Tavistock CC- Master Plan Progress w/ Pics

[JSlonis]

As many of you already know, my home course is in the process of a large Master Plan restoration project.  I am going to try and frequently update our progress here on GCA.

Below you will see the before and after of Jim Nagle's redesign of our par 3, 4th hole.  The green and greensite had been redone back in the early 1990's and the finished product never fit with the rest of the course.  Jim's new greensite captures many of Findlay's features found elsewhere on the course and will really blend with the overall design.
# 4 green during rough shaping

#4 greensite after finish grade on the green and the completion of the surrounds.  The green itself was just seeded.


The pics below are of our par 3, 16th greensite.  This is a slightly uphill par 3 that plays anywhere from 185 to 200 yards from the back tee.  The old green was very severe.  There is a great "Findlay hump" in the middle of the green that basically made it a two tiered green.  The problem was that the front half of the green was unplayable.  Some older members feel that over the years the front half of this green had settled some. Even at slower green speeds, you could not put a hole location on the front half.  What we decided to do was recapture some lost greenspace along the front half and raise it up slightly to create some pinnable locations.  The back half of the green will be extended back about 15 feet to increase the pinnable area as well.  We previously had only a 5 foot deep by 20 foot wide area for a hole location.  The entire green was GPS'd so that the original Findlay hump in the middle of the green could be rebuilt as it always was.  The fronting bunkers are also being rebuilt.  They now are cut more into the hillside and have become much deeper.  Also, with new hole locations able to be played on the front half of the green, the bunkers should come more into play than they did before.
#16 Green



Here are some pics of the new growth to the 12th green.  This was one of the earliest greens to be seeded.  I took the pictures last week so I'm sure that it will be even more filled in now.




I will continue to post updates as we move along through the project.  A lot of the bunker and earth work is on schedule next.

[LPolisano]

JSlonis:

Thanks for the updates.  I look forward to the continued progress reports.  When is the project scheduled for completion?

OT - Congratulations on qualifying for the Mid Amateur.  Good luck in Arizona next month.

[Scott Witter]

JS:

The new and improved bunkering looks excellent on the 16th.  You can really get a sense of the depths and steep faces golfers will see with the scale provided by the workers in the bunkers.  I hope the boldness by Findlay and Nagle is appreciated when the course reopens these holes.

[JSlonis]

JSlonis:

Thanks for the updates.  I look forward to the continued progress reports.  When is the project scheduled for completion?

OT - Congratulations on qualifying for the Mid Amateur.  Good luck in Arizona next month.

Lee,

Thanks. I've heard nothing but great things about Forest Highlands.

The actual site work will be finished later this fall and then based on the progress of growth for the greens and the fairways, we plan on opening the course sometime next May.

Scott,

Those workers really do provide a great scale to judge the depth of those bunkers.  I too hope the final project is well received.  It will be impossible to please everyone, but I think there will be some wonderful dramatic features that should really standout.  Findlay provided some very unique features in his design of Tavistock and I'm pleased that Nagle/Forse are not hesistant to reintroduce what we had lost.

[Karl Bernetich]

Wayne,

I wasn't ignoring the request for pictures, just trying to figure out how to post (than I remember somebody mentioning Photobucket)  Let's see if this works ...

The photos in this tread are nicer than any I took.  I walked the course Feb 10th.  It was sunny (windy and cold too) but not like the other photos posted.

I'll try to add photos that arn't already covered.

The 15th at Tavistock is a 525 yd par 5.  Less than a driver off the tee up to a hill.  Hard dog leg left (Rt. 295 on the right).  Second shot is down hill to a lay up area (unless you can play a draw -- I can't).  Short 3rd shot approach.

Here are 2 pictures of the 15th.  In the second shot landing area on the rt. the fairway bunker was re-done (don't go in there !)



and here's a picture of the approach.  Don't miss the green.

[Karl Bernetich]

New trend ... or an old one ?
"Squared off" transition of green with the fairway.
I have noticed that feature on several other courses lately.  Was that typical of 20's GCA and now it's being back in style ?

These 2 holes always had a fairway-to-green transition but now they seem much more squared off.  Maybe it's just the way the grass is cut for the winter, but now it's seems VERY square.

Here's a photo of the 11th approach.


Same with the 12th ... again, now it seems very squared off.  

[Karl Bernetich]

In the photo above, now you can see the 15th green in the background.  You never could before.  A lot of tree clearing went along with the course retoration.

[JSlonis]

Karl,

The squared off greenfronts that you mentioned are the way those greens will continue to be maintained.  Orginally Findlay had quite a few squarish greens at Tavistock.  They had become more rounded over many years due to mowing patterns.  As part of our restoration, the greens were brought back to original size and shape and will stay that way in the future.  I think it is a great look and not something you see everyday.

Once this latest batch of snow/ice clears I plan on taking a thorough walkthrough to take a lot of photos.  I'll update this thread accordingly.

[Joe Hancock]

Why are those lone trees off the back corners of the greens still there?

Not meant to be a sarcastic question, the tone is just hard to avoid in that type of question....

Joe

[JSlonis]

Joe,

The tree you see behind the right side of #11 is a specimen Dawn Redwood tree.  We removed a huge Oak that was directly behind the green along with many other White Pines in order to highlight the Dawn Redwood and improve sunlight and airflow to that greensite.  From the tee, that tree stands as a sentinel and looks great from many other areas around the course.

The tree you see in the back left of the 12th green is actually farther away from that green than it appears in the picture.  It sits near the lakeside about 30-40 yards behind the green.

Here are a couple of updated pics that I took a few weeks ago.

#16 during construction this past August.


#16- The finished product


A look down the first hole from the members tees.

[Patrick_Mucci]

Jamie,

We have a date there this spring or summer with the Schmeerschmucker, AKA, Jim Groeling, the peskiest defensive guard around.

[JSlonis]

Pat,

We absolutely will have a game.  I saw Jim yesterday morning at a meeting.  I think he's still in good enough shape to play some tough "D".

[JNagle]

Karl -

The squared green fronts at Tavistock came about from two separate reasons, the one intended (not sure it would ultimately happen the other a happy accident.  We (Forse Design and I am sure others) love restoring the squared approaches to the greens on Classic courses.  Mainly because the older greens have haunches, rolls, bumps and such on their front left, center and right corners that were very much a part of the green and  its design and strategies.  The features were certainly more useful in the old days of bump and run.  Tavistocks original greens have plenty of these features.  If we were to even slightly round the fronts of the greens we would have missed these great features.  They would have been masked under a higher cut of grass.  Additionaly, squaring the approaches will allow for hole locations to be cut much closer to the fronts of greens and closer to the aforementioned bumps and such.  Typically, courses will not allow the extreme squaring -off of greens because of maintenance in those front left and right corners.  Tom Grimac, to his credit, simply said, "we will get it done, just paint the lines they way you want them and they way they appeared in the old photos."

The happy accident came during the process of gassing/regrassing the greens.  The sod cut that was made around the green to install a vapor barrier ended up being perfectly straight (especially on holes 11 and 12) revealing a glimpse of what the finished product could be if the green approaches were sqaure.  This helped sell the idea.