Sagebrush, 3rd hole

[Jeff_Mingay]

Richard Zokol asked me to post the following:


435-yard 3rd hole at Sagebrush Golf & Sporting Club, Quilchena BC Canada

Sagebrush Golf & Sporting Club
3rd Hole Specifications and Design Concepts
By Richard Zokol

Length of 3rd hole: - 435 yard

Fairway: - Fairways/tees are seeded with a mixture of Chewings/Creeping Fescues and Colonial Bentgrass, 90% Fescues and 10% Colonial Bent.  Width of 3rd fairway is 85-yards wide in the designated landing area for the tee-shot (over the right fairway bunkers, distance over the left fairway bunker is significantly longer and really not an option of play)

Green: - Greens are seeded to Creeping Bentgrass. The seed blend on greens is Extreme Dominant (Providence & SR 1119).  Size of 3rd green is 7,500 – 8,000 sq/ft.

Prevailing Wind: - Down wind

Hole Characteristics and Playability: The 3rd hole at Sagebrush was designed to be played from the appropriate tee-ground that allows for all levels of golfers the playability to drive over the right fairway bunker.  This will allow for the slope (right-to-left) to run the ball to the middle of the fairway if the tee-shot is play in this direction.  With 5 tee-boxes on this hole, the teeing ground offers a number of options to choose from depending on the player’s ability.  The ideal tee-shot would then leave a relatively short second shot to an open front, but yet, well bunkered green.  Players will need to navigate the small but well position pot-bunker 25-yards in front (slightly right of center) of the green when playing the ball on the ground to the green.  As the fairways/greens at Sagebrush will play extremely fast and firm players will be rewarded to play (or learn to play) shot on the ground as much as possible.  The fade or left-to-right tee-shot will receive the natural right-to-left slope of the fairway.

Ruggedly designed bunkers with, coarse and compacting sand, are a strong character feature at Sagebrush and are in many cases utilized to deal with the significant elevation challenges of the land to allow for flatter playing areas.  In an effort to show the massive scale of Sagebrush, the large fairway bunker on left side of the 3rd hole is approximately 7,000 – 8,000 sq/ft in size with significant movement on the bunker floor.

Sagebrush’s 3rd Hole Numbers:

Tees of Choice:                      Length of 3rd hole                 Carry over right bunker
Beginners Tee:                            195 yards                               15-yards
Front Tee:                                    230-yards                               50-yards
Member’s Tee:                             330-yards                               150 –yards
Advances Player’s Tee:                370-yards                               190-yards
Tour Player’s Tee:                        435-yards                               248-yards

[henrye]

Jeff, the hole looks great.  Would be good to see a person in the left fairway bunker so as to get a sense of the scale.

Interestingly, I don't see any rough?  Is the scrub playable or is it more like gorse?  Just wondering, 'cause if the conditions are fast & firm and the ball runs through the fairway, what are the options?

[Philippe Binette]

435 yards ??...

Never thought the hole was more than 380 from the tips..

[Jeff_Mingay]

Penguin,

I thought the same.

I remember when I originally staked the course, this hole seemed to measure about 350 yards. I think, maybe, the green was pushed back a bit when we were building it... I don't know. According to Zokol, it's 435 yards long.

(NOTE: Philippe Binette put in a lot of long, hard days at building Sagebrush... including a significant amount of time shaping and re-shaping the large bunker off the tee at left, here!)

Henry,

It's difficult to get a sense of this course, scale-wise, from photos. It's huge. A guy standing in the big bunker off the tee in this image would undoubtedly help with understanding the size of this hole (and, for the most part, the rest of the course). 

There's no rough at Sagebrush. Fairways basically transition into the native ranchland, which is playable.

[Will MacEwen]

Jeff - how many holes are currently in play?

[Jeff_Mingay]

Will,

I haven't been to Sagebrush since mid- to late-July. I'm thinking holes 1 thru 6 and 10 thru 14 are playable now.

[Bob Jenkins]

Jeff,

Thanks for posting the photo. Looks fabulous! Cannot wait to get up there and have a look.

Is there significant elevation change, ie. is it easily walkable?

[Jeff_Mingay]

Bob,

Sagebrush features significant elevation change. Most people couldn't walk the course. Though, I'm pretty sure I could walk it if I were shuttled from greens to tees at holes 8 and 9, 10 and 11, 11 and 12, and 14 and 15.

I just received a note from Zokol. He wants me to point out that he "showed this photo to Bob Tway and Tom Pernice at the RBC Canadian Open in July, they were stuned with the rugged beauty of it."

[cary lichtenstein]

Love to see more pictures, is there a link?

[Tom_Doak]

Jeff:

There's a lot of loose rock/dirt near the top of the photo, just below the hilltop on the left.  Is that grading for a lot or for roads?

