Notley's Landing CC (Dream Team S10 - Team Petty)
Mar 13, 2024 23:33:13 GMT -5
blueblood1995, sroel908, and 16 more like this
Post by trailducker on Mar 13, 2024 23:33:13 GMT -5
Welcome to Notley’s Landing C.C. My entry in the Season 10 Dream Team Competition on Pithy’s plot for Team Gamesdecent.
Course Narrative:
During his legendary run from 1919-1930 of course design across the state of California, George C. Thomas designed and oversaw the construction of Notley’s Landing Country Club in 1922. Located in the hamlet of the same name just off the Pacific Ocean in the Big Sur region, the course was a not-so-well-known strategic gem along the Monterey Peninsula. Other courses in the area with more notoriety received a lot of attention but Notley’s Landing was a course that people in the know could say “yeah, but have you played…”
However, over the years the Country Club fell victim to mismanagement. Trees were allowed to suffocate the playing corridors. The greens lost their shape as the edges were mowed in due to poor course maintenance techniques. Retaining walls and non-native flowers were thrown in on tee boxes and around the course that hid a lot of the natural features and stripped the course of its unique attributes. With membership dwindling the course ownership raised membership fees and lowered maintenance budget leading to more disarray.
The course was at risk of being demolished for a large community park in the newly planned housing development surrounding the course; when an unluckily hero stepped in. An ownership group, headlined by comedian Bill Murray purchased the course with a desire to revive it back to its original charm while also modernizing the course. The ownership ground planned for the course to be a semi-private model with times of the day devoted to members and other times open to the public. In a big surprise Bill hired up and coming course designer TrailDucker as the course architect. TrailDucker won him over with a vision to revitalize the course by significantly reducing the tree lines, expanding both fairways and greens, refurbishing the bunkers to the George Thomas chewed edges style and bringing the deep ravines running through the course back to life. Original tees were kept as the front tees and a further back tees were added to most holes to bring the classic up to the new age. The little used (and expensive to maintain) driving range was given back to the community as a park extending out to the ocean. The old and decaying clubhouse was demolished and a new modern clubhouse built in its place.
TrailDucker’s visual design of Notley’s Landing has a visual dichotomy as you make your way through the exciting landscape. There is a top portion of the course lined with Monterey pines and cypress trees the region is known for. Aside from some native grasses along the tree lines this top portion is much more manicured with bushy, yet structured bunker lips along the rough edged bunkers refurbished to Thomas’ original style. But below the top portion are deep ravines and winding creek that the course wraps around, over and into during the round. This ravine is allowed to be its own thriving ecosystem, left more overgrown and provides vibrant flashes of color to the more muted color palette of the top portion.
The Course:
The design of the course is meant to challenge a lot of shot types and shot shapes throughout the round. The Fairways are usually pretty wide and forgiving but to find the preferred angle to the green you usually are fighting against the land or fighting off hazards to get there. When you don’t make the preferred landing zones you will still be in the fairway more times then not, but probably not a flat lie and a lot of times a lie sloping in a way that promotes a shot direction the opposite of the one you want. Pars should be pretty easy but birdies can be more elusive.
DISCLAIMER: I used the Festuca plant on my bunker lips for its defined and unique look (modeled after LACC). HB gave this plant a funky characteristic where they have a hitbox like hitting a rock and make a crack sound like hitting a tree. Needless to say if you do hit them you may get some funky bounces. But just be mindful of that and if you end up with them in front of you in a fairway bunker you may want to club down to a club with a higher trajectory or the ball may bounce back towards you. It does make the bunkers a bit more of a hazard. If you get a bad bounce off them just blame Sleepypanda7 . We nicknamed them "Concrete Bushes".
The Plot:
1. Club Property - There are three zones to this plot that Pithy made. A central “normal” zone where land costs 1 for 1 swapping land. An upper “subprime” zone across the road where land costs half the price as normal land. And lastly as you move to the ocean side cliffs is a strip of “prime” zone where land costs twice as much as the normal zone. The course itself was the Normal zone enclosed by the roads and a portion of the prime zone extending to the coastal cliffs. Unused Prime zone is to be a real estate housing development.
