This year, I was called in to add 8 new forward tees at KCC. I’ve had the pleasure of doing a good bit of work for KCC over the years, including new tees and 12 new bunkers under Renaissance Golf Design (Don Placek). I don’t have more fun working anywhere than I do at Kazoo CC…the people there are the best! Here are two pictures of the same tee that serves the 7th and 9th holes.

This Donald Ross course has received a lot of good press over the years, and rightly so. The course has been doing a resto/mod (to borrow from the classic car lingo) and has had renowned Ross expert Ron Pritchard as their architect. I’ve been involved on 3 separate occasions now to help with this. In Fall 2009, I was brought in to shape a couple new squared off tees as well as modify the back of the second green, including some bunker work. In 2010, Don Mahaffey and I came in to work on some new bunkers on the 15th and 16th holes. There was a total of 5 new bunkers either restored or added. Then again in Fall of 2010, I was back to add some green surface to the 15th and 16th greens as well as modify the greenside bunkers. I should mention that all of this work done with the greens crew at Barton, and they are passionate about the place. Tim (super) and Jeff (ass’t super) have a keen eye for architectural elements, and we work well together. I also should note that this last project in Fall 2010 was shaped entirely with a mini-excavator….not my normal tool of the trade, but it’s getting to be almost equal seat time between that and a dozer.

Here was a great opportunity. The University hired me to design and build this wedge game practice facility for their golf teams. With input from Ron Dahlin, CGCS and Don Underwood, PGA pro and men’s golf coach, we endeavored to build a place for the golf teams to hone in not only on precise distances, but to also design target green surfaces that would ask the golfer to play a certain type of short shot….knock down, heavy spin, hit and release, etc. This dual tee complex(tees are oriented at approx. 90 degrees from each other to the targets) have shots ranging from 25 yards out to 125 yards. We also added a 10,000 sg. ft. putting and bunker practice green.

We had a lot of fun doing this one. It was the first time I had worked with Paul Albanese, who designed this short game practice facility. He wanted every conceivable lie for the golfer to encounter, and I think we added some new ones! We built 3 new greens…one as a putting green, one as a chipping and bunker practice green, and one as a wedge target green. It was a two week deadline, and the weather was great apart from mid 90′s and humid. I will add pictures once  I get some.

We had the opportunity to work with Ray Hearn at Island Hills in 2010. The biggest challenge of this, by far, was the weather. It seemed that every time we turned around, it rained. Had it been nice gentle showers, that would have been OK. But were inundated with rainfall amounts that were regularly over an inch, and in a couple instances we had 3-4 inch downpours. Needless to say, we did a lot of reconstruction along the way.

We built a new par 3 hole. The new owners bought, essentially, a 17 hole course and needed to add one more. The hole ranges from 110 to 160 yards. The main focal point is an old barn foundation that is to the right of the green, and has a bunker built right to the foundation wall. The green is designed to play with a slight right to left bounce, so there is a good size shoulder between the bunker and green to help kick properly played shots in the right direction.

I have finally made it back to the computer. I had a total of 7 different projects in 2010…I was lucky and blessed to have the work according to what I’ve heard from many colleagues. I will add some pictures and descriptions of those projects is separate posts.

This is a Practice Facility I did at Egypt Valley CC, located near Grand Rapids, MI. The superintendent, Jeff Holmes, and I came up with the design and he presented it to his membership. I was hired to shape and direct the construction, while Jeff had some of his staff do the infrastructure (drainage, irrigation) and finish work. The club did this entire project for a fraction of what it would cost had they hired it out “turn key”.  I will show more pictures in the future…one of the challenges of showing pictures to highlight good work is, well, being able to take good pictures!

We’re adding stuff to read and, more importantly, to look at. Like this, which saves me a thousand words of typing per picture.

This is a picture from Huntsman Springs, a David Kidd golf course I had the pleasure of working on during the Summer of 2008.

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