Stone Eagle Golf Club

[Yancey_Beamer]

#2




#3



#4



#4 Green





#5




#5 Green



#6



#6 Green




#7




#8




#8 Green



#9



#9 Green

[Tom_Doak]

Thanks for posting those, Yancey.  I just got some photos from Larry Lambrecht which are more dramatic in terms of lighting, but these show what most golfers see in a mid-morning round.

That first picture of #9 is from the back tee, showing the tee shot over the corner of #8 green in the left foreground.  The ninth green is left-center in the middle of the frame.

The tee shot up the gun sight on #2 [actually the 2nd hole in its entirety] is a favorite of mine.  So are the fifth and sixth holes, whose photos didn't come through.

[Tyler Kearns]

Tom or Yancey,

Is that photo of #7 taken from the tee? If so, is it a short par-4 or long par-3?

Wouldn't the back tee on #9, whose line of play is over the corner of the previous green affect the pace of play detrimentally? I do not know how busy this course is, or will be, but on a steady day, it would seem to be a bit of a nuisance. Or is it simply the case that it is a great tee location, and being a nuisance is better than not existing at all?

TK

[Yancey_Beamer]

A partial posting of the images.
This ia a magnificant course that reminds me of Cruden Bay in topography and truly unique shots required.
What a magnificant day of golf!

[Tom_Doak]

Tyler:  The seventh hole is 219 yards.

As for the back tee on 9, #8 is a lay-up par five for all but the strongest members, so the green is not likely to be occupied when the group in front walks back to the tee.  And Stone Eagle is not a really busy course anyway.  We had 16 foursomes for the Renaissance Cup and I didn't notice any waiting for players using the back tee.

The back tee is there, by the way, because it's a better angle to play from [you can make the ball stay on the right-to-left sideslope of the fairway easier], and because the length precludes guys trying to drive the green.  From the next tee the hole is 365 and downhill and there are plenty of guys who would go for it, and that WOULD slow up play.

[Yancey_Beamer]

Tyler,
Given the elevation,not a problem.

[RJ_Daley]

Walkable?  Walking policy?

[Michael Robin]

It is walkable, although a little bit of huffing and puffing will occur, but
Tom gives you a break in that other than 1 & 2, and then 5 & 6, you don't have back to back uphill walks.

Great pics Yancey. Look forward to your backside photos.  

[John Kavanaugh]

Tom,

I have never understood why your bunkers are so "natural" when your pond edges continue to look manufactured.

[Brent Hutto]

I have no experience with desert golf, for that matter no exposure to anything resembling a desert at all. So what's it like to play a course like Stone Eagle? I take it those rock outcroppings you see everywhere are just places you can't afford to hit your golf ball, correct? Like in the photo of #3 if you come up short of that front bunker I'd imagine the ball would bounce off the rocks and you'd ever see it again.

So once you get used to it, is it sort of like playing a target golf course built in wetlands or something? It looks like you have big, ample targets of playable ground but unlike a parkland course if you hit one way off line you don't go poking around in the woods for your ball but just grab another one and take stroke-and-distance I guess.

How does it compare to a course like Stevinson Ranch surrounded by acres of tall grass where you can't go look for your ball? Seems like maybe the same kind of thing, plenty of fairway to aim at but if you hit a big old pull-hook or get a banana slice up into the breeze you forget about it and retee. I'm not trying to be argumentative or make any particular point, I'm just curious.

[RJ_Daley]

I'm with you on this preference, Brent.  If I retired to an area where I could golf all winter, it would be to an area like Pinehurst or Georgia, where there isn't the finality of off line play that there seems to be at just about all desert golf.  It will never fit my eye.

I can only imagine if this same course presented to us in Yancey's very fine pictures, were among sand dune, grassy areas where one could find and perhaps play a ball, rather than the hardscabble rock.  

don't get me wrong, I'd like to play this course at Stone Eagle, and perhaps I will.  I'm sure there is plenty of room out there in terms of width and forgiveness for a hook or slice.  But, once you are out, you are out, so to speak.  I just don't like that feeling.

[Adam_F_Collins]

Tom Doak:

One thing I find interesting here is your general focus and skill at making a golf course fit the land is visually trumped by the desert. It is no doubt very difficult to attempt to make the course appear natural where grass itself looks so out-of-place.

Can you tell us at all about the special challenges of such a landscape in terms of the nature itself and how it relates to your design?

Or was there anything special about the experience?

