Golf Course Economics by a factor of 28!

Sometimes we are asked how our methods are cost effective.  Our potential client may assume we cut corners or are over-estimating the benefits when we say we can complete a project for 30-50% less.  What would they think if we said we could perform a task for 4% of their planned budget.  They would certainly think we were nuts.


Here is the story.  A high end club has embarked on a bunker renovation.  They will be changing the bunker edge style and replacing the sand.  Why change the edge style?  To keep up with modern fashion I suppose, but it won't be long (5-10 years) before their changes are either out of fashion again, or the owners realize how much more these fancy new edges cost to maintain.  But I am not going to discuss maintenance costs, only capital costs today.


Listed below are the quantities and some estimates for this bunker project as compared to our imaginary one.  The Tonnage of sand is accurate.  One big difference the members of the high end club are anticipating is the color of the sand.  Their new sand will be white as snow.  This looks pretty and I can understand why some prefer this look.  Our sand is beige.  Their sand costs $100+ a ton, our sand costs $35 a ton.  Their sand gets transported across multiple state lines - gas is expensive.  Our sand is local.  The square footage number is calculated based on 4" of sand installed in a bunker.  400,000 square feet of bunker is absurd when the site isn't all sand to start.  This is where good design trumps over-design.  Their installation would include rebuilding all the new edges and has a cost similar to the material costs.  We would just replace the sand and clean up.


I've never told a client that replacing their bunker sand would cost 28 times more if you hire a different architect for the original design.  Maybe I should.  The picture above is one of our bunkers.


Lastly the industry says that bunkers should be rebuilt every 5-10 years.  We don't agree here either, but I sure hope no one tells the club that their bunkers will be bleach white forever.  They sure do try to keep 'em white however, by cleaning out every piece of debris in every bunker, every morning.  How much does that cost?  Did I mention how much sand they need to warehouse for regular maintenance and the facility they need to store the new sand?


The data:


High End Private Club Bunker Project
Tons Sand 7,000 
Price/Ton $100.00+ 
Distance (mi) 350 
Truck Loads 389 
Sand Price $700,000 
Cubic Yards 5,385 
Cubic Feet 145,385 
Square Feet 436,154 
Installation $700,000 
Project Cost = $1,400,000 


Wolf Point Club
Tons Sand 963 
Price/Ton $35.00 
Distance (mi) 20 
Truck Loads 53 
Sand Price $33,704 
Cubic Yards 741 
Cubic Feet 20,000 
Square Feet 60,000 
Installation $16,852 
Project Cost =  $50,556 


Cost Ratio = 28!!! times as expensive to replace the sand at the high end club as compared to Wolf Point.

A bunker and its surrounds

Pictured above are the two bunkers on the 9th hole. Don and crew have been letting the native vegetation creep towards the bunker. It is less detail maintenance work, and from time to time it needs to be cut back. It helps create an irregular (not man made) look and transition back to the native areas. I like it, and it is easier said than done.

There are a few more bunkers around the course that I hope continue to have the surrounds grow towards the outside edges - especially #7. I'll show some examples on other courses that I like, and don't like, next.

Resolution - See Wolf Point more in 2010

I love playing Wolf Point.
I didn't get down to play enough in 2009.
I hope to change that in 2010.
Prospective clients are welcome to join me.

We had a record drought in 2009 followed by extensive fall rains.
Don Mahaffey continues to do a great job.
I'm excited to think that the course will only get better as it matures past it's first season.

Above I'm escaping the 9th fairway bunker. I hit a great shot to the green, unfortunately it wasn't my first - the bunker is about 7 feet deep from the bottom.

Good luck for a prosperous 2010.
Cheers

Bruce + Infierno

I'll never tire of taking pictures of players in Infierno.

Today's victim is a fine player as was his opponent Matt, who did win 2 up.
The 5th green is in the distance. Bruce did get a little confused thinking it was a par 5.

Bruce really enjoyed being able to choose from lots of options, especially around the greens.  He had the honor on the 12th tee. His stance was quite different from his play so far, as was his swing. I was completely blown away by his choice of shot without any coaching. He hit the ideal shot I envisioned during design - that could get to a front pin. He hit a knock down 9 iron short and we watched it bump up over the false front and wind up around 8 feet from the pin. Matt was swearing that he missed it, but Bruce and I knew better.

It was ideal and not perfect as the 9 is a tiny bit too much loft - which is why I hit a soft, low 7 iron that landed just short of his target getting a little more roll past his and It cozied up to 2 ft. Nice birdie thank you very much.

Matt was most psyched to see our work in anticipation of what I could do for him one day soon.

Here they are on 17 green.
They made so many great comments about the course it is hard to remember them all....

Steve + Infierno

Steve got to meet Infierno first hand during his visit. He hit a great recovery to the right side of the green - the safe spot.

