The Sand Pile

[Mike Hendren]

Ken Dye and Joe Finger essentially incorporated sand piles into their interesting Shalimar Pointe CC in the Florida Panhandle.  

These are not the groomed inverted bunkers that grace the 9th at NGLA and other classics, but rather crude, unraked piles of sand placed strategically at the corner of doglegs.  

On a site buffered by the wind, could one merely dump a pile of sand and let the natural vegetation (or even fairway bermuda) creep through it?  How about a diagonal line of sand across the fairway?

Mike

[Bill_McBride]

Wait until you see the photos of our new course at Pensacola CC.  Large waste areas abound.  I walked the course Sunday and was blown away.  The fairways are 60 yards wide where they used to be 30, mostly because the borders to the fairway corridors that had lots of pine trees and the trees are all gone.  The course will be much more fun to play, more contour in the once-flat fairways and larger greens with good contours.  Jerry Pate Design Group and lead designer Steve Dana have done a great job of design, and Scott Pate's Seaside Construction have done well in the building of the course.  Lots of formerly mucky soil was turned to get the sand on top.

I am contemplating a non-official GCA event here in early May, and will advise before long.

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

Bogie oh toothless vol loving Bogie, you are talking about probably the best design in NW Florida. It is too bad it is so poorly maintained. I really have enjoyed playing in a few tourneys there over the years. I would love to see it in good shape again. Sadly my Tiger depressed mind cannot remember the sand piles you are talking about.

[Forrest Richardson]

Some inverted bunkers at our Links at Las Palomas...

[John Kavanaugh]

Some inverted bunkers at our Links at Las Palomas...

I'd have that removed...malignant or not.

[Forrest Richardson]

John K — The wind tries to do just that — every Fall. But new ones keep growing, too.

[Jim Nugent]

Forrest, I know a site that would make a spectacular course, with soil that looks similar to that at Las Palomas.  Is it costly/difficult to build on that type of ground?  What about maintenance?

 

[Forrest Richardson]

Jim — It is not costly until you deal with water. At The Links at Las Palomas we had pure sand. 30-feet deep. There was no import of materials for building (certainly no sand!). The shaping was a matter of pushing and dozer work.

The irrigation and reservior system was costly. In all, however, we spent less than $6 million U.S.  When you consider the irrigation system is $2 million and the wells, lakes and effluent plant were $3 million...our $1 for building was a bargain.