Vidbynas - Brian Curley (pictures)

[Eric Franzen]

I had the pleasure to meet up with Brian Curley earlier today at Vidbynas Golf Club (south of Stockholm, Sweden), where he designed two 18 hole courses back in 2004. This is the first year that the intended routing for the Axa (a Swedish food company) Course and the Forrest Course have been opened for play, after two previous seasons with a composite course.
The total budget (courses, clubhouse etc.) consisted of 10 million dollars. Memberships are sold for around 15 000 USD, with an annual fee of 1000 dollars.

I played the previous composite course twice last year and think that it delivers when it comes to interesting green complexes and exciting tee shots. These are some quick photos from the first nine holes of the Axa Course which I walked before I saw Brian and the staff of Vidbynas over lunch. During our conversation Brian confessed that he checks in here once in while, and that he was sorry that he couldn’t join us at The Plantation during KPV.


1st – par 4, 390 yds.


4th, par 4, 400 yds


4th, green


7th, par 3, 220 yds


8th, par 5, 550 yds


9th, par 4, 405 yds

[Jay Cox]

Four disconnected comments:
1) I very much like the look of the bunkers.
2) I'm not a big fan of the fairway mowing pattern.
3) On #8, does the green really have as much front-right-to-back-left slope as it appears from the picture?  If so, neat!
4)  #9 looks like a fantastic use of pretty non-descript land . . . but what is to the right of the right side fairway bunkers?  If there's a lot of space out there, I think it would be quite interesting (if the maintenance budget were no object) to maintain it as a super-wide swath of fairway, but with an awkward angle into the green over the right-front bunker complex.

[paul cowley]

....36 quality golf holes and clubhouse for 10 million....well done guys!

but about the math on the revenue side, assuming;

600 memberships at $15,000= 9 million [and we haven't factored land costs ].

Eric ....there must be a sizable Real Estate or other development component, yes?
[inquiring minds stuck in Mexico waiting for the sun to come up need to know the answers to these questions] ....

[Tommy_Naccarato]

Eric,
Your third Curley course in just over month. Not bad!

Brian had sent me images of the course before, when it had been being built, and it's neat to see the differences between what he has done here compared to there. It also looks like a really neat piece of land.

[Brian_Ewen]

Do all Curley ( & Schmidt ) courses have this style of bunkering ?.

I have only seen one .

In January I saw the new Amata Spring CC in Bangkok , and there is a lot of similarities to the bunkering in these pictures .

It was designed by Curley & Schmidt and I presumed it was more Lee Schmidt than Brian Curley ? .

Just curious .

I have pics. of Amata Spring CC if anyone is interested ?.

Best Regards
Brian

[Ryan Farrow]

Brian, I have played one of their courses (Wildfire located in Scottsdale) under the Faldo name and the bunkering was very similar. The fairway bunkers seemed to challenge my driver on many holes and got the best of me most of the time. The sand-faced bunkers were pretty severe and looked almost identical to these.

[Craig Sweet]

Canyon River bunkers look like that as well...

[Tommy_Naccarato]

Brian, Brian Curely's bunkers are exactly as Ryan has noted, very thoughtfully placed and embrace a sort of modifed "Billy Bell" bunker-look sans lacy edges.

But there are other bunkers that he does build. For example at SCPGA-Champions, he utilizes a little more rough-edged bunker look that is a very good addition to that particular course. At Landmark Skins South, on the back nine, the bunkering takes on a more natural look, where the bushes and trees and other native more or less morph into the back of the bunkers. It looks almost more of an Australian flavor.  It works really good.

[Ryan Farrow]

Brian, I have played one of their courses (Wildfire located in Scottsdale) under the Faldo name and the bunkering was very similar. The fairway bunkers seemed to challenge my driver on many holes and got the best of me most of the time. The sand-faced bunkers were pretty severe and looked almost identical to these.

What are you talking about.... 2006 version of me.



 Sorry I was doing some research for a power point and stumbled across this thread in a Google search.

I'm always surprised what i wrote in threads from 5+ years ago and not remembering a damn thing. I am always hopeful I didn't say something really stupid..... but often times....