To me, the best land though was in the normal zone and although ocean cliffs are always an exciting feature, the land around it wasn’t; so I chose to forgo using it. I took a strip of prime land where my second hole is and gave a much larger section of prime land to the developers as a community park (shown behind my clubhouse area). The rest of the land not used by the golf course is slated to be real estate housing.
2. Walkability - Tee markers must be 50 feet from the nearest edge of the Green.. We are allowed to break this rule three times but even then the Tees must be within 100 Feet from the nearest edge of the Green.
The walks between Holes 6 to 7, 9 to 10 and 16 to 17 are my walks above 50 feet but still under 100 each.
3. Public Roads - There are three roads that enclose the main portion of the course that we were not allowed to move and crossing the road is only allowed in between holes.
I had no need to cross the roads on my design so they just set the borders of my course on three sides.
4. Contiguous Golf Course - There are not allowed to be any islands of home real estate surrounded by the golf course and vice versa.
I wouldn’t have done that anyway. But Check.
5. Clubhouse, Road Access, Amenities - There was no real requirement on the clubhouse besides that it must be appropriate for a private club. There must be a road access to the clubhouse from one of the main roads. The developer wants at least two Tennis Courts and those must exist near the clubhouse. Parking requirements are 900 sq yards (30x30) minimum. There should be a large Practice green of at least 800 sq yards minimum. Other facility amenities are not required and up to the designer.
Tennis Courts: Check, Parking: Check, Putting Green: Check, Dope Modern Club House: Check
6. Sculpting and other Property Alterations - We were not allowed to make any big changes of 10 feet or over along the coast line. We were allowed to make sculpting alterations throughout the property as needed but suggested as little as possible and any major changes a change in the opposite direction of the same amount elsewhere (so if you dig an area 10 feet down you just move that direct to somewhere else you move up 10’ feet).
All of the Green Sites and Tee sites were found. I did as minimal of sculpting along the fairways as possible. Any dirt excavated in my bunkers could be repurposed to make greens playable and prop up tee boxes. Any non-green/tee/bunker movement was to prioritize playability and visibility and was done intentionally and minimally.
Thank You to the captain gamesdecent and fellow teammates blindwolfgolf , InThisStyle , jcollick and tpetro for all your input and help on this. The course I would have made on my own would have pale in comparison. Thank You PithyDoctorG for such a fun plot that had some sneaky challenges to it not very obvious when you first got into it, but really pushed me personally.
I hope everyone enjoys their rounds!
GO TEAM PETTTTTY!
Course Narrative:
During his legendary run from 1919-1930 of course design across the state of California, George C. Thomas designed and oversaw the construction of Notley’s Landing Country Club in 1922. Located in the hamlet of the same name just off the Pacific Ocean in the Big Sur region, the course was a not-so-well-known strategic gem along the Monterey Peninsula. Other courses in the area with more notoriety received a lot of attention but Notley’s Landing was a course that people in the know could say “yeah, but have you played…”
However, over the years the Country Club fell victim to mismanagement. Trees were allowed to suffocate the playing corridors. The greens lost their shape as the edges were mowed in due to poor course maintenance techniques. Retaining walls and non-native flowers were thrown in on tee boxes and around the course that hid a lot of the natural features and stripped the course of its unique attributes. With membership dwindling the course ownership raised membership fees and lowered maintenance budget leading to more disarray.
The course was at risk of being demolished for a large community park in the newly planned housing development surrounding the course; when an unluckily hero stepped in. An ownership group, headlined by comedian Bill Murray purchased the course with a desire to revive it back to its original charm while also modernizing the course. The ownership ground planned for the course to be a semi-private model with times of the day devoted to members and other times open to the public. In a big surprise Bill hired up and coming course designer TrailDucker as the course architect. TrailDucker won him over with a vision to revitalize the course by significantly reducing the tree lines, expanding both fairways and greens, refurbishing the bunkers to the George Thomas chewed edges style and bringing the deep ravines running through the course back to life. Original tees were kept as the front tees and a further back tees were added to most holes to bring the classic up to the new age. The little used (and expensive to maintain) driving range was given back to the community as a park extending out to the ocean. The old and decaying clubhouse was demolished and a new modern clubhouse built in its place.
