All fun and games at Wolf Point

There are very few forced carries at Wolf Point Club.  One of them, the creek at the 15th, can be cleared by a 10 year old girl, who has only been on a golf course twice!  I wish there were other places for us to play.  For now it doesn't get any better than this!

And a bonus video inspired by Happy Gilmore's protagonist!

Speaker on Affordable Golf

I've been asked to speak and share my experiences at the Symposium on Affordable Golf this fall.  Specifically I'll be describing how we built so much great golf at Wolf Point for an incredibly low price.  The symposium location is very cool: Pinehurst.  This is the third year that Richard Mandell has hosted this grass roots event.  Here is the website:  http://www.symposiumonaffordablegolf.com/.  
Please fill out their survey: http://bit.ly/golfsymposium.


Some highlights from the Agenda:

2012 Symposium On Affordable Golf Agenda Complete 
The third annual Symposium On Affordable Golf will once again be held at the Southern Pines Golf Club in Southern Pines, North Carolina on Monday and Tuesday, October 29th and 30th. This year, the Symposium will be one and a half days, followed by a golf outing on the Donald Ross-designed Southern Pines Golf Club Tuesday afternoon.

The Symposium On Affordable Golf raises awareness and understanding of the challenges of the golf industry through open discussion, exchange of ideas and highlighting successes that promote the health and sustainability of the game of golf. As in previous years, there is no fee for attendance. Also, as in past years, members of the PGA, the LPGA and the GCSAA will be eligible to receive continuing education credits. 


There will be three case studies detailing successful and affordable golf operations, each from different regions of the world. Other topics include "The Curious Case of the Taj-Mahalics," "Let's Start Romancing the Game Again Instead of Selling the Business," and "Where Sustainability and GolfSpeak Intersect."


The picture below is the last time Rich and I spoke together.  That is Pete Dye's son, Perry, to our left.

Golf Club Atlas Next 50

By design Wolf Point Club hasn't shown up on any magazine best lists, top world or anything similar.  A number of our friends are magazine panelists and have even enjoyed an escorted round with us.  But they have all been instructed to never submit any ratings of the course.  A few journalists have also played with us, the big magazine architecture editors have not.  I guess if they can't add it to their list Wolf Point is of little interest.


There is one list that Wolf Point did appear on a few years ago.  My friends Ran and Ben at GolfClubAtlas.com added our course to their Next Fifty list.  These are the courses they'd most like to see.  "We have not yet played the following but hope to profile them sooner rather than later."


Back in 2009 our work showed up at #8 with a promise to visit soon.  I just recently noticed that we jumped to #4.  (see below).  Even nicer was that the few that we passed haven't been crossed off their list, but just bumped lower.


Ran and Ben have been busy of late.  Here is hoping they get a chance to appreciate our work sooner rather than later.  I think they will find it unique for a number of reasons.


Cheers

Don Mahaffey Should Write a Book

Recently there was a post on Turfnet about the Teachings of Don.  Here are some of my favorite quotes:

Common sense practical golf course maintenance strategies that result in lower overall costs yet still improve playability.

If you are not familiar with Don Mahaffey, he is a golf renaissance man, gifted with superintendent skills, a strong knowledge of golf course architecture–both neo-classical and post-modern–the ability to operate as both project manager and grow-in superintendent, an irrigation genius, a guy who understands business and shaping with a dozer.  Don blends all these skills together to create a philosophy of practical golf course construction and maintenance.

And Don's previous blog posts that Randy references:

19 Suggestions for lower golf course maintenance costs in2012

Don Mahaffey's 7 tips for successful gang mowing

An interesting putting green

In designing a pair of practice putting greens for a public course, I drew a set of green surfaces that included interesting, yet subtle contour. I was asked to redraw the green contours to be simple sloped planes to match those on the course.


It is a valid request, but these putting greens are where the new player will first meet the golf course, or maybe any golf course.  I'd rather it be an interesting meeting.


Their request inspired me to compose this quote: 


One neat element of a creative putting green is you can always find a straight or flat putt on one, but the converse is not true. 
You can never find a creative putt on a flat green. 
 -- Mike Nuzzo


The following videos, while very cool, show how predictable a flat planar surface can be:

Features and topography before a first site visit

I am visiting a new client this week. The project is to rebuild a green complex later this year, and look at some tee options. The course is 60 years old and has several different styles throughout. 


Prior to my visit I was able to compile a Google aerial image and recreate all of the golf features - greens, tees, bunkers, ponds & fairway. This is probably the most accurate set of feature areas in the courses history. I can now easily calculate the square footage of each green, tee, bunker...


The superintendent also shared an available county topographic website, which I was also able to compile and chart. Above is the illustration I can bring to my first site visit to begin working on a specific problem and also start to work on a long term master improvement plan.


Every piece of information is now in one file and I will make any site visit notations or future design changes in this same file as well - everything will always stay associative.  Drainage, irrigation, earthwork, cart path or anything mapped via GPS.


As for the topo, the darker the brown the higher the elevation, the darker the grey, the lower. It is now easy to spot the valley along with the high and low spots throughout the course.


Research, facts and preparedness makes for a much easier site visit and better results.

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.

Zen and the Art of Green Shaping & Finishing

Don Mahaffey has been working and consulting with a municipal course for 3 years. Starting this month they contracted Don rebuild 9 of their greens. We did some planning and came up with a number of good concepts that fit the site and will be more enjoyable for their players. 
For me, a most fun part is the fine shaping and finishing of the greens. It is a slow process, a lot like polishing a stone with lots of small circles.  The tool is a "mechanical bunker rake".  It  has a little blade in front to push around shovels of material and a rake in the back to smooth.
Above is a picture of the before and during. The green was tiny, too sloped for a hole and flat on top. When finished the 5th green will be more receptive to the average players shot and be far more interesting for putts and chips. We are using the materials on site and bringing in a little sand to perform the final finish in a week or so.
Another highlight is that Intern Rob has been working with Don for a couple years since helping to build the TPC San Antonio courses.  Last summer he and I had a nice project near Memphis.  Great music and even better ribs.