Wintonbury Hills in Bloomfield, Connecticut is a good example of a golf course built in 2002, near the end of exuberant times of “a new golf course a day”. Then, it was important to be the best in the area and a little excess was understandable.
Contrast that to the 2010 survival mode of today where our goal is to reduce the maintenance cost by 10-15% to accommodate lower fees and rounds.
Much like editing the written word, it is always nice, 7 years later, to have the opportunity to edit your work with fresh eyes.
Updating the construction of the bunkers (new sand and drainage) is normal 7 years after construction on better golf courses. In this case it allowed us the opportunity to take a look at reducing maintenance and adjusting a few artistic elements (scale, texture and detail) of the bunkering. We removed bunkers that were more visual in nature and essentially out of play. We added more detail to the remaining bunkers, while at the same time softening many slopes to reduce maintenance. We also considered some of the reviews that felt a few of the green complexes looked repetitive.
Overall it has been a rewarding experience, giving me a chance of refining work that initial budget and time constraints did not allow. I also like to think I am a better architect than I was 7 years ago (believe it or not, it takes time to be a good golf course architect) and I wanted to taking full advantage of a more talented team around me.
Finally, besides master planning, this project is typical of the type and scope of work I have seen over the past few years with smaller budgets and projects. In the US it will probably be this way over the next few years as well.
Happy Thanksgiving.