As promised, here is a quick report on our work at Country Club of Asheville. This will be a quick and dirty of the highlights that most here will be interested in. We have already completed shaping on 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, and 17 greens. The eleventh green has gone per plan. The green was not original as it was changed in the sixties. It has two mounds front left and right which extend as ridges to the middle of the green from both sides. A ridge runs the length of the back of the green which will help keep long approaches into the green from rolling off the back.
Number 12 was the green that was moved to the left while the tees for #13 were moved to the right. Preliminary shaping is done and it really demonstrates how much better things can be when you don't work a green or tee around an existing tree. I never liked how high the existing green was as it seemed artificial. Knowing that I was moving it to the left meant that it would drop down in elevation. As we cut down the existing green, we found the original putting surface six feet deep, which is exactly the elevation the new green location was at, which fits much better in the ground. So Ross' original green, albeit to the right of my new location, was at the same elevation as the new green.
The fourteenth green was designed in the field by me to reflect what was originally there as it was an original Ross. Basically, I extended high points surrounding the green at 12:00, 4:00, and 8:00 as ridges into the center of the putting surface. The front right bunker is gone. Fifteen green is a completely new green with high points at the front corners extending into the green creating ridges that lead into tiers for visibility on this extremely uphill green.
We added a fariway bunker to the left side of the fairway about 270 yards off the back of the back tee. The thought there is that playing as close to the bunker as possible is the best route to the green. If one does hit their tee shot there, then the green is receptive to that approach much more than from the shorter right side, which would require a blind tee shot over the hill on that same side. From the right side, an approach will deflect hard to the left.
Sixteen green is another one that was re-built in the sixties. My plan in the field was to lower it two feet because it just did not fit well either. As we cut down, the original Ross green was at that elevation two feet below so we have it at the original Ross elevation. It fits much better as well. The swale that shows on the Ross plan but is not reflected on his section drawing was only necessary about halfway in from the left side for drainage which allows golfers to use the hillside on the back right corner to bounce a long shot off and kick back onto the green.
Seventeen green was an original but with not much going for it. One feature I kept was the high kick off the front left whcih will deflect tee shots hit to that side back into the middle. We created a ridge coming off the hillside on the right which extends into the middle of the green, spearating the front from the back. The green slopes to the back with little mounding behind. This is for drainage but also so as not to obstruct the base of the Oak tree that still remains at the back left corner.
Sorry I can't share more at this time and it may be a while before I can respond to some of your questions, but I will be glad to do so. Pictures of 15 and 16 links are below. If anyone can tell me how to directly embed these images, email me.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BHDKXu1Akr8/?taken-by=richardmandellgolfarchitecturehttp://www.instagram.com/p/BGxkgsbvRVD/?taken-by=richardmandellgolfarchitecture