Mountain Terrain - Routing Study / Space Planning

@connoradougherty this is really well thought out. Appreciate all the time you have put into this puzzle. You have gone above and beyond anything I expected anyone to produce. :) My only feedback is with the grading. Being a mountain site and not very suitable for an easy build, don’t be afraid to make some 20-30 foot cuts and fills. You have the power! It’s just dirt, or rock. ;) Keep up the good work!

Hey Connor,

Attached is a .dwg export of the topo I created for this exercise, if it helps you at all. It's in 3D, so it's not a flat plan of the area. It's mainly the index lines with more detail in some of the steeper areas. It's also messy in some spots, so tread carefully!

@David Kahn , I just got AutoCad for work and was thinking of coming back to this to do a more detailed grading plan (I had a base one done that I'll put up here in a minute) would you happen to have this topo plan in a dwg file already? If not I can work on tracing the contour lines. I'm definitely rusty with AutoCad, so I think this will be a great exercise to brush up on some of those skills!

Nice work and happy holidays! I'm curious to know where this site is as well @David Kahn ?

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:

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.

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.

@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... 👌

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.

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.

A few tweaks.

New Routing...

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.