Club owner and GCAer Chris Cupit was kind enough to give me a tour of the newly renovated course today. Rivermont is just north of Atlanta. Most of the course re-opened for play this month, with the rest to follow in the next few weeks.
Chris and golf architect Mike Riley removed several hundred trees, widened fairways, funked up the greens, moved some things around and incorporated a number of Golden Age concepts into their own free-flowing mix.
"No white sand" is one of the parameters Chris spelled out in an earlier post (which is worth digging up.) Here is Rivermont's 1st green, viewed from near the 18th tee:
Chris and Mike added fairway bunkers for strategy. This one makes for an interesting layup at #2, a par five (also reachable). Playing to the right brings a creek into play. Going left, which is more difficult, affords an open view of the green from above it. The very tip of the yellow flag can be seen above the midpoint of the bunker:
Ample chipping areas around the greens will be tightly mowed:
#4 now features a Redan green. The flag position is front right/center. Chris hit a 4-iron that landed short of the pin..
.. and released 30-40 feet to the green's lower left portion:
A view from the Redan bunker:
Chris and Mike have strived to get away from symetrical patterns and to incorporate irregularities. Here is part of a mound that was accidentally gouged by a shaper .. the kind of look they are after:
Chris stands in front of and to the left of the very blind, sweeping punchbowl green on #9:
This bunker fronting #9 was conceived to be much smaller, but when a downpour blew it out Chris and Mike decided they liked the shape of the washout and stuck with it:
The newly-drivable green at #11 is the course's smallest.. about 4000 sq. feet. Rivermont's bunkers come in all sizes and shapes:
A long view of the voracious bunker that guards the par-5 #12:
Chris walks the massive false-front at the par-4 #13:
The view looking up the false front. This shot is going to bring grief to a lot of higher handicappers:
A number of Rivermont's new greens incorporate semi-straight lines. This one is up against a ridge that drops down to an area that will catch shots that go left, keeping them from going down an even larger hill.
The bunkers on the right are about 10 yards short of the 16th green. This is one of the few greens on the course where a runup is not necessarily an option:
Having seen Rivermont I'm really excited for Chris and his members. I'm sure Chris will be happy to answer any questions.