Guys,
Sorry for the delay in responding...
Jim, Nice to hear from you. I am involved in the shaping of the course but I have also brought on a couple of other talented other that I have worked with in the past to help out. I think you know them from Commonground and Cherry Hills. I am travelling up to the site for 2-3 days every week and so far have been primarily in the mini excavator working on bunker character, location and the greens. The truth is there isn't a lot of shaping that needs to be done and the shaping I am doing on the bunkers is only enough to open up the sandy soils and let mother nature shape the rest. We are irrigating as we go but we still have not constructed our irrigation storage pond, wet well, pump, mainline etc. That construction and expense will happen later...
I am curious what land or project you are working on in Nebraska. Are you in the area often? I would love to get together to show you around. I will call you later on you cell phone to compare our schedules. I hope you are doing well
Adam,
Your question about tweaking some of the holes due to the soil conditions is not an issue for me. Most of the holes are in sandy soils, I would guess 14 out of 18 holes. The holes that are not as sandy can easily be made to aesthetically relate to the more sandy holes.
Ron,
Nice to hear from you again too.
I agree with Adam. Most golf course projects have a housing component and this one is not different. However, most golf courses that have housing have the houses around 200-250 feet from the center of the golf hole. On this project, we have purposefully set back the housing to be double that amount if not more, not to mention that when we selected the preferred golf course routing (I only did 29 routing plans for this property!) the sight lines for the adjacent property was part of the overall consideration. In most cases the housing will sit well above the golf holes. When playing the golf hole the sheer scale of the land and difference in height between standing in the fairway and the "adjacent" house is nearly 40-50 feet. You literally have to walk the site to understand the massive scale of the high and low points. As far as Bayside goes...they get around 8,000-8,500 rounds a year and that number is climbing with the popularity of the Play the West golf package. Believe or not they are not losing money. They have figured out a way to manage money/operations to maintain a nice looking and fun golf course. A lot of that comes with a hard working supt. which they have in Elton Nolde. I think that with the addition of The Dunes (my project) it will only help Bayside, the lake and general area to be more of a destination for families to have fun. I know that our golf course can be an outstanding venue that will compete with any in the area, but we need to make sure that our project doesn't just offer golfing as its only attraction. We can and will work with Bayside to help promote all around fun times in our area on the south side of the lake including the beach, boating, dinner/drinks, hunting, fishing, and activities for families. If you haven't been to Lake McConaughy you are missing a good time.