Mickelson seeks to renovate Torrey Pines north

[Howard Riefs]

Time for Phil to just walk away...

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2015/may/06/torrey-pines-golf-renovation-mickelson-plans/?#article-copy

http://www.geoffshackelford.com/homepage/2015/5/8/when-its-time-to-fold-a-project-torrey-north-edition.html

[Pete Lavallee]

This whole situation is insane! The original price tag was $7 MM, then they tacked on a new irrigation system for the South Course and it went up to $9 MM. Suddenly it crept up again to $12 MM. They put the job out to bid and the two biggest golf course construction companies in the US bid $16 and $18 MM??? Now the City has asked for another $2 MM and will see what the companies say can be done for $14 MM, just to rebuild the 18 greens to USGA spec, relocate the bunkers and redo the tees??? I realize the "fair wage" stipulation has inflated the price, but how you can't get this done for $14 MM is staggering. How costly is ripping up unused grass areas, spreading some decomposed granite and planting a few native shrubs? I can see that any regrading will be very costly as the site has horrible soil covered by exactly 6" of top soil. They also wanted to move a couple of greens closer to the canyon edge, again how costly can this be when you're rebuilding the green anyways?

[David Stamm]

This whole situation is insane! The original price tag was $7 MM, then they tacked on a new irrigation system for the South Course and it went up to $9 MM. Suddenly it crept up again to $12 MM. They put the job out to bid and the two biggest golf course construction companies in the US bid $16 and $18 MM??? Now the City has asked for another $2 MM and will see what the companies say can be done for $14 MM, just to rebuild the 18 greens to USGA spec, relocate the bunkers and redo the tees??? I realize the "fair wage" stipulation has inflated the price, but how you can't get this done for $14 MM is staggering. How costly is ripping up unused grass areas, spreading some decomposed granite and planting a few native shrubs? I can see that any regrading will be very costly as the site has horrible soil covered by exactly 6" of top soil. They also wanted to move a couple of greens closer to the canyon edge, again how costly can this be when you're rebuilding the green anyways?

I completely agree, Pete. This is insane.

For comparison, Gil Hanse redid Soule Park for less than $2mm. It was a total redo. All new greens, new tees, all new bunkering.

The city is listening to the wrong people. PerIod. But, that's the legacy of San Diego recently. In a way, I'm glad they are putting the brakes on right now. I would hate to see the North screwed up like the South was and all of it costing 3-5 times more than it should.