Revival Club - mctrees02 RDC course

[mctrees02]

Not too much to share so far.  I have been building plots in a few different themes but haven't yet settled on one.  I've started looking for green sites on a few and, if that leads to a worthwhile routing, I may let that drive the direction I will go with this project.  The biggest decision I need to make is whether or not I want to build a coastal course.  

These are my current plots...

Delta (trees are turned off while I search for green sites but will likely bring them back in)



Highlands



Countryside



Steppe (not sure I want to take this coastal as I'm not a big fan of the manufactured look found in places such as Cabo San Lucas)

[mctrees02]

While sitting through my third zoom call this morning, I scribbled out an idea for 9 green, 18 hole course.  After my first course had so much space in between holes that it required a lot of work (that's above my pay grade) to not leave a bunch of bland sightlines, I know I want to put together a tighter routing this time out.  

This one isn't reversible (yet) but it could give me a routing where no two tee shots are on the same angle while also keeping any holes from crossing over.  It also happened to bring 9 and 18 back to the clubhouse.  Now will this type of routing make any practical sense on land??  Time will tell...  

[Oscar C]

Hi there

As a new designer I would steer clear of desert or steppe. They are just not easy to design in when starting out. Even something as trivial as being able to see the measure lines is a chore.

Go coastal in highlands or delta is my advice.

[mctrees02]

I went green hunting on countryside this morning and really like some of what I've found so far.  One green laid down perfectly for a Lion's Mouth and is begging to have a blowout bunker short right so I quickly splined something in for later.  

There's about 100' of elevation change from the ridge to the bottom in just over 500 yards so I'll have to soften that out a bit lest I end up with a driveable 450yd hole and/or a bunch of holes running across the ridge with 20 to 30 ft of sidehill movement in the fairways 

[mvpmanatee]

I am going countryside as well. Used to be a terrible theme in my experience but with the ability to plant any trees, it's my favorite!

[mctrees02]

I started routing a few holes and dropped down a fairway on the green site I'm most excited about so far.  

[mctrees02]

I think I finally had a bit of a breakthrough this morning in solving my routing.  I have 5 greens that I absolutely love but was getting stuck getting out of them while keeping a logical routing in tact.

 These three images are a progression of my routing plans.  The first two routings started with a long par 3 which I wasn't too keen on.  It also had a bunch of holes right up against each other as I was trying to get back and forth across the ridge and both left with a pretty underwhelming finish.  The third routing allows me to start with a long, downhill par 5 that will play into a massive punchbowl green to get rounds off to a good start.  It then allows me to quickly get to hole 5 which is an elevated green site that provides a view across the entire property. 

It should also provide a great finish with a stellar par 3 14th, driveable 15th, a challenging 16th, a wild par 3 green on 17 and what better turn out to be a gorgeous finish on the long downhill par 4 18th.  This is the hole I provided a picture of earlier with the lions mouth and blowout bunker just sitting there waiting for a golf hole to be laid on top.


I'll have to re-direct the 3rd hole so it's not a 150yd transfer from the 2nd green but that shouldn't be too much of an issue as it's really just a connector hole to 4 & 5.  

With the routing settled, now I can start building the course...

[Leecey]

Getting the routing right is the only thing I've been thinking about so far. I think it's by far the trickiest element!
I'll be really interested to see how the area around 7th green, par 3 8th, 14th and 15th works out in your routing above. Could be a great central core of the course looking at it if you can get the required separation.

[mctrees02]

That's one of my favorite areas of the course because I was able to come in and out of it twice. There's a deep, jagged ridge that runs between those 4 holes but should only come into play on the 15th, a short par 4. Otherwise it sits behind the green on 7, and is roughly 50 yards off tee on both 8 and 14.

I'm really excited about the 5th green because you'll be able to see most of the course from up there after being down in a valley on the first two holes before 3 is a short four playing into the side of a dune and 4 drops gets me across the back side of the ridge to the 5th tee.

[mctrees02]

First two holes are roughed in.  

The first is a 610yd par 5 that plays 40' down into the valley off the tee and then back up the hill to the green.  It can be reached in two using the proper fairway slopes as long as it's not playing into the wind.

It felt a bit odd to use my first hole as a connector hole but it allowed me to get through the bad lighting in one hole and it provides some really cool player shadows for your second shot in the fairway.  Fortunately I was able to only have 3 holes running dead away from the sun (1, 6, and 13). 



The second turns you around and provides a view of 5 or 6 holes.  It is a long par 4 on the card (510yds) but is 80' downhill from tee to green and should result in a driver and mid-iron unless into the wind. The fairway is asking you to play to the middle or right side but the player needs to make a decision on the tee if they want to risk running into the left bunkers for a more favorable approach angle into a green sloping hard from right to left.

