ARMCHAIR ARCHITECTS: would you ...

[Garland Bayley]

Take these narrow parallel dunes that extend the length of the property (with succeeding waves of parallel dunes growing farther and farther apart), and



Build these golf holes today (Astoria CC, 1924)

268 yards par 4



416 yards par 4



The bottom of the dunes allow for a fairway 10 yards wide and I believe the dunes are over 30 ft high. Check out the height of the flagstick vs. the height of the dunes.

[Chris Cupit]

I am absolutely not an architect and couldn't differntiate a topo from a typo, BUT, I know what I like and...

The first picture (268 yd. Par 4) has potential.  I like the vegetation short and right on the dues but the two trees together on the left dune and the Christmas tree behind the green look out of place to me.

I would add whatever that vegetation is on the right in "splotches" on the left dunes as well.

The second picture looks like a bowling alley, complete with gutter (cart path) on the left.  It might play OK but it sure looks ugly.  The cart path dominates your view and the green looks pretty uninteresting as well.

[Tom_Doak]

I am an architect, and I agree with Chris.  I like the first hole depicted a lot more than the second.  But they're both cool.

Can't believe I still haven't been to Astoria, unless of course you look back at my calendar and see where I HAVE been.

[Garland Bayley]

Well Tom, you can see Astoria on a trip to Old MacDonalds if you fly in through Portland.

One thought I have had about the Astoria terrain is that although I have never seen it (the dell hole), it seems to me that you could build a pretty good dell hole replica there.

[JohnV]

Would anyone like the cart path on #3 better if it was declared an integral part of the course like the Road Hole?  It would not be easy to be chipping off that down to the green.

Its been a while, but I seem to recall that green had a little more interest that it looks in the pictures.

[JohnV]

Well Tom, you can see Astoria on a trip to Old MacDonalds if you fly in through Portland.

One thought I have had about the Astoria terrain is that although I have never seen it (the dell hole), it seems to me that you could build a pretty good dell hole replica there.

Hit it far enough left or right on a couple of holes there and you feel like you're playing the Dell on your second shot.

The drive from Astoria to Bandon is very pretty, but it is long and slow.  If you were to fly into Portland and drive to Astoria, see or play the course and head south, I think you'd want to overnight somewhere before Bandon.

[Garland Bayley]

Wouldn't fly to Portland, stay in Astoria, see the course in the morning, and drive to Bandon afterwords work out quite nicely on a fine summer weekday?

I wouldn't recommend driving Astoria to Bandon on a weekend.

[JohnV]

Google says it is 251 miles from Warrenton to Bandon and that it takes nearly 7 hours which tells you how fast you are going to get to go on that drive.

As for what to do, it always depends on what time your flight got into Portland.  It is nearly 2 hours to Astoria from PDX.

[Garland Bayley]

Tom,

Do you think you would build the same or similar holes if given the land as described? Or do you need at least to see a topo before making such a judgement?

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

I made that drive this summer and it was great but long. However I was not on a work schdule like Tom is.

[Garland Bayley]

Didn't get much response from architects as to whether or not they would build the same holes if given the same land to work with. How about armchair archies out there? Especially those of you that have seen the land. Would you do it different?

[Jay Cox]

I gladly would build both holes as they are (minus the awful cart path, but that's hardly the point).

If you have a unique landform, use it.  And there isn't much other way to use those dunes than to route holes through the valleys parallel to the dune lines (either playing down from the dune-tops or just along the bottom) -- I don't see how one could build even a playable hole perpendicular to the dune line.