[Jim Thompson]

Here you go guys.  These are from the My Home Course I'm working on.  Just a little teaser:

Right Side of the 1st-


Back tees of 3 and Forward tees from alt route


Approach shots of the 4th left side-



The 6th Biarritz-


The 8th from left-


Looking back up the 9th-


12 Green-


13 from above lz of alt tee-


15 from Shivas' pulled drive  -


16 tee-


17 from left edge at lz-


17 looking back-


18 tee-


Ride back to Clubhouse-


More to come.

Thanks for all the support!

JT

[RJ_Daley]

Big Jim Thompson, you are the real deal.  You are livin the GCA.com dream!  

Congratualations on developing, owning, and overseeing something spectacular.

I'm embarrassed that I have not yet visited Angels Crossing.  
Jim is one of the smartest, most knowledgeable contributors on this site.
This group is retarded if we don't plan a major gathering at Jim's place.  Really...

PS: But, loose the barber poles..

[Eric_Dorsey]

Great pics Jim.   Course looks fantastic.  where are you at?

might want to post a warning to dial-up users next time - those are big pics!    

good think I'm on super-fast cable.  

[Jim Thompson]

RJ,

The barber poles keep the floggers moving along though.  I'd like to lose the rakes too.

Eric,

To think I downsized them for here  .

You guys are always welcome, just let me know.

Cheers!

JT

[Tyler Kearns]

Jim,

I don't mind the barber poles, perhaps they could be about cut in half to make them less prominent.

Is there enough room for a pin on the front 1/3 of the Biarritz green? It looks pretty small from the excellent pictures you posted.

TK

[Jim Thompson]

Tyler,

You have jusy hit on the hardest problem I have with posting photos of the course.  Everything is so big its easy to lose scale in photos.  The sixth green is 74 yards deep with over 14,500 square feet of green space the front is very pinable.  And we have it there about a fifth of the time.  Front Left is the hardest pin by far.

Here's a the composite I did for RJ on the Biarritz thread-


The folks are actually putting to front pin.

JT

[Andy Troeger]

Jim,
  Those are wonderful pictures. Also wonderful details on the 6th. The pin was front-right the day I played...I of course managed to 3-putt after hitting my tee shot about fifty feet left of the hole  There indeed is plenty of room there, although I'm hoping the pin is back next time to see what that's like (I'll be able to three putt that too I'm sure!)

   Love the last two holes...some of my other favorites weren't pictured but included 2, 7, and 14. Highly recommended to all those who have not yet been!

[Gary_Mahanay]

Jim,

How many acres of timber did yall have to clear or did yall route it through the open areas?  Did yall do any logging or just bulldoze and burn?  Is the ground naturally sandy enough or did yall have to import the sand for the greens mix? Awesome looking place.  Hope to get there some day.

Gary

[Adam_F_Collins]

It looks like a wonderful course. Even in the photos, the place has a nice feel.

Congratulations.

[Jim Thompson]

Gary,

WE didn't clear much.  We had a lumber / log auction and it was cleared for us in the lanes we defined.  After such time we brought in a cardboard (I know its corrugated to those in the business) who ground all the stumps, took all the trimmings and junk wood.  At the end we got a NICE check from all parties.  We did go in after the fact and do some selective clearing / thinning of our own.  That is still an ongoing process.  As a note make sure you know where the Black Walnut stumps get set on your property after clearing.  They are not “just stumps” but a very valuable commodity.  That said the 17th & 18th holes were mostly wooded as were the 2nd green sight, the 3rd hole, 7 green, right half of 9 fairway, 16 green sight and a couple of old fence rows ran across the property.  I’ll see if I can’t get an aerial and post it.

Not one shovel of outside material was brought onto the course except for the bunker material – which come to find out we could have done ourselves but time was of the essence.  All greens mix was sourced and mixed on sight. Some beautiful sub sand came from 4 fairway, 8 fairway and 14 fairway areas.

The soil profile is about a foot of prairie loam on a thin clay lense then three layers of sand then gravel to China.  The material in the waste areas visible between 1 & 9 and 1 & 10 is the actual sub.  All we did was turn it over and pull the top off.

Adam,

The pictures, as good as they are, loose a lot of the scale of the property as well as flatten most of the contours.  There's more ground effects here then can be seen from above.

Cheers!

JT

[Mike McGuire]

JT -

The bunkers look outstanding IMO.

Who wanted the black walnut stumps?

I was on the AC website tonight. The entire project seems like a  great success story. Excellent ,afforable golf in a conservation effort with some local history and community involvment. Nice work !!!!

[Jim Thompson]

Mike,

Black walnut from a foot above the ground to about a foot and a half in the ground is the primo drop deead gorgeous material for gun stcks and pistol grips.  I've seen stumps stolen by helicopter before.  Good ones are like finding a birds eye maple.

