If you had 20 acres of land...

[Brian Gracely]

...and you have aspirations to have some golf all to yourself.

It's 20 acres of sandy soil, but it's essentially flat.  Not enough to build an entire course, but plenty to build a few holes.  

What would you build?  Would you try and model the holes after great holes from flat courses, or do you have things in mind that you'd like to try?  

[Forrest Richardson]

We completed a plan in Borrego for a 20-acre course. A par-4, par-3 and par-5 which formed a circular routing. The owner passed away, so it was abandoned as far as a golf project.

[Mike Benham]

I would concentrate on building great greens, ones that you might play from one or two different angles, angles that you can run the ball up, bunkers and variety of slope.

[Garland Bayley]

From this armchair's perspective, I would design my own thing. On a relatively flat site with sandy soil, my inclination would be to try to create strategic interest with bunkering. Of course, it all depends on what the meaning of relatively is. Since you did not say it was nearly flat, or totally flat, I wouldn't feel the need to reshape. In actuality, more detail would be necessary to truly decide.

[A_Clay_Man]

Brian, The "little diamond: is just such a place. Built in an old quarry,(17 acres) so there's plenty of opportunity for elevation changes. It has numerous trees, of varying spieces, and in it's current state resembles a mini arboritum.(The catfish are huge) (so is the gator) My friend, has roughed out nine holes. All par 3's. Using multiple teeing grounds, the place is on the cusp of sophisticated design.

Here's an aerial before he did any work.



This is the pond he dug out. You can tell he's done alot of clearing.



This is one of the original ponds. I call it the upper one. It is nearest to the entrance to the prop



He is waiting to acquire an adjacent 2 1/2 acres that will allow his routing vision, to be as he put's it, "perfect".

[Ted Kramer]

I'd build a Sheep Ranch type set-up . . .
interesting greens and bunkers.

If done well, I'd probably have more fun out there than I would on most golf courses.

-Ted

[Kyle Harris]

One large himilayas type putting green, a few bunkers sprinkled about (maybe one or two contained within the green itself) and plotches of fairway and various roughs.

[Craig Sweet]

I'd have 20 acres down on the Madison River, a small cabin, and a mowed area where I could hit balls and find them...

[Garland Bayley]

I'd have 20 acres down on the Madison River, a small cabin, and a mowed area where I could hit balls and find them...

Craig,
The question was about golfing, not fishing.
 

[Craig Sweet]

Garland, one thing I have learned about fishing the Madison is it isn't always about catching fish.  A nice single malt goes well with that river, as does my golden. I'm sure an interlude for smacking the shag bag would fit in nicely.

[Phil_the_Author]

Golf Illustrated, July 1929. The article is titled, "A nine hole course on 20 or 30 acres." Author, A.W. Tillinghast. It includes illustrations of ones he built.

Another good article is titled, "Miniature Golf Courses," from Golf Illustrated, November 1930. In it Tilly mentions having received a U.S. Patent for the "Lilliput Links" trademark. He began advertising this as "Real links in miniature for private esteates, country clubs and hotel grounds."

For those who don't have these you can find them reprised in Rick Wolffe's wonderful compendium of Tilly's writings, "Gleanings from the Wayside." If you don't have this or his other two volumes, go to the Tillinghast Association web-site & you can order them.  

[Craig Sweet]

The only problem is anything you build, you have to maintain. That's why I'd be happy with a place to hit the shag bag. An hour with my lawn boy riding mower and my driving range is ready to go.  

[David_Madison]

Brian,

First question - are you maintaining this or do you have unlimited funds and can have someone handle this for you. Makes a huge difference in how much putting surface and fairway areas you create. I'd build flexible holes like #6 at Tobacco Road to create the greatest possible variety. The greens would be about 50 yards wide going one way and exceptionally shallow the other, with teeing areas everywhere. As a par-3, it could be anything from 250 yards with the green going the long way, to a flip sand wedge to the shallow dimension. There'd be knobs, hollows, a variety of bunkers, big open areas on the green, and then some tiny tongues sticking out. I'd try to create the same thing with one or two par-4's, with lots of width for bombing (and a large teeing area for general use as a practice range), but other angles (maybe created with trees) where it would be much tighter.

[Andrew Summerell]

I'd sub-divide & sell off the housing blocks, using the profits to buy a house next door to a really good course so I could practice & play anytime I want. I don't want to have to maintain my own course.

