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Post by PithyDoctorG on Feb 18, 2018 14:48:35 GMT -5
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Post by jeffbdvs on Feb 19, 2018 19:01:30 GMT -5
Really nice work! You've caught the spirit and intent of the original designers IMO.
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Post by rjwils30 on Feb 20, 2018 1:47:54 GMT -5
This looks great. Wouldn t mind seeing some of those funky bunkers that show up in the black and whites!
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Post by PithyDoctorG on Feb 20, 2018 12:33:12 GMT -5
This looks great. Wouldn t mind seeing some of those funky bunkers that show up in the black and whites! I may try changing them. I designed the bunkers from the hand-drawn map in the book, which I think was based on an aerial from some years after the course was open (1930s maybe? I think the photos are from earlier). I managed to find find a few more old photos online after some deep searching. I couldn't get a good screenshot showing the foreground bunker in the first pic, but it is there. The par 3 over the lake was finished before I found the picture (which isn't a very good one). Playtested the heck out of it so I'm not going to make any significant changes at this point (plus I think it looks nice; obviously need to do some planting along the shoreline still).
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Post by rjwils30 on Feb 21, 2018 12:09:38 GMT -5
Yeah it looks really nice. Really old world natural feel the holes.
Look forward to playing it.
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Post by PithyDoctorG on Feb 23, 2018 22:06:16 GMT -5
Last preview pic. I saved the most iconic hole for last--the 16th. theclv24 has an adaptation of this hole on his excellent Doak Island Resort. You'll probably notice some differences between the old picture and the screenshot. The green in the picture does not look much like the diagram from Thomas's book. The diagrammed hole has the raised fairway to the left and fairway short of the green, which I kept. The back bunkers are not in the diagrammed hole but appear to be present in some iteration of the real hole--I decided to put them there because I think they frame the green well (and the thought of having a downhill bunker shot and skulling it into the barranca made me chuckle). Got all the holes laid out and mostly sculpted. Just need to go around and tidy up and do some detail planting. Also need to do lots of planting in the barranca, which runs along one entire side of the plot (fun times). Hoping to make progress this weekend.
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Post by theclv24 on Feb 26, 2018 11:05:13 GMT -5
Last preview pic. I saved the most iconic hole for last--the 16th. theclv24 has an adaptation of this hole on his excellent Doak Island Resort. You'll probably notice some differences between the old picture and the screenshot. The green in the picture does not look much like the diagram from Thomas's book. The diagrammed hole has the raised fairway to the left and fairway short of the green, which I kept. The back bunkers are not in the diagrammed hole but appear to be present in some iteration of the real hole--I decided to put them there because I think they frame the green well (and the thought of having a downhill bunker shot and skulling it into the barranca made me chuckle). Got all the holes laid out and mostly sculpted. Just need to go around and tidy up and do some detail planting. Also need to do lots of planting in the barranca, which runs along one entire side of the plot (fun times). Hoping to make progress this weekend. I was waiting on this hole! I remember how much it baffled me when I was trying to find info on it. I went back and found my old HB post describing the process: This hole just completely baffled me for awhile. I looked up La Cumbre, studied it on Google Earth, and just could not find this hole. I looked at the current 16th hole and it looked nothing like this. I tried to find info on changes to La Cumbre throughout history and could only find that Geoff Shackelford headed a restoration project on the course's bunkers. Finally something clicked when I looked at Doak's drawing and realized that it had been based on Goerge Thomas' 1927 book Golf Architecture in America. I realized the possibility of this hole no longer existing. After a little more refined searching, I hit the jackpot at Golf Club Atlas. The info that I needed was in a book called The Missing Links. Luckily, this interview with the author revealed everything that I needed: golfclubatlas.com/feature-interview/daniel-wexler-march-2003/8. You also profile Thomas & Bell’s famous work at La Cumbre. Was this course really as good as advertised?
Definitely. We’ll probably never know whose decision it was to ravage the place – or why – but that has to be one of the saddest stories in the history of golf design. The three holes routed around the lake were justifiably famous, but every hole was memorable in one way or another. And the 16th, of course, was surely among the most amazing par fours ever built. To me, La Cumbre had the creativity, the sheer originality, of Bel-Air and a lot of the challenge of Riviera or Los Angeles. Definitely a major loss.
9. How much of La Cumbre could be re-captured today if the club was so inclined? Or has housing extinguished all hope?
Maybe a little more than half. Housing or other construction has eaten up the south-central section of the course, wiping out holes like 5, 8, 9, 11, 12 & 15, plus the tiny 17th. The barranca that once flanked the property’s eastern edge has been largely filled in, so rebuilding the All-World 16th would be unbelievably expensive. Perhaps the best news is that the famous lake-encircling holes (#s 2, 3 & 4) could potentially be reestablished– but someone would have to figure a way to sink the absurd island green that’s been added to the 3rd. Talk about a hole that didn’t need ‘improving.’
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Post by PithyDoctorG on Feb 26, 2018 12:41:25 GMT -5
Missing Links and its sequel, Lost Links (where I got most of the pictures), are absolute treasure troves of info on defunct golf courses, complete with pictures and drawings. I bought them when they first came out when I was in high school and now I'm in my 30s and I still find myself opening them up fairly often. Given that the "Golden Age" of golf architecture was immediately followed by the Depression, it's perhaps unsurprising that some amazing golf courses have been lost. Shackelford's blog posts on the LaCumbre bunker restoration was also a helpful source of info on what the club was like way back then along with some old photos.
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Post by PithyDoctorG on Mar 21, 2018 6:03:41 GMT -5
Published a beta version. If you are so inclined, give it a go and let me know if anything is off. It may take me a while to give this the thorough playtesting it needs. The name is "PLCCbeta1"
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