Maintaining the Floating Green at Coeur d'Alene

[Ed Oden]

Does anyone know how do they do it?  Do they take equipment to the green by boat?  Or perhaps they bring the green to the shore?  Its got to be difficult.
 

[Anthony Gray]

   

[Tom_Doak]

I think they bring the green back to shore every night, or at least on a regular basis.  And of course they could take the little ferry over with a greensmower.

One of my associates once wondered how they could attach the irrigation main line if the green was moveable?  I just assume they pump water for irrigating that green directly out of the lake that's all around it.

Not many people know it, but the main reason they built a floating island green on that course was the lack of acreage.  It's a very tight piece of property (there are three par-3's in four holes at one point) and basically they got an extra hole with no more land by floating their barge.

[Joe Bausch]

Well, that certainly tops the 'moat hole' at Galen Hall. 

I was curious what it looks like and here is a pic, and it sort of looks like it might dock up by that structure near the shore:

[Anthony Gray]

  Is that water is deep enough to get it to sore?

  Anthony

[Anthony Gray]

  Called them. There is a maintenance shed built into the green were the mower and other equiptment is stored.

  Anthony

[Ed Oden]

  Called them. There is a maintenance shed built into the green were the mower and other equiptment is stored.

  Anthony

I wonder where it is?  Is it in one of the doors that appears on the back wall of the green in the pic Joe posted?  Maybe they have a lift to bring it up to ground level.

[Scott_Burroughs]

From the back, where the shed doors are:


Approaching from the beyond the floating range:


From the lower tee:


From the 13th tee:


From the hike around the nearby park:

[Ed Oden]

Thanks Scott.  That first picture clearly shows the shed doors.  But I am still confused as to how they get the equipment up to the green.  If they lift straight up from the shed doors they are in the flower beds.  And the low point in the middle is where the back bunker is located.  Where is the access point?  All I can think of is there must be another side door we can't see that allows them to use the dock ramp.

[Jonathan Cummings]

I wrote an article for LINKS a few years back on the CdA Resort Course.  

The 14th at CdA is a floating self-contained ecosystem.  There is a full "basement" under the green where, besides the maintanence equipment cited above, they store everything needed to maintain the green.  The green is built on a barge that collects and recycles 100% of the runoff.  Inhibitors, growth agents, fertilizers, etc are all introduced to the surface green complex from an enclosed watering system located in the barge basement.  Like the 12th at Augusta the green is heated and cooled as necessary.  There are temperature sensors that the super can monitor to maintain plant health.  Besides the bent grass there are 1800 flowers (that's hysterical - reads like 1-800 flowers!) and 5 trees on the green.  There are a series of cables that links the shore with the barge which serve two purposes: (1) to move the barge in/out to adjust the daily length of the hole and (2) to guide The Putter - the little ferry that takes players out and back.  Contrary to what Tom says the green is not brought to shore nightly.  At the end of the season, the green is disconnected from the cable system and moved to a remote winter storage area.

I don't know about Tom's story of the reason behind the floating green - not enough acreage - but that's not hard to believe.  Mike DeLong (old pro) and Duane Hagadone said it was created because Duane wanted something unique in golf.  But at about 100 acres it's not hard to believe Scott Miller went to Hagadone and made a case much like Tom suggests that there was simply too little real estate to squeeze in 18 holes.  A good case can be made that it was too little real estate for the 17 holes they squeezed in.

JC    

[TX Golf]

Anyone know how stable the green actually stays.

Might be a touch difficult to putt on if the lake were to get choppy??

You would have to assume the lake gets a little rough every once in a while... right?

[Jonathan Cummings]

Robert - the barge is rock steady.  Like an iceberg, the vast majority of the barge is underwater.  I've played the 14th many times since the first week it was open and I've experienced no motion.  The grenn might as well be an island.  JC

[TX Golf]

Cool.... I figured it must be pretty stable, but even some of those big ass cruise ships get pretty wild every once in a while..

Then again that lake is the Pacific Ocean

[John Kirk]

Wow, Jonathan, nice report.

The breadth of knowledge here never ceases to amaze.

[Brian_Ewen]

Interesting .

I know the copycat at Amata Spring doesnt have sheds etc.

[Matthew Rose]

Is that forward tee a recent addition?

I have photos from years ago when my dad played it soon after it opened, and I don't recall seeing that tee there. I'm guessing they added it later because some players of lesser ability had trouble with the carry.

[Jonathan Cummings]

Matt - the forward Ladies Tee has always been there.  JC

[Kalen Braley]

I read an article on it several years back:

In addition to having storage, water system, mowers, etc underneath...it also has a custom built and very expensive suspension system.  Doesn't matter how choppy the lake is, when your on it, its pretty damn solid and not moving a bit. Seeing the water move in your periphal vision plays tricks with your mind and you feel like you have to keep your balance when walking around..its pretty cool!

Those pictures are also good in showing how pretty many any ball that hits the green will stay on it. At the worst they'll get caught in the flower beds of which is a free drop.  The pictures also don't do justice to how large the green is.  It really is a massive target even when it plays long'ish like the day I played it, 165 yards into a 2 club wind.

While it is a tight piece of property, there is plenty of space around the clubhouse where a similar length par 3 could have been built.  They have a massive parking lot, sizeable range, boat dock area, corporate outing area, and 4 tennis courts in the general vicinity that could have been easily designed otherwise to fit this hole in.  I'm also guessing it was purposely built to attract attention and publicity.

I must admit, i was thinking about it several holes before I got to 14 and I gagged it...chunked my 1st shot and 2nd one bounced off the dock into the agua.