Practice Area with limited vision tee areas....Am I being picky?

[Mike_Young]

I am a member of a club where we are undergoing a renovation/restoration or whatever they wish to call it.  Built in 1926 and a good solid golf course. We voted for a 6 million dollar assessment , passed by 9 votes out of 750 total.....[/img]and have begun.  Now I am not going to name club or the people involved.  But we do have a "design/construction committee" which is dangerous. You know..lot of chiefs.... The first project has been the practice area.  They felt we needed more tee space, more length , more visibility on one side and a short game area.  All of this was correct.  However, on one half of the practice area tee ground they decided to allow it to be built as one large flat area over 200 feet from front to back.  Now this does not allow one to see a 145 yard shot land not does it allow one to see more than the top of the flag from the back half of this half of the tee.  They claim it was done to create more tee space.  On a 1:1 slope on a 5 foot tier the loss of tee space would have been minimal and the target greens could have been seen.  In other words...when the tees are in the back third of that tee one cannot see wedges, 9 irons and 8 irons land.  Since we completely redid the practice area over a 4 month period and resodded, reshaped and irrigated and built all new tees....should this have been acceptable or should it have been tiered.  None of these guys have experience and I sense they are being led by the present supt who naturally wants tee space.  What I describe affects 20 percent of the tee space visibility. 

I do not consider such acceptable when you had the resources to correct it as it was being constructed and I fear they will continue .....We spent $500,000 on the practice area....In all fairness these guys don't want my opinions because I am local and I have let them know what I think......Am I being picky.....the committee says it should not matter because the main tee is really for warm-up and the lower tee should be for serious practice.....said by a guy that can't break 90.....

[Mike_Young]

forgot the foto

[mike_beene]

Couldn't they tier it? I agree it is not ideal,but I have to go to course to get distances because the balls are different and I cant see anyway. Good looking piece of property.Where are you?

[Lynn_Shackelford]

No brainer.  Despite a small loss of teeing space it should have been tiered.  Supers love to reduce work time on anything involving top dressing on practice tees.  He is thinking he will be allowed to top dress less often as he has more space.
What did you say once?  "Clubs are being run for the employees?"

My former employer, American Golf loved long flat tees at public courses.  Easier to mow, edge, seed, water and top dress.

[Bill_McBride]

I am a member of a club where we are undergoing a renovation/restoration or whatever they wish to call it.  Built in 1926 and a good solid golf course. We voted for a 6 million dollar assessment , passed by 9 votes out of 750 total.....[/img]and have begun.  Now I am not going to name club or the people involved.  But we do have a "design/construction committee" which is dangerous. You know..lot of chiefs.... The first project has been the practice area.  They felt we needed more tee space, more length , more visibility on one side and a short game area.  All of this was correct.  However, on one half of the practice area tee ground they decided to allow it to be built as one large flat area over 200 feet from front to back.  Now this does not allow one to see a 145 yard shot land not does it allow one to see more than the top of the flag from the back half of this half of the tee.  They claim it was done to create more tee space.  On a 1:1 slope on a 5 foot tier the loss of tee space would have been minimal and the target greens could have been seen.  In other words...when the tees are in the back third of that tee one cannot see wedges, 9 irons and 8 irons land.  Since we completely redid the practice area over a 4 month period and resodded, reshaped and irrigated and built all new tees....should this have been acceptable or should it have been tiered.  None of these guys have experience and I sense they are being led by the present supt who naturally wants tee space.  What I describe affects 20 percent of the tee space visibility. 

I do not consider such acceptable when you had the resources to correct it as it was being constructed and I fear they will continue .....We spent $500,000 on the practice area....In all fairness these guys don't want my opinions because I am local and I have let them know what I think......Am I being picky.....the committee says it should not matter because the main tee is really for warm-up and the lower tee should be for serious practice.....said by a guy that can't break 90.....

I think the committee should have hired an architect.  Don't those people know what you do for a living?   

[Pete_Pittock]

Should have been tiered. I hope you don't have raised target greens which create hidden areas behind them.

[BCrosby]

Here I was thinking that the whole point of practicing shots was to see how and where they landed. Otherwise you're just taking practice swings. Boy, I guess I got that wrong. You need to get with the program, Mike. 

Bob

[mike_beene]

The compromise is to hit wedge shots to the front of the tee for 90% of your range time,and then go use the expensive short game area.Think of the favor they just did your game.(I can still see my short game shots land with these 49 year old nearsighted eyes)

[Mike_Young]

Mike Beene,
Your suggestion would be ok if it were not that the club just paid to have it done correctly and these guys can't understand that it is not....

Bill Mc,
Oh yea they know what I do....and I think they hired someone but I think they use that to justify what they wish to do.....I am giving the person they hired the benefit of the doubt....my intuition tells me they do what the supt wants....you know how it goes two or three guys that are going to do what they wish no matter what.....