[Jeff_Mingay]

cary,

There aren't any current photos on the internet I know of, yet.

Tom D.,

The loose rock you're refering to is a driveway approach to a lot.

[Will MacEwen]

http://www.sagebrushclub.com/gallery.html

This shows the area, but I don't think they are current photos, as Jeff noted.

[Mike Nuzzo]

Jeff,
Congratulations on the progress.
Who took the picture?

I like the hole - especially the fairway and angles.
Very nice to see one playing in the other direction - away from the water - look so good.
Cheers

[Jeff_Mingay]

Hi Mike.

This image was captured by a photog Zokol had up from Vancouver a few months ago, I think. There's a bit of PhotoShop work in it too. The large finger pointing back at the tee in the big bunker at left, for example, was painted with fairway turf. I'm thinking this finger will look scruffier in "real life". 

Thanks for the compliments. If my memory serves correctly, this is the first hole we roughed in completely at Sagebrush. We worked really hard on the angles here, and I think they've turned out well. (Glad you've noticed!) A number of my favourite holes actually play away from the lake, including 3, 8 and 10.

A lot of people worked really hard on the golf course design and construction at Sagebrush. I hesitate to start naming names because inevitably I'll mistakenly forget someone. But, here goes: Rod Whitman and I, Zokol and Armen Suny, John Bautista, Greg Doll, Philippe "Penguin" Binette, John Cavanagh, Mark Slatter, Keith Cutten, and Jim Craig (Coore and Crenshaw). A bunch of great guys who work for local contractor Adam Galbraith and his company, LNB, did all our heavy earthwork, cart trails, and a bunch of misc. stuff. And, our irrigation contractor, Dan Funk and crew with Aqua Lawn Sprinkler, were great to work with as well.

Golf course superintendent Norley Calder, his assistant Paul DeVries, and crew did most of the finish work, and are still working hard at growing the course in and getting it ready to debut next spring.

Again, I've probably forgot at least one or two people by name. Hopefully Philippe will see my list and mention anyone I may have obviously forgotten to mention here. Oh, of course! Our own "bunker guru", Garry Charters! By the end of construction, nearly every time Philippe and I finished shaping a bunker, we made sure to have Garry take a look and offer his criticism and/or approval... good times!   

[Philippe Binette]

Garry Charters is the man, nobody can be as accurate on bunker construction...

With him, it's either right or wrong, you get it or you don't. Most of the time we were right according to him.

Seriously, the best story teller ever.

[Duane Sharpe]

Jeff
It looks as thought the bunkering is coming along nicely.(unless that was photoshopped?) It has come a long ways since I toured the site in July. Again, congrats to you, Rod and your crew. I am positive the course will turn many heads in the Canadian golf market.
Sharpee

[Bryan Izatt]

Jeff,

Where is the tee in the picture - back up to the right or from where the picture was taken?

Looks like a nice hole, but I'm wondering about the the wide fairway and the "angles" that others have mentioned.  What are the strategic options off the tee that bring merit to the wide fairway?

I was pleased to see the front tee lengths for the hole.  Someone on the team seems to get the needs of the shorter hitting player.  What's the target demographic for the course - residential private; public; resort?  In any event it's nice to see a hole where my wife could actually possibly reach a par 4 and probably not even have to use driver, 3 wood to do it.   

[Jeff_Mingay]

Bryan,

The angle of the photo is a clear representation of the tee shot here.

The best option off the tee is probably a draw (presuming you play right-handed) which carries the bunker high on the right, then takes the slope of the fairway forward and down to the left. You could also play a cut into the inherent slope, but this likely won't result in the added distance available to those using option #1.

The wind really blows at Sagebrush, especially in the afternoon. And, again, this hole will predominately play downwind. One of the principle reasons for the extreme width of the course is the wind here, in the Nicola Valley. The course would be very difficult, and extremely frustrating for average players without this type of width, particularly on the windest days.

Sagebrush is intended to be an ultra-private club. Though I'm not involved with the business side of things, I think the target demographic is wealthy individuals, their families, and guests. We incorporated a really neat short course. Many tees are placed at the beginning of fairways -- literally a flattish spot where tee markers can be placed -- to eliminate the requirement of a forced carry over the ranchland.

Holes 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 11, 14 16, 17 and 18 feature a purposely flattened-off teeing area at the beginning of the fairway to accommodate seniors, juniors, ladies and beginners. I intend to do the same at most future projects.

[Bryan Izatt]

Jeff,

Thanks for the reply regarding the width and the winds.  Makes sense.

And good on you for considering using flattened-off teeing areas at the beginning of fairways for the shorter hitters.  Seems like such an easy, unobtrusive, and effective way of making courses more playable for less able players.

Too bad Sagebrush is ultra-private though.

[Jeff_Mingay]

Bryan,

If I could get you on, I would