I'll apologize in advance for the back right hole location that is to come. 

[mctrees02]

Laid down two more holes this morning.  

The 3rd is a 285yd par 4.  The green sits on small plateau on top of a ridge running off the 5th green and across this hole.  The green runs of on three sides and is defended by an S-curve ridge bisecting the length of a very small green. 





The 4th hole is the big brother of the 3rd in that they both run on a similar line of play but the 4th can play almost 200 yards to a back flag.  Oh and there's one other significant difference...this one has two greens. I initially planned for the hole to play short of the first large left bunker as a drive and pitch hole but that left a 130yd transfer to the 5th tee...and didnt do anything to take advantage of the great terrain and blowout bunkers running along the ridgeline.  

I then moved the green back to the shorter of the two greens but still wasn't satisfied.  I finally built the final green as far up to the ridge as I could take it and, as luck would have it, my tracing and bunker outlines made too much sense not to build two green sites.  Having recently played a society event at Pine Valley, I loved their use of two greens on both 8 and 9 and decided to incorporate them into this course.  

The tee shot is about 45-50' downhill with the shorter green playing about 420 and the longer green 470 to 480.  Picking the correct line into this 75yd wide fairway is the key to having a good view of the green rather than a partially blind approach to a flag stick sitting on the horizon. 

[grovey31]

I like the look of this course so far. It looks to be a very interesting piece of land. If I were to give some unsolicited advice, I would say to make sure there is variety in your green sites. Your plot has a lot of great undulations to utilize so don't be afraid to bench some greens into a hillside or drop them down into a natural bowl or saddle.

With all of that being said, it appears you have a good game plan in place so you shouldn't deviate from that that just for the sake of deviation. Also, I really like the decision to use a good amount of width. When you have large/sever undulations, you need wide fairways to accommodate them. It also help with your scale and sense of tie-ins with your environment.

[mctrees02]

Thanks grovey31 .  I originally routed the 3rd green to the left in a bowl left of where it was now but I couldn't get the green contours to be anything close to realistic when it had a 10-12' drop coming in from left and another 8-9' coming in from the right.  It was just too narrow of a half pipe and I'm trying to do as little sculpting of fairways and rough as possible with this course.  It may not reach Sand Hills level of zero ground movement besides green sculpting...but I'm trying to push myself on how natural of a course I can build on the land.  Even with the green sites, I'm marking out the natural contours of the land first, flattening the green and then building those contours back in at a level where the greens can hold approaches and allow putts to be made. 

[mctrees02]

I haven't been in the designer much in the past few weeks as I've been focused on TGCT qualifying as well as another society I'm a part of.  I've also kicked the tires on two delta plots but found myself coming back to this one today.  
The 5th hole is now laid down with basic green contours in place.  I originally planned this as a two shot par 5 but a reroute of the 6th hole today lead to me moving the tee up a bit on 5 so now we have a long par 4 that plays up to a green perched at the top of the ridge you've spent the last 4 holes playing around.  I think I prefer this as a long, uphill 4 because the giant swale that lies 80-120yds short of the green doesn't offer a viable layup area should your drive find the heavy rough.  

As your approach flies towards the green, you'll be able to see most, if not all, of the holes that lie ahead.  I'm intrigued to see how that view shapes up as I lay down more surfaces.

[mctrees02]

A few updates this week as I try to get through the two holes I don't really love.

Hole 6 has shifted from a long 4 to a really long 5 and now back to a more medium length 4 where you have the option to bite off as much of the dogleg as you want with a tee shot over a massive waste area. The further right you play off the tee, the more you'll bring the tiny pot bunker in front of the green into play on your approach. 






7 is a par 4 that plays long on the card (478) but I keep ending up with driver and 9i or pw due to fairway runout.  It's very much a work in progress at the moment because the land movement once I laid down surfaces doesn't quite match up to what I want the hole to be.  My plan is for this to be a twist on the rarely used bottle template. I have it in place on the tee shot but the approach isn't quite right yet.  There will be bunkers added down and to the right of this green should anybody blow their approach off the planet.









My final bit of work has been on another pair of par fours, 9 and 13.  They will share a fairway but the angles from the tee play away from the other hole and landing areas are around 80-100 yards apart so players shouldn't worry about getting drilled by a wayward drive. 

View from 9 tee



View from 13 tee



I have most of my front nine surfaces laid down now other than a few bunkers for 7 and 8.  It's been a slog figuring out 6, 7 and 9 but I look forward to get them finished because I'm really excited about the back nine.