Field Trip To Stone Eagle Golf Club

[John Kirk]

I visited Stone Eagle Golf Club in Palm Desert this week.  Most of you know that Stone Eagle is designed by Tom Doak, with design associate Eric Iverson in charge of day-to-day operations.  The course is scheduled to open in November.

Here's a summary of my day at Stone Eagle.

1.  We were shown around by John Fitzpatrick, the club representative.  Very nice fellow; very low key.  He drove us around the course construction in a four wheel drive SUV.
 
2.  Stone Eagle is very hilly, and there will be very few level shots played.  Hole #8, the par 5 is pretty level.  Holes #3 and #12 are par 3s which play pretty flat.  It seems every other hole plays significantly uphill or downhill.
 
3.  The view from the first tee is incredible.  You can see almost all of the course in front of you.  I've never seen a golf course where so much can be seen from one spot.  This is true from many places on the course.  A distinct advantage of a treeless course on a sloped piece of land.  Plus, you can see down into the valley from many places as well.
 
4.  The course is enormous, with huge undulating fairways.  Most fairways we traversed looked to be 70-90 yards wide.  This is consistent with the renaissance architects' view that courses should have ample fairways, while placing a premium on position within the fairway.  I would assume that one side of the fairway will always be best on some holes, while on other holes the ideal position will change based on pin location and wind direction.
 
John Fitzpatrick said they will plant 95 acres of turf for the course.  I'd guess 50-60 is typical.  Most will be fairway, and the small amount of rough will be designed to transition handsomely into the native areas.
 
The undulations are big, rolling hills.  At Pacific Dunes, some holes (3, 4, 15) are quite flat, and some (1, 9, 16) have little choppy dunes.  These undulations will be more like Pac Dunes holes  7, 13, and 18 in terms of height and width.
 
5.  About half of the green sites had the sand base roughly shaped.  The scale of things is hard to judge, because everything is so big out there, but I'd guess the greens are about average size.  Generally, they looked quite flat, but they have to be placed in the flatter parts of a very sloped course.  My guess is they will be quite sloped as a group.  I trust Mr. Doak and his assistants to build greens and surrounding chipping areas of great interest.
 
The #18 green looked large and steeply sloped from front to back.
 
6.  The size of the operation was immense, too.  Huge bulldozers, dump trucks, earthmovers.  The course still looks quite rough, and I am amazed that they will complete the job in time for the November opening.  There are a few cart paths in place.  Most of the tees are done.  Very few holes have the topsoil ready for planting, which will take place from April to June.  These guys must move pretty fast.
 
They are using topsoil created by the earthmoving operation.  There is a massive pile of topsoil ready for the job, sitting in the middle of 17th fairway.  They sift all the rocks and big stuff out of the soil for use.
 
Holes 16 and 17 look like they will be the last holes completed.
 
7.  Although water features are uncommon for a Doak design, irrigation water is a necessity and the logical place for an irrigation pond is a natural depression/crevice between holes 4 and 5.  The pond is complete and ready to fill.  They are accomplishing some cosmetic work on the crevice leading into the pond, and it looks like there will be a little waterfall there.  These will come into play on the tee shot on 5, a difficult uphill par 4.
 
8.  Overall, the course will be quite difficult, but not impossible to walk.  The green to tee walks are reasonable.  The longest walk will be from #6 green to #7 tee, a long drop shot par 3 with the mountain in the background.
 
9.  There are two really big bunkers I know of.  The fairway bunker on the inside of the dogleg par 5 eighth hole is about 20 feet deep.  The bunker or set of bunkers left of the par 3 #12 green are very deep, perhaps 15-18 feet below the green.
 
In a word, I would characterize Stone Eagle as wild.  I liked it a lot.  I have some concerns about the severity of the slopes.  There will be very few level shots played.  But it's so very beautiful in the big amphitheater shaped valley in which the course is located, and the course should offer a wide variety of shots to play.
 

[James Bennett]

jm kirk

re the longest walk from 6 green to 7 tee.  How far is that walk?  Uphill to enable the long drop par 3?

