I know its supposed to be a one day thing, but I figured I would post a summary of today, since its the kind of site visit most of you probably think of when dreaming of being a gca.
I seem to be chronically behind in work. I spent Saturday getting my daughter ready for college, so I spent Sunday getting out a report for a client, then had a dinner party. As a result, I took the 10PM flight to KC, arriving around midnight. I had a beer on the plane to make sure I was sleepy. I got up and decided to take the "backroads" short cut from KCI to Mayetta. Using the turnpike might be faster, but its 40 miles longer. Of course, I got on the phone and missed the turn,heading north to Athcison, so it wasn't much of a shortcut, but I did see some trains and grain elevators, and I like seeing old towns anyway, so it was a half an hour not wasted.
I got on site, and no one was in the trailer, but I found the lead shaper just down the 12th fw so I went to talk to him. He had spent the last week pushing topsoil in preparation for grassing which actually began today, so there weren't really any greens to look at shaping wise. He had cleared the weeds on the 14th fw so I could take a look.
In essesnce there are a few questions on 14 - there is a small hill between tee and LZ and there is a wetlands at about 310 from the championship tee as I have layed it out. The problem is, I think into the wind its fine, because only a few players will even have to lay up. But Notah has it in his head that you should definitely hit driver and wants the tee moved up so there is an option to clear the creek, which we can't touch, and which is blind because of the hiill. I am not a big fan of the forced carry option and we have an option carry fw on 18 anyway. We will let him look at that tomorrow.
The other idea NBIII had was a Biaritz green on 13. I actually drew a different plan, mostly because we have a strict limit on green quantities and I wasn't sure I wanted to invest 9000 or so SF in one green. And, as it happens, when they pushed the fill up for that green, they just happened to do it in a very natural way. It seems a shame to box it off for a rectangular biartiz/ I called Notah about it but he never returned that call, so we will see tomorrow.
I think I am flunking minimalism 101 here. The general plan was to follow natural grades in most fw, with 11, 3, and 4 needing some big cuts. However, the shapers kept suggesting enhancments and I allowed them. I really do think they are better. For example, on 12, where I went out to first, they had rouged in a fw bunker. Its a DL left with scattered trees and we put a target bunker out on the outside of the DL to turn it visually, since we had trees left. The rough push came out wider than fit my eye, so I had them shorten the bunker but keep the fill, envisioning the fw line running up the gentle rise and being more visible. If a hole dog legs left, 99% of the time, is just better to raise the right edge of the fw to make it look right.
I think the big wigs at LUI (the contractor) have made some noise about the extra shaping not really in the budget, but as I told them, your guys are offering, and I am taking! If the prom queen offers me sex, I'm taking it! (or would when I was back in HS)
After looking at the bit of shaping that was done, I marked grass lines on holes 2-5 and marked bunker edges on a few holes. I like to do every one of those, although the bunker crew has redone some of them at Sand Hills and I think I can give them some freedome. Right now, they aren't coming out quite as chunky as the SH bunkers, but they look fine.
I used the truck to mark grass lines, with the project foreman running the spray can from the other side. I find that walking and spraying leads to too sharp a curve. Driving at 10-15 MPH allows the curves to fit the landscape, and we know mowers can negotiate later. As with bunkers, I mark, go back and look from the tees or LZ and then mark again. I usually end up using three colors with orange being the final color for them to follow.
Sand is going in bunkers and the first sod was laid around 4 green. That green is on a long par 5, where there is an option to drive over a 25 ft deep bunker to shorten the hole a bit, a la No. 4 at Royal St George. On the second, there are two fw, separated by a pair of bunkers. The upper fw rolls dowhill on to the green, which is loosely modeled after 11 at LACC.
I wiill answer emails here in a minute, shower and go to dinner with the boys and NBIII (if he gets here early enough) Tomorrow is more for show and some comments for Notah. More then.