TrailDucker’s visual design of Notley’s Landing has a visual dichotomy as you make your way through the exciting landscape. There is a top portion of the course lined with Monterey pines and cypress trees the region is known for. Aside from some native grasses along the tree lines this top portion is much more manicured with bushy, yet structured bunker lips along the rough edged bunkers refurbished to Thomas’ original style. But below the top portion are deep ravines and winding creek that the course wraps around, over and into during the round. This ravine is allowed to be its own thriving ecosystem, left more overgrown and provides vibrant flashes of color to the more muted color palette of the top portion.
The Course:
The design of the course is meant to challenge a lot of shot types and shot shapes throughout the round. The Fairways are usually pretty wide and forgiving but to find the preferred angle to the green you usually are fighting against the land or fighting off hazards to get there. When you don’t make the preferred landing zones you will still be in the fairway more times then not, but probably not a flat lie and a lot of times a lie sloping in a way that promotes a shot direction the opposite of the one you want. Pars should be pretty easy but birdies can be more elusive.
DISCLAIMER: I used the Festuca plant on my bunker lips for its defined and unique look (modeled after LACC). HB gave this plant a funky characteristic where they have a hitbox like hitting a rock and make a crack sound like hitting a tree. Needless to say if you do hit them you may get some funky bounces. But just be mindful of that and if you end up with them in front of you in a fairway bunker you may want to club down to a club with a higher trajectory or the ball may bounce back towards you. It does make the bunkers a bit more of a hazard. If you get a bad bounce off them just blame Sleepypanda7 . We nicknamed them "Concrete Bushes".
The Plot:
1. Club Property - There are three zones to this plot that Pithy made. A central “normal” zone where land costs 1 for 1 swapping land. An upper “subprime” zone across the road where land costs half the price as normal land. And lastly as you move to the ocean side cliffs is a strip of “prime” zone where land costs twice as much as the normal zone. The course itself was the Normal zone enclosed by the roads and a portion of the prime zone extending to the coastal cliffs. Unused Prime zone is to be a real estate housing development.
To me, the best land though was in the normal zone and although ocean cliffs are always an exciting feature, the land around it wasn’t; so I chose to forgo using it. I took a strip of prime land where my second hole is and gave a much larger section of prime land to the developers as a community park (shown behind my clubhouse area). The rest of the land not used by the golf course is slated to be real estate housing.
2. Walkability - Tee markers must be 50 feet from the nearest edge of the Green.. We are allowed to break this rule three times but even then the Tees must be within 100 Feet from the nearest edge of the Green.
The walks between Holes 6 to 7, 9 to 10 and 16 to 17 are my walks above 50 feet but still under 100 each.
3. Public Roads - There are three roads that enclose the main portion of the course that we were not allowed to move and crossing the road is only allowed in between holes.
I had no need to cross the roads on my design so they just set the borders of my course on three sides.
4. Contiguous Golf Course - There are not allowed to be any islands of home real estate surrounded by the golf course and vice versa.
I wouldn’t have done that anyway. But Check.
5. Clubhouse, Road Access, Amenities - There was no real requirement on the clubhouse besides that it must be appropriate for a private club. There must be a road access to the clubhouse from one of the main roads. The developer wants at least two Tennis Courts and those must exist near the clubhouse. Parking requirements are 900 sq yards (30x30) minimum. There should be a large Practice green of at least 800 sq yards minimum. Other facility amenities are not required and up to the designer.
Tennis Courts: Check, Parking: Check, Putting Green: Check, Dope Modern Club House: Check
6. Sculpting and other Property Alterations - We were not allowed to make any big changes of 10 feet or over along the coast line. We were allowed to make sculpting alterations throughout the property as needed but suggested as little as possible and any major changes a change in the opposite direction of the same amount elsewhere (so if you dig an area 10 feet down you just move that direct to somewhere else you move up 10’ feet).
All of the Green Sites and Tee sites were found. I did as minimal of sculpting along the fairways as possible. Any dirt excavated in my bunkers could be repurposed to make greens playable and prop up tee boxes. Any non-green/tee/bunker movement was to prioritize playability and visibility and was done intentionally and minimally.
Thank You to the captain gamesdecent and fellow teammates blindwolfgolf , InThisStyle , jcollick and tpetro for all your input and help on this. The course I would have made on my own would have pale in comparison. Thank You PithyDoctorG for such a fun plot that had some sneaky challenges to it not very obvious when you first got into it, but really pushed me personally.
I hope everyone enjoys their rounds!
GO TEAM PETTTTTY!