[John Kirk]

I'd guess the walk is about 200 yards, and maybe 20-30 feet in elevation.  Just a guess.  We couldn't get over to that part of the course the day I was there.

John

[Tom_Doak]

Mr. Kirk:

Thanks for your review.  We'll accept "wild" as a fair description for now.

The toughest thing about this golf course will be judging the elevation changes on approach shots.  For example, the 8th hole which looked to you to be level, is actually about 30-40 feet uphill from landing area to green, even though it is playing across the side of the mountain.  A lot of approaches will fall short [into the ravine] for that reason.

The only level holes are the first [downhill 15 feet off the tee, uphill 15 feet to the green] and the par-3 15th.

The walk from the 6th green to the 7th tee was necessary because the sixth green is in a little nook on the side of the mountain, and there was no good way out of there; you have to walk back past the dogleg point of the hole to get out.  I think it's less than 200 yards, but not a lot less.

[A_Clay_Man]

Sounds very interesting. Any trees near tees? Most desert golfers rarely walk.

TD, IS that correct, you had to route the exit of one hole back into play of the previous?

Which way is Indio?

Where in the Coachella Valley is this soon to be sold out members course?

[Scott_Burroughs]

Adam,

Perhaps this will help:  http://www.stoneeagleclub.com

They have massively upgraded the web site, and it's pretty decent, for a Flash site.  The best parts are the hole descriptions by Tom and the very recent photos of St. Andrews Beach and Barnbougle.

There was a thread back in Nov or Dec that had construction photos.

[Scott_Burroughs]

Here are the pics from the two threads on Stone Eagle late last year:




Is that him in the blue shirt?


and here are updated construction pics:

[Don_Mahaffey]

There aren't very many courses in the valley that are less then 100 acres of turf so if stone eagle has only 90 (max allowed in AZ) then it will actually have less turf then normal for that area.

Is it just me or do courses in the dirt always look larger before they are turfed?  

I'm curious to see how the edges of the course blend into the native. With most course built on a site like that the turf edge is a sharp line, but I doubt Doak will do that. How do you blend green grass into a stark, rocky landscape?

[Brian_Gracely]

So after the course is built, and assuming that Rennaisance develops it with their usual amount of interesting strategy, will this no longer make them minimalists but still make them purists?  How many non-minimalist designs can you have and still keep that label?  

Or are we just going to have to go back to using those silly labels like "builds interesting courses", "quality architecture", or "fun to play"?

[peter_p]

Mr. Doak,
I hope for the sake of all the purists on this site that you are outsourcing the alleged waterfall.

[Tim_Weiman]

JMKirk,

Thanks for the most informative report - one of the best I've seen here.

[John Kirk]

Don Mahaffey,

I would think 95 acres is a large amount of turf.  Perhaps most desert courses plant 95-100, including the buffer between the course and the surrounding homes.  But I don't really know.  The fairways at Stone Eagle will be very generous.

Adam Clayman,

The walk from 6 green to 7 tee will be above the left side of the 6 fairway, along a ridge up to the 7 tee.  Should be some view from there.

Tom Doak,

Add some green grass and a few tee markers, and I'll be happy to replace "wild" with other superlatives.  I'm very curious to see how the ball bounces around the course.  The ground game should be an option on many holes.

I promise not to use any of the following flowery phrases to describe Stone Eagle, as found in the marketing brochure for the course:

"The Desert's Chosen Place...The land and its legacy helped guide the philosophy for a reverent vision - a private golf course        
that is purely of the earth and sky."

"The Spirit of Pure Golf"

"Extraordinary Structures That Communicate With Nature"

"At One With The Earth and Sky...Stone Eagle will provide a rare opportunity to become absorbed in the spirit of golf..., and to tap into the beauty of a place that has stirred the souls of men for centuries."

My wife and I teased the club representative about the brochure.  Who are the ad wizards that come up with this stuff?  I'm already at one with the earth and sky.  And a golf architecture purist would never describe how the green complexes communicate with nature.  Silly.