Doak Remodel of Denver's Mira Vista Municipal GC

[Mike Bowline]

The remodel construction of Mira Vista GC is progressing on a very mundane piece of land with only a small rise on which the clubhouse is located. Quite a contrast to the land at Bandon or Barnbougle for sure. It will be very interesting to see what Doak and Urbina are able to accomplish with flat ground, a few trees, and a few faraway mountain views to work with. But I understand Tom took this project as a way to give back to public golf.

What does everyone think the final product will be like, considering the beginning conditions?

[Joe Bentham]

Mike
it can't be any worse then the property they worked on for Texas Tech.

[Mike Bowline]

Good point Joe. I have heard the TTech project turned out very well. I do not know the budget available to the team at TT as compared to Denver, which will influence the amount of movement they can introduce into the land in Denver.

[Tony Petersen]

I've played Mira Vista a bunch of times when I lived in Denver, even qualified for the Colorado Pub. Links there in "the day before, sunny & 80 - day of qualifying 50, windy & raining) kind of conditions. One thing I do remember is the long (drainage?) canals that are routed in the hardpan between holes, the safety fences next to a few of the tees and the time I took a 13 on 2 and proceeded to shoot even par for the remaining 16 holes

Not a difficult course, but I have a feeling that Doak & Urbina will come up with a pretty fun test when everything is said and done. Not alot of elevation to work with, but plenty of water and trees (and plenty of empty space/hardpan within the present routing) to play around with. I see a semi-classic Parkland design with interesting greens and brilliant bunkering ala Pasa

[Peter Pallotta]

Mike -

I know it's in another part of the country entirely, and more like a classic 'east-coast' parkland course, but I've long wanted to go and play Tom's Beechtree. I like that 'quiet' look and feel very much, and the use of very 'subtle' natural features. Tom certainly seems to understand what that's all about (aesthetically, playability-wise, and I'd say even 'philosophically').  Which is to say that, even though his more recent work has involved much more dramatic sites, I'd imagine that Tom and Jim are very capable of making a site like Mira Vista work wonderfully well, whether or not they choose to go again in the Beechtree-direction. 

Peter

[Allan Long]

Being that the course is the home of the state golf association, it will be interesting to see what they want. Do they want a brute for state championships? Do they want a playable course for all levels? Something in between?

I don't doubt that the layout will be a vast improvement over the former course. I played the course shortly before it closed and had a fun time trying to figure out what to expect as the course was staked for what I could only believe would be something akin to the new routing.

Regardless, I am excited at the prospect of the finished product, and think it will be a feather in the cap of the CGA.

[Seth Berliner]

Whatever he does, it will be better than the previous Mira Vista golf course.  I think we can expect good things going off of past results.

[Jim Nugent]

Is Tom changing the routing?  Moving much dirt?  Adding length?  Spending most of his time/efforts around the greens? 

I did not get the impression before that this is another Rawls type project.  But maybe I'm wrong.

[Allan Long]

Is Tom changing the routing?  Moving much dirt?  Adding length?  Spending most of his time/efforts around the greens? 

I did not get the impression before that this is another Rawls type project.  But maybe I'm wrong.

Jim,

Someone close to the project will need to answer the majority of your questions, but as far as routing, it will be an entirely new course, not just a remodel or refurbishing of the exisiting course.

[Tom_Doak]

It is certainly not another project like The Rawls Course, although it has been undertaken for a similar noble cause.

The Colorado Golf Association's goal is to spend the $4 million they have raised over the past 15 years, to improve the course while keeping it a $40 facility that's open to everyone.  They aren't going to raise the maintenance budget at all so we can't do anything outlandish that would be expensive to maintain.

We have redone the routing completely because the Mira Vista routing was really dysfunctional, with some long green-to-tee walks for no apparent reason and the holes spaced out oddly across the property.  Other than that, we've concentrated on building a good set of greens and a handful of interesting, low-maintenance bunkers which are small and grass-faced ... we hope to have no more than 40 or 50 on the finished course.

We have chosen to spend the bulk of the money on infrastructure rather than on aesthetics ... the irrigation system is nearly half the budget and the greens are much of the rest.  We are moving some earth to the edges of the property to block road views and noise, but that is entirely a function of needing to increase the volume of the flood control basin which includes about 3/4 of the golf course property ... which is being paid for separately by the neighboring development.

The styling of the greens and bunkers is loosely based on Chicago Golf Club, however the associates were expressly forbidden from building any template holes from the Macdonald palette.  (I did have to remind one of them that the Eden hole had been appropriated by Macdonald, so we would not mimic it here.)

I will actually be out there next Monday to see how things are going -- I haven't been back since it started snowing, but in the freeze/thaw climate of Denver they have done a lot of work over the past 3 months.