[Forrest Richardson]

I am looking forward to my visit to Bandon to see the two new courses. This is not scheduled, but "on the list."

Does it, though, strike anyone odd that we are in a thread with a title that would be akin to an architecture thread with a title such as "Building Old-Wright's Falling Water Retaining Wall"  ?

[Michael Rossi]

Any others who built these, do you prefer "green side up" or "soil to soil, grass to grass".  I've heard of both ways but settled for the "green side up" option.

[/quote]

Tim

I have been involved with a few. We found that one layer up and one layer down worked best for us "soil to soil, grass to grass". This gives the thicker layer of soil with sod from a farm. We were not able to find a sod supplier to cut the sod as thick as we would have liked, they did cut it thicker than normal for us.

I was on OM last weekend the bunker looked GREAT! Well done all

[Tim Nugent]

Thanks Mike,  our discussion teetered on the what might be worse, thin soil  or a thicker dead grass/organic layer.

[Michael Rossi]

Tim

We also used sand on nearly every layer to keep it level and help dilute the organic layer and firm up the wall.

Om pic form last weekend

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[Jeffrey Stein]

Cool pictures Mike, the blooming gorse reminds me of some great golf back in Bandon.  I liked your picture of the Biarritz.

[Tony_Muldoon]

Jeffrey:

I am at The Renaissance Club now and today Paul Seago's crew did the resodding work around five or ten new bunkers that they have revetted over the past two weeks.  The tie-ins are amazing!  Most of the crew has been doing this work at Gullane or Muirfield or Luffness for years and they are just amazing at it.

I saw the work that crew was doing at Muirfield when we were all in East Lothian in March 2007.  They are skilled indeed, wish I had taken some photos.

Jeffrey excellent thread and nice work thanks.


I think Marty is referring to the Muirfield look with the sod completely encircling the hole.  The one you built only appears to be reveted on the front and side walls?  Can you shed any light on this choice?



I also enjoyed the reference to using the laser line to get them level.  Melvyn ?

[Mark Chaplin]

Sod wall bunkers need rebuilding around 8-10yrs it is therefore important to keep a rolling refurbishment programme, at Deal this means around 10 bunkers need rebuilding each year.

It amazes me how big the bunker footprint is when the old wall has been removed.

[Jeffrey Stein]

I can see I have a lot to live up to with those pictures, the sod rows look immaculate. 

As for the entrance, I didn't really have a choice in the matter.  Jim U presented me with the raw pit and gave me a rough idea where the sod should begin and end.  I would say the decision to leave an open entrance was mainly based on playability and accessibilty. 

The road bunker on Old Mac's 11th hole had steps added months after its orignial construction because the back edge was becoming trampled and difficult to get in and out of.  I plan on adding several more bunker pics in an upcoming thread.

[Carl Rogers]

This is one of the better threads, but are there some maintenance issues and maintenance time lines to this type of bunker.?

Can a sand pro take care of these bunkers?

[Michael Rossi]

For the smaller sized no.

What we would do with the larger ones is have the bunker team take a ramp with them so the sandpro could get in and out of the bunker.

[Bill_McBride]

Mr. McBride and Mr. Doak,

I remember talking to Brian Slawnik about getting a Muirfield look to tie-in the top edge of the bunker to the green.  I even brought my lap top out to the site to show Brian what we had been discussing (because I did not have a printer).  The pictures I have seen of those bunkers are indeed incredible craftsmanship.  I'm considering a stay in Scotland in my near future to get a first hand look.

Don't let another year to by without a visit to the UK links courses, Jeff, you'll never be sorry you went!

Bill

[Brett_Morrissy]

great pics Mike - do you know how long the gorse stays in bloom?

[Brett_Morrissy]

is there a thread on the routing of OM with sequence and holes that were the inspiration - eg where is the Biarritz hole in the routing?

