The Evolution of 13 at Rustic Canyon is posted

[Ran Morrissett]

Written by Geoff Shackelford, it is an account of how the 13th hole at Rustic Canyon came into being.

The link to this article is found in the third page of Rustic Canyon's course profile and some 20 pictures are included, which show the hole's evolution from start to finish.

Unless one is in the industry, one may have little idea as to what goes on during the building of a golf hole. Geoff's article directly addressses that issue and we are very lucky that Geoff took the time to take us 'behind-the-scenes' of what can really happen in the real world of golf course design. Even the ubiquitous Tom Paul makes a heralded appearance!

Cheers,

PS As you read it, it's probably worth mentioning that many consider the 13th among the 2-3 finest holes on the course.  

[Jeff Mingay]

Geoff's write-up provides great insight into the development of a golf hole through consistent on-site involvement by the architects. We should all be appreciative of Geoff's willingness to sit down and commit the time to share this info. with us in writing.

And, as has been said before, we must also continue to be appreciative of this website. I mean, where else can you find substantial writings on golf course design and construction besides GolfClubAtlas.com? No where.  

Great stuff!

[brad miller]

I second what Jeff has just said, maybe over time more green committee heads/ members and potential club developers will use the site as a resourse

[Yancey_Beamer]

Congratulations to Geoff for this remarkable tutorial on the process of designing a hole.Having played the hole I can only say-Thanks for both the information and the course!

[RJ_Daley]

A very enjoyable and informative piece of writing and series of evolution photos.  Well done!

[TEPaul]

It's a terrific piece Geoff--and thanks for it--it's educational for all of us.

We all play holes and we form our opinions of them but it's great to know what the architects were thinking and trying to do!

I don't really like to have architects telling golfers how they're supposed to play holes but I do like to have architects tell us what they were thinking and how they tried to make something happen and you did that!

But I have a question for you and Gil although you may not want to talk about it but I wish you both would! It has to do with the routing and the hole concepts from the very beginning--to the "design up"--to the finished product!

If you both don't want to talk about it I do understand but that would be truly educational!

[Geoff Shackelford]

Ran,
Thanks for offering the space to post the article and photos, and thanks to the rest for reading and offering such nice feedback.

Tom Paul,
What's your question?
Geoff

[TEPaul]

Geoff:

My question is how was the site analyzed for golf holes from the beginning. How was the routing developed and finalized and then how the holes came into being out of the routing in a design sense. That's the kind of thing that's interesting that so few are aware of in architecture.

I know you can't answer it all in detail nor have the time to but maybe a few general observations etc. Maybe just how the routing came into being. Was it collaborative or independent iterations and if the latter how it came together with each other?

And if for instance, you did one before anything really came into being (hiring architect etc) where did you start it? Did you start at what's now #1 or what? And how does Gil go about that?  

[Geoff Shackelford]

Tom,
You're right, I'm not going to want to answer your question in a post, there's too much to say. Both Gil and I commented on how the three of us came up with certain aspects of the routing in some earlier posts, and perhaps it would make for an interesting article, I don't know.

I will say that most of the holes were placed because of their natural features. We knew #13 would have pretty framing and some interesting rolls, significant width and the boundary road along the right, but it did not have any single feature jump out. Which is why there was so much uncertainty as to what we should do with it, and thus, why I put the disclaimer at the beginning of the article that #13 involved a unique and different approach prior to construction.
Geoff

[TEPaul]

Geoff:

As for not really getting into all the ramifications of the routing and how it came to be--I understand! Let's just call it a team effort like Rustic itself.

But it would still be interesting without necessarily giving individual attribution to talk about the way things developed with it, what stood out at first with any of you, the obstacles, problems and solutions etc.