More Rustic Canyon pictures are posted...

[Ran Morrissett]

... in its course profile, including several stunning aerial ones.

One picture though is annoying to me. It has to do with how a hole actually plays.

Can you guess which one and which feature I wish they would change?

PS It has nothing to do with cart paths.

[Paul_Turner]

Ran

My guess, the funny shaped tree behind the 12th?

[Ran Morrissett]

Paul, No (by the way, did you mean 11?) but the hole is very close by.

[David Kelly]

Ran,
Is it the bunker on the other side of the trees on 14?

[GeoffreyC]

Ran- one thing that occurred to me in looking at the photos is the cuts of rough surrounding quite a few of the bunkers. Wouldn't it be nice to have these cut to fairway height to better let the surrounds act as collection areas into the hazards.  This would expand their size and the player would certainly pay more attention to watching balls run along the ground hoping they don't collect into a bunker.

[Ran Morrissett]

Geoffrey,

BINGO - the picture of the man in the grass on top of the PN bunker in the 13th fairway should have been a picture of a man flailing away in the bunker.

Cheers,

[ed_getka]

Geoffrey,
 I talked to Jim Wagner about that last fall, specifically in regard to the 1st fairway bunker on #13. Jim said that they didn't generally agree with bunkering that "gathered" shots in.

[Ran Morrissett]

Ed,

Maybe someone from Hanse Design will clarify that statement. Certainly, back east where the soil is heavier, gathering bunkers with the land contours feeding into them create drainage issues as they also gather all the rain water.

However, I think there is a difference between contours feeding into a bunker and having a bunker encased by taller grass which impedes the progress of the ball.

Plus at Rustic Canyon, the sandy soil makes drainage a non-issue.

Cheers,

[brad_miller]

Ran, do you like the size of the greenside bunker on #13, might it be bigger, more like #1 at Riv? The scale of this hole is quite large with the great canyon backdrop.

[A_Clay_Man]

Without offending the purists who think judging a course from pictures is inapropriate, I can honestly say that seeing these pics had me salavating to play RC.

Kudos to the shac and those involved for creating what many here emulate. The subtle nuances of quality seem to be very prevalent.

Congrats!

[TEPaul]

Ran & Geoffrey:

Bingo indeed about the grass maintenance surrounding bunkering being such that the functional size of bunkering is increased by having balls collect more effectively into the bunkering!

Basically that helps make golfers much more aware of the ground itself and the strategic significance of it always additionally enhanced by a fast running golf course.

Water and its sheet running tendencies is clearly a tricky thing and grass itself ordinarily would have little resistance to prevent the course and run of sheet flowing water (unless something extremely close to the grade of the grass was around it.

In that regard on a basically low profile course like Rustic Canyon to prevent water running into the bunkering something probably has to be considered in shaping and contouring probably best something like directing sheet drainage past the bunkering on the green end of the bunkering instead of the tee end. It would seem to me that kind of contouring and drainage shaping would serve two benefical purposes--it would get the water away from the bunkering on the proper end of them and it might also aid balls that were a bit better hit to just slip by the bunkering at the green end side of them--a nuancy but commonsensical strategic wrinkle!

[A_Clay_Man]

Considering it is socal, how much attention is needed to water flow?

[TEPaul]

Why because you think it doesn't rain that much in SoCal? Think again! It's never a good idea to underestimate Mother Nature! It's not a good idea either to assume where she might not show up!

[A_Clay_Man]

Tom- Yes, it never rains in california, it pours. Man it pours.

And the truth is that the market won't show-up if the temp is under 55 or the humidity is close to 100

[David Kelly]

A_Clay_Man,
I disagree. I have been playing golf in SoCal for 20 years and I can tell you that  the market definitely shows up if it is under 55 degrees.  But since the average high in Moorpark in Dec and Jan is 67 degrees and Feb 68, it wouldn't be a problem any way.  

As for humidity, 65-75% humidity would be considered very high.

According to Weather.com here are the average rainfall figures
for Moorpark, CA

Jan - 3.70"
Feb - 3.60"
Mar - 2.90"
Apr - 1.10"
May - 0.10"
Jun - 0.00"
Jul - 0.00"
Aug - 0.00"
Sep - 0.40"
Oct - 0.40"
Nov - 2.50"
Dec - 2.60"