[Tommy_Naccarato]

20 acres is a lot of room to build an excellent par 3 course with maybe even a par four or five in there although I love that original Mashie Course at Riviera or maybe the even better Billy Bell Mashie course at Agua Caliente. Hagen even played matches there against Leo Diegel and others from an age gone by.

Look for some images of it in Geoff Shackelford's next book.

[RJ_Daley]

If I had 20 acres of good land in a good climate, I'd plant tomatoes and basil.  I'd sell half of the produce and use the rest myself.  I'd use the procedes and savings of the cost to maintain my own private golf enclave, to go play golf at a real golf course, with real people.

[Stu Grant]

Another idea if you only have 20 acres of land is to design a golf course flexible enough to accommodate both regular golf balls and Cayman golf balls (see www.caymangolf.com) which fly only 50% as far.  With the limited flight balls you can include more par 5s and add further variety and interest into your design.

[Stu Grant]

I find this such an interesting thread because I've often thought about designing a few holes on the property that sits behind our house.  We just had our first son four months ago and I think that when the time comes, it would be great to have our own golf course to play on as he learns the game.

Of course, the two problems are TIME and MONEY, particularly when it comes to the greens.  From a time-saving perspective, I've wondered about those synthetic putting greens because they don't need mowing, but I have no idea whether these greens are actually receptive to iron shots from 150 yards or whether the approach shots would just bounce over the green.  If the playing surface is not similar to a real green then it kind of defeats the purpose.  Furthermore, these synthetic greens are very expensive judging from the one quote that I've received so far.

Any cost-saving or time-saving tips out there for a good 20-acre course?        
 

[Gary_K]

If I had the land, time and money for maintaining greens; I would seriously consider building a 2-hole/green course based on the McAlister Ranch Golf and Country Club in Texas.  I can't find anything on the Internet about the course.  

I have a book titled 'The Golfer's Home Companion' that has 3 pages dedicated to the course with a diagram of the greens and tee box layout.  2 greens are used with multiple tee boxes to form a 3,270 yard par 36 course.  

The article doesn't mention how many acres were needed. There are a few ponds on the course.

I'll scan the layout at work in the morning and try to post here.

Gary K.

[Garland Bayley]

...
these synthetic greens are very expensive judging from the one quote that I've received so far.
...

Have you asked for a quote on building a natural grass green? I bet the synthetic green will be significantly less expensive. My company put in a green. The cost of the natural green was significantly higher than for the synthetic green. They mistakenly chose the natural green. It was a mistake, because they were unwilling to pay the ongoing costs to make the natural green usable.

[Gary_K]

This is my first attempt at post a photo here (I hope it works).  

Layout of the McAlister 2-Hole Ranch & Country Club

[Stu Grant]

Garland,

If I was putting in a natural green in the backyard I'd probably go the "do-it-yourself" route to save upfront costs as opposed to bringing in professionals...at least at this (financial) stage of my life!

That being said, I am leaning towards synthetic because I wouldn't want to have to cut the greens on a regular basis when I'd rather be playing golf.  

 

[George Pazin]

Congratulations, Gary, you have to be the first person to get posting a photo right on your first try, no edits or anything.

I have that book and look at that section wistfully a few times a year. Not so much for the quality of the design, that actually seems a bit lacking, just more for the idea of having that in my backyard.

[RJ_Daley]

We have a 20 hole course here in my area of Wisconsin currently called Twin Eagles, formerly Creeks of Ellingson.  The two extra holes are 360-390ish par 4s.  They are good golf holes with bunkering, quality greens, etc.  They are adjacent to a quality driving range and very good and 2 adequatley large practice putting a sand bunker practice greens.  Yet, this place went bankrupt in 2002.  They wound up selling a quality course for under 1 million.  The practice holes and range are on about 20 acres, maybe slightly more.  The cost to maintain those 2 extra holes and practice greens probably had something to do with the bankruptcy, and the fact they didn't do 12000 paying rounds a year in either of their first two years.  And this is a seriously good golf design!

It costs $$$ to maintain this stuff!  

[Garland Bayley]

Stu,
Go natural and get goats and rabbits for maintenance. But then instead of spending all your time maintaining the course you will spend it making milking goats and making goat cheese and butchering rabbits.