Have the flow of dollars altered the flow of surface water ?

[Patrick_Mucci]

Golf courses have/are being built with budgets previously unheard of.

Has the unlimited flow of dollars altered the flow of surface water ?

Can architects now ignore surface drainage because they have surplus dollars available to more expensively remediate surface drainage problems through other means ?

[Joe Hancock]

Pat,

Do most projects now-a-days give an architect a set budget before design work begins, or do architects propose a design with a price tag attached, for the approval of an owner/ committee? I'm asking because I genuinely don't know what would be considered commonplace.

Joe

[Tom_Doak]

Pat:  Yes.  A lot of architects don't pay much attention to natural surface drainage; they recontour every fairway into a series of basins (some like them on the fairway, others off) and pipe all the drainage out.

Joe:  Usually the client receives a preliminary budget estimate as part of the first phase of design work, with the preliminary routing plan.  Honestly, though, it's been awhile since any of our U.S. clients asked for the budget or discussed it.  I've frankly been shocked by what some of them think they're going to spend to build a course.  On the other hand, our Aussie clients wanted to know down to the last penny!

[Tyler Kearns]

Pat,

   Up here in Canada, surface drainage is still an important consideration, especially on greens. During the spring, when the ground is still frozen, the water cannot permeate the soil, and thus, needs to be shed via surface drainage.

Tyler Kearns

[Bill_McBride]

The best field laboratory to study drainage is Bandon - where Bandon Dunes has innumerable catch basins, many awkwardly located, and to the best of my recollection, Pacific Dunes has none.  I could be wrong about this.  But I do remember quite a few a Bandon and I don't remember any at Pacific.  Was this a designer's choice?

[Joel_Stewart]

The unlimited flow of dollars has altered golf course architecture alot more than just drainage.  Shadow Creek is probably always going to be the benchmark for building a course out of nothing but there are so many now it hard to count.