Here are some photos of the work that has been done to date at the Valley Club during this current restoration project stage.
I haven't been there since May 2006, so can't really do much more than post these. My friends who are members and know what a GCA geek I am took them last Saturday and sent them on. Perhaps Tom Doak can add some comments. I believe most of the greens have been restored to original dimensions, adding quite a bit of square footage.
The members are playing temporary greens during construction and grow in, and you'll see a couple of examples. They didn't play 8, 9, 16, 17 or 18, so no photos of those holes.
Here's #1, where a very large tree near the left OB line has been removed. This tree grew over the years and blocked shots from the best angle to reach the short par 5 green in two. Removal of the tree brings the dangerous OB left into play once again!
The second hole is a par 5 sharp dogleg left around the boundary, which is a tall hedge between Valley Club and the neighboring Birnam Woods CC (world's tightest RTJ Jr course on incredibly expensive real estate) next door. The big change here, as I understand it, was enlargement of the two fairway bunkers to bring them more into play. Here is a view from the tee as well as a closeup of the left bunker:
#3, a 436 yard par 4, toughest on the course, has been made more difficult by the addition of a left side fairway bunker. The safe play has always been up the left side; this will now be as dangerous as the right side.
Here's a close up of the new fairway bunkering on the left:
Here's a view from opposite the new bunker ahead to the green. Note the "scare" bunkers on the hill behind #3 green, these were done in earlier restorations and for some reason arouse the ire of some GCAers.
This is the fourth green, wonderful drop shot par 3. I understand that the green has been enlarged but it appears the big change could be either removal or severe cutting back of the giant tree on the left side that obstructed lots of good-looking iron shots to this green!
Here's the sixth green, a very short par 4 (~300 yards), where the green appears to have been increased in size dramatically. This will make it even harder to get that pitch shot close to the hole. There is a lot of left to right slope on this green, although the front right appears very high in this photo. Perhaps it was raised in the new construction?
This is the 11th hole, which has been discussed here quite a bit recently. The green has been enlarged, as have the greenside bunkers.
This is #12, very good short par that requires a fade off the tee. The best tee shots have always been closest to the barranca on the right, left side tee shots can actually be blocked out by the hillside and trees on the left. Up on the hill left is dead. The new addition is the restored fairway bunker on the right side, adding another element of danger to the best tee shot angle.
Here's the 12th green from behind. You can see the trouble on the left side of the fairway (big tree), but I'm not sure if that's the new fairway bunker you can see in the distance. You usually can't see Valley Club bunkers from the target side.
Final photo, par 5 #15 up to the clubhouse. What a view!
One of the temporary greens is right in front of the photographer, not sure what it's doing way down the fairway. I think this photo is from between the spectacle bunkers. I'm also not sure what work was done on #15. It has one of the smallest greens on the course, and the steepest slope between two distinct tiers. It would be difficult to add too much size to the green, as it falls off on both sides pretty quickly.
