Greg,Tom, Slag, Eric et al.....
Thanks for the interest....it has been a long process for many reasons, and its finally coming to fruition.
Its been almost five years since I first wandered the 1600 acre property afoot...without benefit of base maps or topos. It soon became a jaw dropping while stumbling from dune crest to dune crest experience....one that finally culminated at a glorious deserted beach.
You really have to see the site to be able to appreciate the how strong the setting is....dunes up to 150' and incredible views...a great raw piece of land similar to Cypress or Ballybunion or a few of Tom's more heralded creations.
This course could never get built in the States.
It was the primary film site for the movie Troy.
It will open today to limited play, but the Grand Opening will be December 13th.
Tom, the course is still owned by the original development group. Lehman Brothers was the original lender, but after their collapse, one of the lenders behind Lehman came forward to provide the direct funding....which took about 9 months to get back on track...and fortunately everything has smoothed out and the future looks good.
You will also be pleased to know that I was finally able to get a dozer bigger than a D5 to manipulate...nah flatten....some of the dune areas that constricted the play width of a few holes.
I have redone many of the bunkers and fairway edges to try to obscure the 'hand of man', and I am still de vegetating and restricting irrigation on the sandy edges areas to reduce the amount of lost ball potential.
Only one grass type was used, Paspalum Supreme, and there is not a single piece of drain pipe of anywhere on the course...and its been interesting to see how the grass responds to withholding water where we want a natural looking edge...its really a great look to see it thin out and transition back to sand. Maintenance friendly too.
The course does get its share of naturally occurring topdressing in the dry and windy months, and we are just going with it....letting the wind create aerodynamic slopes and surfaces.
I learned after the first year to rough and punk up features....exagerate them to a certain extent....and then let the wind finish the final shaping.
One of the pluses of having a year round growing season is that we don't have the dessication and scouring that many of the Sandhill or Bandon courses have when their grass goes dormant.
We fix erosion areas by adding water and turf, but more often than not we just go with it....I have learned much from big wind events....mainly don't fight back...but instead to allow for and embrace the change.
I often reflect on how much Cypress has changed and mellowed from its original raw state, and its going to be interesting to see how this course evolves over time.
Cart path design had similar issues.
Although the course is very walkable and has a caddy program, it was decided early that we would also allow for carts to be used.....but cart paths would only go from greens to the next tee.
Concrete was not an option because the sand made it almost impossible to get material to the site....but more importantly, with as much as the site moves....especially in the un irrigated areas where most of the cart paths occur...we knew that we didn't want to commit to a surface that was inflexible.
We considered different options such as irrigated and grassed paths, decomposed granite and RR ties in various combinations....but settled on all RR ties for ease of construction, and the ability to relay them in changing areas.
We also have beefed up the suspension on the carts and added a flotation type tire which helps mitigate the bumpiness.
The carts actually do well off road....but we are not going to publicize that for obvious reasons....but I guess I just did.
The course plays from 7300, 7000, 6600, 6300, and 5800 [and lower], with two drivable par fours, a 490 and 540 par four, 305 par three which plays wind down generally. Most should not go too far back for the most 'fun'.
The course recently was played by the higher ups from Golf Digest, who kindly said there was not a bad hole in the mix, and that it should crack the Top 100 World in short order. That would be nice, as then Cabo golf would have two of these....Cabo Del Sol being the other.
But who knows with the Rating Game.
As I write this I am keeping an eye on Hurricane Rick which seems to be barrelling towards Cabo mid week...and I was to go there tomorrow. Probably won't, but want to wish my friend Greg Tallman Godspeed because I expect he will stay put.
Its interesting in that I was there for the last Cat 1/2 storm that came through two years ago and the eye passed right over Cabo.
We weren't fully grassed and I expected that much of what we had done would be blown away.
When I finally got to the site, I was pleased to see no damage at all.....primarily because of all the rain that came with the wind.
The wet sand held in place and was polished and swept as smooth as could be.
It was perfect, and I wish we could of cut in the sprigs the next day.....but we still needed irrigation!
Tom....please come and make a return trip, with clubs even, when you have the time.
I would equally enjoy touring your Bay of Dreams course, as I hear that is getting close to opening as well.
I could get more specific about details of the course if anyone wants....but for now I'm tired of typing.