[Tom_Doak]

Brent:

One of the cool and somewhat unexpected things about the golf course is that more of those wayward shots bounce back into the fairway than you would think.  And there is more grassed area on some of these holes than you can see ... there's about thirty yards in front of the green on #3, for example, and since the hole is only 99 yards from the front tee, that's not that tough.  Even then, I pulled a shot to the left one day, and it hit the rocks and wound up in the bunker on the left, not in the desert; I saw three or four balls miss the grass there, and all but the one blocked into the wash on the right were playable.

Also, in the desert, a lot of stones are loose impediments so if you just get into the desert you can probably play a recovery shot.  It's not like long grass at all, there is a much wider range of options depending on the lie and what's in front of you.  

You can come out sideways;
you can take a big risk; or
you can take an unplayable and go back a ways to where the grass connects to another fairway, and play from there.

This is why they have ruled the desert "an integral part of the course", and not a lateral hazard, though the washes themselves are staked as hazards.

[Chris Moore]

Great photos!  Looking at them made we wonder how you get rid of all the rocks that exist at or just below the surface to avoid injury.  It isn't as if there are just parts of the desert floor that just don't have any rocks.  

[Brent Hutto]

Combining the Daley and Doak comments, an odd juxtaposition comes to mind...

The desert surroundings aren't nearly as visually inspiring (to me at least) as the sand dunes at Cypress Point. But as at CPC if you hit a ball into the junk you've got a good chance of finding it and trying to hit it back into play, although your lie might be a dumpy on soft sand or some other challenging situation. Maybe the members at Stone Eagle can get some caddies like the lifers at the Cypress Point Club who never lose a ball even when looping for hackers who hit it God knows where.

For my part, I think there's a lot to be said for ungrassed areas being an integral part of the course to allow grounding the club, practice swings and so forth. It does remove that feeling of being purely S.O.L. when you make a bad swing, even if the result is still a poor score. [EDIT] And honestly, it never occurred to me looking at the pictures that the ball might actually bounce back into play.

[grandwazo]

Tom, How will the housing impact the golf course once the project is fully built out? I'm interested in a vacation/retirement property and have followed the progress of Stone Eagle with anticipation, Palm Springs is definitely one of my choice destinations.  Would you care to recommend some lot areas that you feel afford the best golf course views and the most privacy? Thanks! Jeff

[Yancey_Beamer]

There are no lots on the course.All lots are situated at the base of the area several hundred feet below the course.The clubhouse is also at this level.

[Dan_Callahan]

Look forward to your backside photos.  

What you choose to do in the privacy of your own home is your business. However, no need to subject the rest of us to pictures of your backside.  

[Michael Robin]

One thing that struck me while playing here was that inside the playability
of the fairways was a fun approach to strategy, as in what line from the tee you might take. This related to not only to the obvious better approach angle, but also to a risk/reward on almost every tee shot in regards to catching a speed-slot in the fairway.

Examples: 1st hole - hug the desert on the left and the ball
hits the contouring and catapults your shot 2 clubs closer to the green than if you go middle or right. 4th hole - Very severe slope right to left. The safe play is right, over the outcropping leaving a mid-iron in. If you
gamble and go left center (over the cart in the photo), you might have wedge, but you very likely could be in the water. 5th hole - lots of options. Flirt with the hazard on the left and you get the speed-slot. Middle is safe, but hits a more dramatic uphill contour and kills distance. Go right and lengthen the hole a little, but buy yourself a flatter lie. 6th hole - Great tee shot. Hit 3-wood left and be safe, but face a tiny green with an uphill lie 7 iron. Take driver and get it close to the fairway bunker on the left with pitched ground and a full wedge that is still scary. Or rip it over the outcropping on the right and find flat ground and a flip sand wedge. If you don't carry the rocks though, you make 7. Last example, the 8th hole. If you try to carry the Canyon Bunker on the right, you are rewarded with a long iron go at the great par 5 green. If you don't clear it, hello double. Play safe in the middle and you are at the edge of not going, but you can't help but try and you bring double into play another way.

There are great tee shots the whole backside as well. 10,11,13,14,16 & 18 specifically. This is a great driving course. Usually an assessment saved for a tree lined course. It has the playability for the high handicapper, but has terrific challenges for the low. Quite a trick on this very difficult raw site. I would even call it masterful in terms of
incorporating strategy with playability.

[Sean_A]

Great pics Yancey. Look forward to your backside photos.  

Jeepers, its too early in the am for saucy photos.

Ciao

Sean