It is the first time I saw dormant grass at Wolf Point. It has been a very dry winter with a few frosts. I used to enjoy playing a local course when it was dormant because it was so much faster than during the summer. Not so here - Don keeps everything fast no matter the season - there wasn't a noticeable difference.

"With no doubt, the best ground game I have been on" - Steve

Thank you buddy.

Infierno Got Drainage

This fall the bunkers were completed. Infierno was the last one - Don saved the best for last. It is big - 11,750 square feet the last time I measured. It is about 20% of the bunker square footage on the course.  We have a total of 56,000 sft spread across 61 bunkers, and the average size if far less than those numbers would indicate.  

The bunker on #7 is also large, leaving an average size of 600 sft for the remainder of the bunkers.  Don and I both prefer a smaller bunker.  We have one that is 150 sft that is all the penalty one would need around the 2nd green.

The picture above is of the crew installing drainage pipe throughout the bunker.  The pipe is designed to collect the water and get it away from the sand.  Bunker drainage is a big issue today, in that there are many different ways to manage the water and maintenance, with nothing that works ideally or practically.

The best way to keep water out of bunkers is by shaping the land to divert the water, and that keeps the balls out too.  That method would make an ugly bunker that didnt' come into play.  We have none of those!

Holiday Cheer

The Tortuous Path

This picture is taken from the middle of the 3rd fairway. The right side of this par five is "The Tortuous Path". The green is receptive to play from the left side of the fairway. I played my 2nd 18 hole round last week - I have lots of new images to show - please note the new banner image.

Bunker on the first

This bunker has a bit of a different look as compared with some from earlier. The first tee shot of the day will usually contend with this bunker. If you carry it the flag is not far beyond.

The bunker you can see is much worse...

This is the bunker that you can see from the 14th approach - here was an earlier blog entry. Please notice the rakes, I usually hide them for the pics, but in this case they give good scale to the bunker - it is pretty deep - and the creek is directly to the right.

Windy as The Open

That was some great playing by Harrington yesterday. I wish more courses were left alone to play with the elements. Sometimes it will be easier, sometimes it will be too hard. Some days Wolf Point is easier and somedays it is harder - the wind is the biggest variable, followed closely by pin location and firmness.

Above is a picture of the bunker hidden by the 14th green. The view is looking back towards the live oak in the middle of the fairway.

More routings tomorrow.

Bunkers getting deeper

Pictured above is the 16th green with a bunker that protects much of the green on the right. The hole rewards a tee shot that plays to the left - or the fairway near the creek.

The bunkers are coming...

Simple and strategic. Our bunkers are coming to life around the course.

When an architect draws an intial routing plan, it looks better with a lot of bunkers. That isn't always the case in the field. (see also swoopy lines)

A Bunker is Born!

About 290 yards off the tee, the above bunker is one the player wouldn't want to find themselves contained within. For the unlucky soul the second shot to this par 5 would be a challenging layup from here, forget about crossing the creek to hit the green in two.

I'm recovering from getting my butt handed to me by both our client and Wolf Point last week. Apparantly the home field advantage is getting bigger and bigger by the day. More to follow on my second round.

I can't wait to play...

Don has started our final major task - detail bunker work. But more importantly - last week after he was decribing chipping to the difficult 14th green - Don said "I can't wait to play!"

Infierno from a distance

A Glimpse of Infierno

Hell bunker is one very memorable bunker from The Old Course in St. Andrews. Being on the border of Mexico it seemed only fitting to name our mammoth bunker complex Infierno - Spanish for Hell. It also helps to have Diablo and Demonio protecting the bunker. The above image is just a fraction of Infierno. It protects the inside corner of the 5th hole, and the green complex sets up in a way that you really want to be near Infierno for your approach.

Final Touches

2008 is the year Wolf Point Club will officially open. I've been really looking forward to the day. The last detail for the course will be the finishing of the bunkers. I post this picture, of the 3rd hole, as a last experiment in what the bunkers may look like.

It came out a little fancy, but it will be hard to predict where the bermuda will "crawl". I followed the existing runners and natural grass lines while makeing this sketch. The other item that sticks out is how the bunkers completely take over the picture. The green is equally important to the strategy of the hole, but very hard to tell. The 2nd bunker is also far more menacing, and hard to tell by the picture also - see the aerial view.

I'm going to do my best this year to photograph the greens - they are way more beautiful than the bunkers.

The 2nd - earlier this spring

Each Monday I’ll be talking about one of the golf holes more specifically – not a generic bland description, but a feature that I like or I think is special. More than any other hole on the course, the pin placement polarizes which side of the wide fairway is the optimum side. The green is pretty wild. Don spent a great deal of time both tying the green into the surrounds and ensuring it fit into the long views of the ranch portion of the property. The green is in front of the scraper in the background. I’d say this hole looks easy and plays hard. Into the prevailing wind doesn’t make it any easier. You can see there was a little water in a fairway bunker earlier this spring – we were still finishing the drainage.