work a mere 5 and a half days, 70+ hour work weeks. So when they’re finished today they still have 7 hours work to look forward to tomorrow.

So their wives can go shopping... 

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

Floating

Today we began dragging a wooden frame over the 6th and 7th fairways. The wooden frame knocks down small bumps, collects soil, and deposits the soil in depressions. Driven around in a circular fashion, it smooths out the surface; like melting a rough ice cube.

After floating, the rough surface comes to life, revealing a seamless landscape, and it was exciting to see the character of these fairways emerge, resembling rough seas.

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

Bunker Wars

What’s fun with this project is the banter with Kai, a golf architecture aficionado. We come from two totally different perspectives on a couple things, but we have tons in common. We love width for the variety in attacking the hole it offers, and we are both adamant believers hard, dry, fast conditions offer the most interesting golf...by miles.

Where we differ is on bunker styles. I’ve seen and been though the 1980’s and 1990’s rage with grass faced bunkers. It was done by everyone. I’ve done one course with such bunkers, and then gravitated to a variety of flash faced bunker styles. I’m flexible and would do grass faced bunkers again if it was the best fit for site, climate and budget, and if it helped differentiate the course from the competition; existing and future, but I don’t see that here. Because the grass faced bunkers have been done from Berlin to Bangkok and back, along with dirt mounds everywhere. I suggested we go with a raw, rugged, low maintenance hand-crafted look. Kai likes “steep and deep” pits.

We’re still fighting, but it’s fun, and we get a lot of laughs out of it. My favorite line of his is “lippy lips”, for the mounds needed to set a flashed faced bunker into. We’re going to end up with something different, as we’ve explored all manner of bunkers. Some are blowouts from dunes, some will be somewhat flashed, and some will be grassed down, some will be long and winding trenches. We’re fighting about the art, and that’s a good thing.

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

Rain Reduced Work

Today it rained and we only had work for that what was wet. We had the drainage crew slopping around yesterday when it was dry, so a little rain won’t bother their effort to put in the mainline cutting through and draining fairways 1, 18 and 17.

The other playground was the end of the wetland on 4. Two excavators flopped material to The Wall for a handful of hours.

Soon we will be running out of work during such periods.

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

Visitors from Hamburg

Today we had 8 superintendents from Hamburg with the Barenburg seed supplier visit the site. We discussed the construction methods, materials used, looked at a couple holes, greens and then on their way they went.

They were astonished at the lack of grading stakes. We are designing in the field, as so many of the great courses were built. There are stakes as guides when we need them, but the great thing here is we have maximum flexibility to pursue the best solutions as we build. What's better than an architect in a bulldozer, shaping and refining ideas as he goes?

Plans are restrictive documents that offer little to no flexibility. We work with maximum flexibility, always thinking about the work ahead and completed. That's why I only work on one project at a time. With more projects you're hoping someone else gets it right.

I firmly believe the worst thing for a developer is to end up with what was planned on paper. Such courses look artificial, and that is the problem with a lot of modern architecture. It's not a labor of love, but a project to get finished. The result: repetition and safe (boring) designs abound.

Our method, allowing maximum flexibility is faster because we aren't building and waiting for an architect to edit the design every week, month or quarter. I'll write more about this in the future, but here... when we're happy, we know it, and move on. That's speed and excellence combined.

To the Hamburg guys, please say “Hi” to Norbert at Falkenstein for me.

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