Cheers!

JT

P.S.  We call them butter knife bunkers.

[Pat Howard]

I just wanted to get it straight, this is YOUR course?! Please elaborate a little more, and tell me how to get one of my own!!  I'm tired of washing rich peoples clubs at the country club.

Unbelievable, looks beautiful and well kept. Thanks for the great pics, too! You are truely a lucky man!

[Tim Bert]

This looks like a great track!

I went to the web site for the course, and I'm interested to know your secret... How did you keep the rates and the memberships so affordable?  If this topic has already been discussed in another thread, then feel free to point me in the right direction rather than going through the entire story.

[Jim Thompson]

Andy,

It took a while, but here are 2, 7, and 14 for you!

#2 from over back tee-


old shot of #7 approach, this is a hard shot to get with the sunlight-


#14 looking backward from mid summer with a very tough pin-


Cheers!

JT

[Andy Troeger]

Jim,
  Thanks...more great shots. I love the greens on #7 and #14, two of my favorites. Wonderful shot especially of #14 green and "the tree!" Its still hard to appreciate without being there just how much that green slopes from front to back. I was very pleased to escape with two putts and a par. Love #2 as well, such a beautiful hole with the trees to frame things! Alas that hole wasn't quite so kind to me

Merry Christmas!

[Jim Thompson]

Pat & Tim,

Work hard and take risks.  If ten people ever tell you something won't work, you're onto something good!!!

Andy,

Another of your nemesis 2nd.  How'd you make a big number here?



Cheers!

JT

[Andy Troeger]

Jim,
  It wasn't a big number (bogey), but it was a rather ugly one. I drove a little left, to the point where the ball was not in the trees, but my backswing was very close. I then hit a lousy shot into the middle of the bunker short of the green (the one closer to the green of the two), hit a mediocre sand shot about a third of the way to a pin about 20-30 feet to the right of the flag in the most recent photo, hit a mediocre putt to about 6 feet above the hole and managed to coax that back in for bogey  

[Mike McGuire]

Jim -

What did you plant right of #1 (first picture) ? would you use the same stuff if you were to do it over?

Why do you call them butter knife bunkers ?  

[Pat Howard]

Jim,
   Thanks for the advice.  And you're right, anything worthwile in this life takes hard work and lots of risks. One last question though. I noticed the cart paths along the course and the one pic of the cart crossing a large bridge. Just wondering about the walking aspect of the course. Are carts required and if not is it a very walkable course? ie. short distances between greens and following tees.

-Pat

[Jim Thompson]

Andy,

Hope you didn't fall for the sucker bet and hit driver off the tee.  If so, hah, we gotcha!

Mike,

We have 8 different prairie plantings on the course, all custom species as selected by our native expert.  He did a great job.  I don't know if I'd use the same stuff again, but I know I'd call Jerry in a heartbeat and listen very closely to what he says.  He did a great job of matching our playability desires with the native aspects of the various areas.  To the right of one and around 11 tees is heavy in timothy and switch grasses.

We call them butter knife bunkers, and this is the true story, because standing in line at the Thanksgiving Dinner Buffet at my folks before we even knew the style of the course, my oldest brother asked me what the perfect bunker looked like.  He had been reading all sorts of books and seen all kind of pictures.  I tried to describe a MacDonald/Raynoresque look and was doing very poorly with my verbal description so I picked up the butter knife next to the rolls; Mom makes the best homemade rolls, and shaped a bunker in the soft butter log next to the jelly bowl.  Walla, the birth of the butter knife bunker.

Pat,

The long bridge ride is from the temporary clubhouse to the first and tenth tees.  Its really not that bad though.  The course is very walkable and quite pleasant.  A lot of the guys in scratch league walk as do some members.

Cheers!

JT

[Andy Troeger]

Jim,
   No...but alas I am perfectly capable of hitting my fairway woods just as crooked as most people's drivers  

   I will agree that I think course seems walkable...I would guess the reason most people ride is that the cart is included in the fee. There are a few I would say medium length walks from greens to tees but the terrain is reasonable enough.

[Pete Buczkowski]

Jim,

Thanks again for posting these pics of your wonderful course.  My round there with you was one of the highlights of a great golfing year.  Hopefully I will get out there again next year and see The Mines as well.  I think when the new parking lot is finished you will be able to encourage walking more freely.

One interesting thing about the course is that nobody has mentioned some of my favorite holes...truly remarkable and a sign of a well-balanced course.  I especially like the variety in the par 5s.  I almost mentioned #17 in Mike Nuzzo's thread about holes where the correct strategy isn't apparent until after multiple plays, and definitely changes depending on the wind and pin location.

All the best,
Pete

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