Take a stab at routing / designing your own course within a mountain environment. Create a routing plan, add design details / strategy, etc...it's your world.
DESIGN CRITERIA:
18-hole (championship) golf course
Short / par 3 course experience
Clubhouse location
Overnight accommodations
Ignore 'blue' dashed line
Post your concepts for The Workshop to explore...
Mountain Terrain
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Here's a rough routing that I came up with... Accommodations can probably go between the pond and the "5950" label.
Haven't thought much about the short course yet but one idea I've had for a while is to take a chairlift/tram up a mountain and then play nine par 3s back down.
Keep it going...add some detail and strategies to the holes. A good chart to put together would be elevations for all the tees, landing areas and greens. Will help you visualize the ups and downs of the routing. A tee shot uphill more than 30 or 40 feet is a chore for the golfer. Obviously, a mountainous site will need some heavy earthwork to make things work properly. Keep in mind the cut and fill that would be required to make a routing work nicely.
@nv7 Would love to see you add some detail to the routing. If still interested...
@David Kahn I haven't forgotten! I just finished writing exams today. Will have something shortly.
New Routing...
A few tweaks.
Sorry it’s been so long since I have gotten something up here. We’ve been quite busy down in Houston (fortunately!), but I did want to give this a go. I’ve been using Procreate, so other than having a 100’ grid, I haven’t had a chance to measure the holes, but am hoping to print it out to dial in yardages. The 18 hole routing is in red, occupying the eastern part of the property, while the short course is routed in purple. I was trying to get most of the downhill fall in dramatic holes like the 1st, 3rd, 7th, and 11th, while using the rest of the routing to slowly climb back up the property. This can give the effect of neutralizing the increased distance golfers get at that elevation, making the course shorter and more walkable. I’m also planning on getting a grading plan done and fine tuning the strategy of the holes while doing that, so I’m putting this up now in the hopes that I can get a critique on the routing. Here’s a couple notes I had prior to drawing up grading and starting minor changes to the golf holes: -I want to cut a swale between 10 and 18 to divert the overflow for the pond between those two holes to the ditch running along 11 and 12. This will give the fill needed to soften the 18th fairway and keep the water off the golf course.
-Cutting the fairway down on 13 and filling for the 12th green and the 13th tee, softening that 50’ climb that the routing shows on the tee shot.
-I’m not 100% sure what I want to do about 7, but obviously making a 100’ climb on one hole doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. I’m leaning toward bringing 6 green up with fill and bringing 7 green down a bit. -Good chunk of cut needed to slide the 17th green in between 16 and 18. The bunkers between 16 and 17 will help disguise the cut/fill in that area.
@connoradougherty this is really strong. Honestly, the critiques I have were proactively mentioned and resolved by your commentary. I know it’s been awhile, but if you still plan on doing a grading plan, we’d love to see it posted here. Good work! Love the simple rendering too for legibility.
@David Kahn Thanks David! I hadn't forgotten about it, but I will say, as I started to work out a grading plan, the more uncomfortable I felt with the way the front 9 routing came together. I always liked the back, but once I got to sketching out the grading, the more I felt like I was really fighting the land. Also, just can't underestimate the expense of that kind of cut/fill on a mountain landscape given the rock. There were two other things which I was never particularly happy about in the original iteration. I didn't like how short the 1st and 18th holes were. No one wants to start or finish their round without their driver in hand. The other thing was, to me, the coolest part of the property is all the valleys and big movements on the Eastern side of the property. I had the 5th hole along there, but always felt like it could have been a little better. Moving the 2nd and 3rd holes into their North-South direction allowed me to put in the 4th, which, to me, had the potential to be the coolest hole on the golf course: A reachable par 5 played along that chasm. It cost me the cool 2nd hole in my original routing, but the course fits far better into the existing landscape now. And the 5th and 6th, while maybe not as cool as the original second, use some of the cool landscape features. Other Changes: -No range is always a tough sell, so I made the short course a hybrid. If you look at the magenta dashed line, that is set to be a driving range tee. This gives them the flexibility to use the space as both (like Bandon Dunes' shorty course).
-I put the maintenance facility on the south side of the pond. Assuming the pond is used to supply irrigation, pump station would be part of that complex. Obviously, I won't be diverting the overflow anymore.
-There's still some details to put in, the biggest being a putting green West of the Clubhouse, the housing along the 9th hole and the short course, and the grading plan. But I feel like this is at least a better routing to work off of with less earthwork.
I just found your site and love the opportunities to explore golf course design! Hopefully you are still up for commenting, seems like I'm a little late to the party. I decided to tackle this mountain site, always a challenge. Below is my first pass at a routing. I decided to try to incorporate more of the dramatic terrain for the championship 18 and leave the "flatter" portion for the short course. Also showing a first pass at clubhouse and lodging locations as well as attempt to have a driving range and practice putting area (shown in light green). I also show the lower collection areas in light blue to represent waterways/drainage. Not that those would necessarily be active streams or rivers, but it always helps me understand where flooding and/or natural water features might be present. Front nine in red, back nine in orange and short course in green. Championship course currently clocks in at about 6700 yards, par 72. Short course is about 1500 yards, par 27. Would love to hear your thoughts.
@dgroeger thanks for giving this a go. Never too late to join The Workshop. Appreciate you spending some time with us. I’d challenge you to study the topo a bit further and do some grading studies of your holes. Hopefully this will bring about some creative solutions for the dramatic holes. If not, adjust the routing to best fit the severe mountain terrain. Also, adding golf features and strategies will help further develop your routing. Looking forward to seeing the next iteration... 👌
David,
Thanks for the feedback! I studied the topo further and realize a few holes in my first attempt were rather daunting. I've re-routed things that, I hope, address the more egregious areas. Had to give up on what I thought were solid gold green sites but they led me into dead ends so had to let them go. It's quite a challenge!
Second iteration is below. I've also included a chart of elevation changes for each hole per your grading studies comment, a great suggestion btw. This was helpful in showing I still might have some tough tee shots at 7 (and possibly 8 and 12?). Wonder what your thoughts are there.
I've started adding golf features and strategies to see how that affects the routing and hope to post that along shortly.
Sorry to spam the thread! But on second look I wasn't liking the steep nature of 7 and 8 so I re-worked the back half of the front nine, realizing I need to tack back-and-forth up the hill to make that work. Here's an updated routing and elevation chart.
Hope you had a good holiday! Here is my development of the routing, including more defined golf features and strategies. I look forward to any comments. I've envisioned the holes with as little earth-moving as possible (outside of tee/green sites), although there are certainly spots where some will be warranted.
To go along with the "Championship" course, I've included a short course, driving range, putting green along with a main lodge/clubhouse and additional cabins. By the way, where is this topo actually located? I'm envisioning a pacific northwest type of terrain and foliage? Just curious.
And the yardages:
Nice work and happy holidays! I'm curious to know where this site is as well @David Kahn ?