[Chris Cupit]

Did the committee not have the proper seance to channel the driving range vision of the ODG   That was obviously their first mistake.

[Bill_McBride]

Mike Beene,
Your suggestion would be ok if it were not that the club just paid to have it done correctly and these guys can't understand that it is not....

Bill Mc,
Oh yea they know what I do....and I think they hired someone but I think they use that to justify what they wish to do.....I am giving the person they hired the benefit of the doubt....my intuition tells me they do what the supt wants....you know how it goes two or three guys that are going to do what they wish no matter what.....

Are these the same guys with the big cigars and the flat screen tv's in the urinals?

[Jason Topp]

Our has hidden landing areas and I hate it.  Your committee screwed up.

[Jon Heise]

Any course that has a practice range where there are blind targets immediately makes me angry at not only the course, but the morons who thought it would be a good idea to build it like that.  ahem... Lakes of Taylor in Taylor, MI...

[Sean_A]

Ace

Lay off cigar ragging.  Cigars put hair on your chest and winter is always just around the corner.

Jon

Do you mean Taylortucky?  Those of the hillbilly persuasion on this site would fit right in.

Mike Y

The real question is why are these guys spending time on the range when there is a course next door?  Whatever it cost to redo the range the club should have saved in getting a smaller loan. 

Ciao

[Bill_McBride]

Ace

Lay off cigar ragging.  Cigars put hair on your chest and winter is always just around the corner.

IN this case you need to iknow "the rest of the story."    Remind me to tell you at Huntercombe.

[Mike_Young]

Mike Beene,
Your suggestion would be ok if it were not that the club just paid to have it done correctly and these guys can't understand that it is not....

Bill Mc,
Oh yea they know what I do....and I think they hired someone but I think they use that to justify what they wish to do.....I am giving the person they hired the benefit of the doubt....my intuition tells me they do what the supt wants....you know how it goes two or three guys that are going to do what they wish no matter what.....

Are these the same guys with the big cigars and the flat screen tv's in the urinals?

Bill,
Same group different faces.  IMHO and from what I see they rely on the supt for their decisions....remember the saying that "maintenance is for golf not golf for maintenance"...I would wager that is how we got what we got so far.....think about it ...a few years back they did the same thing by having a local shaper build a short game area from another archie's details..he built it backwards at the supts instructions and they blame the archie to this day....they scare the hell out of me.....they love Sea Island and Reynolds but have never seen Holston or even heard of a Merion.....(maybe one or two have)....but overall a very obnoxious group with little knowledge.  I just hope we end up with enough money to have some of those tv's in the golf carts....

[Don_Mahaffey]

Practice?...PRACTICE!!!...I mean c'mon man, we're worried about Practice?  I care about watching where my wedge hits when I'm stiffing it for the win! Its not like it matters where it lands when I practice. As long as I got grass, good balls, and they stack 'em up in them cool little pyramids, them I'm good. Practice? Who worries about practice?

(I actually do like to practice, but what's the point of arguing with idiots. All they do is bring you down to their level and then beat you with experience. Mike, maybe they can keep trying to get the practice area right and run out of money before they "fix" the golf course) 

[Bill_McBride]

Mike Beene,
Your suggestion would be ok if it were not that the club just paid to have it done correctly and these guys can't understand that it is not....

Bill Mc,
Oh yea they know what I do....and I think they hired someone but I think they use that to justify what they wish to do.....I am giving the person they hired the benefit of the doubt....my intuition tells me they do what the supt wants....you know how it goes two or three guys that are going to do what they wish no matter what.....

Are these the same guys with the big cigars and the flat screen tv's in the urinals?

Bill,
Same group different faces.  IMHO and from what I see they rely on the supt for their decisions....remember the saying that "maintenance is for golf not golf for maintenance"...I would wager that is how we got what we got so far.....think about it ...a few years back they did the same thing by having a local shaper build a short game area from another archie's details..he built it backwards at the supts instructions and they blame the archie to this day....they scare the hell out of me.....they love Sea Island and Reynolds but have never seen Holston or even heard of a Merion.....(maybe one or two have)....but overall a very obnoxious group with little knowledge.  I just hope we end up with enough money to have some of those tv's in the golf carts....

If they try to do anything to the original course, you and Crosby may have to saddle up and become night riders!  Rymer can help.  Hell, I'll come up and help, too many good memories of that fine old course.

[Mike_Young]

They will be working on the course.....and the actions at the practice area concern me mainly for that reason....if they just hired someone and left them alone that would be one thing but this group will be adding their influences throughout....you can't argue with these types as Don says....they don't know what they don't know and when they bring/brought in consultants they did so until there was one that would agree with what they wanted....for example..the local USGA guy gave alternatives they did not like so they got another from another area that would  promote their agenda and then tried to make it look like the USGA was the authority.....
Cheers

[Jonathan Webb]

Mike,

Is this club you speak of in the great state of Georgia?  Near where the bulldogs play?