[Michael Rossi]

Brett

Not sure how long the gorse stay in bloom. The biarritz at OM is number 8 I believe. As I understand it when the routing was been established Tom was looking for landforms that would work with the holes. So not to force a template hole on the land but use a land form that would accept the template, the holes are not replicas but interpretations. Check out the punchbowl video interview with Jim U, he speaks about it.

Perhaps someone who was there can chime in.

[Patrick Kiser]

Jeffrey,

I thoroughly enjoyed this thread.  Thanks for sharing.  I think this is the first time I've seen how it gets done.  Wow!  Quite the job.

Of course, I'll probably curse you if I land in there when I get to play the Old Mac ... 

[Patrick_Mucci]

Jeffrey Stein,

Thanks for a most informative and interesting post.

Your post is the kind I envisioned in a seperate section of GCA.com, one that gets into great detail on features, their location, construction and intent.

Thanks again for a unique perspective into a critical feature.

Tom Doak.

Will this hole play from two sets of tees like the original 2nd at Bandon Dunes.

Would a second set of tees, replicating the approaches on # 7 and # 11 at TOC be an enhanced feature ?

[JC Urbina]

Smiley,

I saw your post about the Strath Bunker and realized how much you would like to be designing and building golf courses right now.  That’s the reason I enjoyed having you around during the construction of Old Macdonald.

Jeffrey is one of the reasons I like having energetic guys helping with the design and building of the golf course.  His dedication to the quality of the work and willing to redo something if it's not right without hesitation is key to the success of projects like Old Mac. He worked hard on that bunker and treated it like it was his bunker.  Even at night  he would be out tromping around the site late into the evening looking around and seeing what had gone on around him during the day.  A lot of guys put in some long hours but none with a bigger smile on his face, just loving what he was doing.

I have this vivid picture of Smiley with rake in hand smoothing a fairway out prior to seeding, he is all alone with this huge space in front of him working away like its his last day on the job and he doesn't want it to end. He would help me whenever I needed a little extra help flagging features or shooting some yardages for reference.  Even if it was on a Sunday when he could be playing golf.

He would sit on a sand dune and watch some of the shaping going on long after he punched out on the time clock.  Trying to learn something new everyday.  That's one of the ways you get into the golf business, you work hard and try to learn as much as you can about golf construction and design.  Jeffrey is right when he said I showed him a raw pit and said your going to build a sod wall bunker today.  With help from Jonathan and Carl, he jumped right in feet first.


Thanks Smiley.

[Jeffrey Stein]

    Thanks Jim!! 

One of my favorite memories is having you join my two friends and I for dinner at the Bandon Lodge. 

My friends are musicians from NYC and non-golfers.  Mike is a bass player and just listens, but Paul is a drummer and likes to drive the beat.  At one point he asks Jim, "So what do you do?".  Then Jim drops one of the best analogies I have yet to hear.  "Building a golf course is like making good music. As long as the golfers like our music, we'll just keep playing". 

Classic!

[Kevin Pallier]

is there a thread on the routing of OM with sequence and holes that were the inspiration - eg where is the Biarritz hole in the routing?

Brett

I thought you may have read about Old Macdonald in my Bandon thread  ?

http://golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,42827.0/

[RJ_Daley]

I really enjoyed the thread and appreciate the professional enthusiasm that comes through very strong in Jim Urbina's post about his recognition of a young apprentice embracing the craft.   Probably not everyone that gets on a crew and does construction work fully takes to it as a craft.  But, these relationships that we see of master craftsman like Jim U.,  turning over a major piece of work to a young enthusiastic apprentice and then seeing that work turn out to the master's satisfaction is a nice subject for us GCA followers to get to look in on as a process.  As long as we have those learning relationships, we will always have great golf courses to enjoy. 

[RJ_Daley]

A question I have about stacked sod wall bunkers and how long they last, is if anyone could comment on the condition of the stacked sod wall bunkers at Arcadia Bluffs.  Particularly the enormous deep and steep wall greenside pit at what was the old 1th.  (I forget which renumbered hole it is)  How have the various stacked sod bunkers held up at AB?

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