Building a course on swampland, or is it wetlands? Are they even the same?

[Richard Hetzel]

I spent the entire month of July in Florida and I played some rounds in the humidity. I played a few Gordon Lewis designed Golf Courses; Heron's Glen GC, Colonial CC and Sarasota National GC. I had never heard of Gordon Lewis, but it seems that he has designed many courses in Florida. After playing the first two courses I wondered about how the architect designed the holes from basically swampland. And, if you had to dredge up the material on which to build the holes why not build it with a bit more width? Both Heron's Glen and Colonial CC were somewhat penal in that even a well struck shot slightly offline was in the swamp or in someone's back yard. I cursed him on many occasions, almost as if he hit the shot! At Lewis' Sarasota National (Venice, FL) there was a lot more room on every hole and it seems that he had a different type of course in mind (for the most part, some holes were exactly the same as if he used a template of sorts) as compared to Colonial CC (Fort Myers, FL) and Heron's Glen GC (N. Fort Myers, FL) . Could it be that Lewis designed what WCI (community developer)wanted or he designed what they allowed him to design within certain (swamp)land constraints? Honestly, apart from a few nice biarritz greens and a few decent holes, I wasn't enamored with his work, although the bunkering was decent in some spots I thought and the front of the greens were always open to run the ball up. Is there a law that prohibits how much you can dredge in swapland when laying out your holes? Is swampland the same as wetlands? Just out of curiosity, what is Lewis' background?

[MClutterbuck]

Width costs money in a swampland/wetland. More material to move and presumably more sandcapping and drainage.


Aside from that, if there is a ecologically sensitive wetland, you do have strict rules as to how much you can shape over it or close to it and therefore it does affect width. 

[David_Tepper]

Richard H. -

If you want to read a book about designing/building a golf course on drained swampland in Florida, pick up a copy of John Strawn's Driving the Green, published in 1991. (Used copies are available for $0.01 + shipping at amazon.com)

The book takes you thru the in's and out's of the creation of an Arthur Hills-designed course. There were a lot of bumps in the road.

DT

[Randy Thompson]

Normally, in these circumstances, we don`t get to tell the developer or the owner what we want to do and how much land we need to do it. The top five architects or architect firms can make such demands but lesser known architects take what we can get and try to make the best of what we have been given. Most owners and developers are well into the master plan and it`s relation to the business plan when we are contacted. We are told, you have 50 ha. for golf because i need 150 ha to make a profit selling real estate and sustain the golf in the early years. Can you do it or should i look for somebody that can. If your services are in demand, then you walk away but if not..yeah buddy, I can do it! I have heard of more than 200 architects and this the first time i have heard of Gordon Lewis, so he probably is in my category of, take what we can get, which by the way continues to grow in recent years.