Joe Hancock, pictured above, visited our site several times early in the project. He spent a good deal of time on several greens and helped our land forms take shape. It was a good learning experience for me to see someone that patient on the bulldozer. I’ve never seen someone move so little with the blade on purpose before – that is a compliment. We haven’t seen him in a while, especially after we got Jacob on site. Joe really helped get the shaping ball rolling.
Joe really is a grandpa, a couple times over.
He likes Fish Cancun, and can eat the good meal every day – although maybe shouldn’t.
His music is old and he gets bored working in the same place for too long.
He didn’t quite get some of my terms, but that is because no one has ever used the image of a slug to describe a shape before. He likes practical jokes and I could have shown a few other pictures... but chose the high road. :)
What did he bring back to Michigan with him? That real architects stock the fridge with the good stuff, I don’t think he was used to that one.
We definitely had fun.
I read the following quote this past week in the Sports Illustrated golf plus edition – “I’ve never had a client say, ‘Build me a short, wide and playable course.’ ” It was by Tom Doak in response to the fact that clients typically want a long tough test. The word never is what struck me. How lucky is it to have a client make that request of me.
The 4th hole is short and wide and playable. My favorite element is how the green is best approached from the side. In the photo above – of the 4th green – you’ll see some shaping that isn’t the back stop of the green. If you come approach from the wrong side of the fairway – there is no getting close to several pins – one of the pins will be closer to impossible. Playable doesn’t mean easy – because this one can be, but certainly may not be.
Earlier Holes Featured: 1 - 2 - 3 - 11.
I found this guy heading towards the lake for a bath. He must have been resting in one of our wetter basins for quite some time.
Pat, who it inspecting from the top, was responsible for our bridges and the spillway – shown above. The pipe is so for draining the lake - there is a valve a few hundred feet away. The spillway is built to handle quite a bit of overflow rain. It will be working overtime tonight. The cement truck poured the cement into the excavator bucket which was then spread across the framing and rebar structure. See there are lots of uses for an excavator. I have a nice photo of the finished flagstoned surface.
Like many of our visitors - Pat liked to fish. We could count on him to be on site often – and then be off looking for a catch. The locals know of most of the hot spots, and do share a few from time to time.
This next theme is the people who helped make the project be a success. I introduced you to the scraper team previously, and the gentleman above is who banded them together. I affectionately called him Johnny Scraper. He was very bright, and kept the details in order in regard to the excavation. I will say we did make the job easy by showing them where all the fill should be placed – paint by numbers if you will – we staked all the areas using plans embedded in our GPS unit.
Johnny was very interested in everything we did. It wasn’t long before he got the gist of the nuances of golf design – in the above image he is sharing his thoughts on green design.
I am thankful of the work they did, and they were a far cry better than the first person who bid the job – I could swear when that person came to visit the site he was driving a vehicle from Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.
It is hard to remember how long Jacob was on site – as he was so instrumental and it seems like he was there the whole time. Jacob was our Shaper. We had other shaping support, but he was the one who really put the course in shape. I was most impressed by his abilities. He worked with detailed instruction, vague instruction, no instruction and dual instruction (when Don and I gave him opposite instructions). He handled everything in stride.
As young as he looks, he has been on helping to build courses for a long time now – he took to the work at a very young age, and his abilities on the dozer are fantastic.A few important facts: He likes his tea sweet and ice cream isn't ice cream unless it's Bluebell!He's not used to walking as much as the architect, especially in mud and he is a true Texan and friend.I hope to get him back to work for us soon.
I'm skipping hole order this week given the course has changed quite a bit, and I want to share some very current data. The above image of #11 shows off the fairway contouring, the shared (with #12) bunker and the green is right of the bunker. What is special for me about the hole? That it is the first hole we grassed - :). Truthfully it is the hole I was inspired the least by – in its pre-finish form. The intent was for it to be a challenging hole, a longer par 4. My vision was in some ways impractical with our site constraints. Don and Jacob, our shaper, both convinced me to take a more practical approach with the green complex. I think we made a very wise decision together - even if it wasn't going to rain like hell this summer. I really dig the hole now, and it still may even be one of my least favorites – I have very high regard for the rest of the holes.Lastly, our turf farm scout said the finish on our first several holes was as good as he'd ever seen - Don - and the team (me included) - are now a bunch of finishing sombitches!I am very excited.Earlier Holes Featured:1 - 2 - 3
Joe Hancock, pictured above, visited our site several times early in the project. He spent a good deal of time on several greens and helped our land forms take shape. It was a good learning experience for me to see someone that patient on the bulldozer. I’ve never seen someone move so little with the blade on purpose before – that is a compliment. We haven’t seen him in a while, especially after we got Jacob on site. Joe really helped get the shaping ball rolling. 
