I've just returned from my first visit to a new course under construction in Auckland, NZ - called Manukau.
Manukau is in the process of relocating to the countryside after selling it's existing 18 hole course to a developer.
Almost all of the new course has been shaped with around 12 holes grassed.
The architects are Brett Thomson and Phil Tataurangi.
I was very impressed with what they are doing in terms of strategy (width & options galore), routing (very flexible) shaping and style. [size=78%] [/size]
The land chosen for the new course was a completely flat 60ha site.
It was fascinating to walk around today knowing that every single shape in the property was created from scratch.
Clearly it's quite an operation in terms of bringing in fill, moving dirt and making the drainage work. Technicalities that are beyond me.
It would be interesting to know of other golf courses that have been created from scratch like this.
As a side note, Phil was actually the first person to point me to golfclubatlas.com.
I remember him trying to subtly explain to me why the 16th at Paraparaumu Beach is his favourite par three in NZ whilst my eyes glazed over. Now walking the course it's pretty cool to see his knowledge and understanding being transferred into a real golf course that I could see myself wanting to play over and over again. Phil, and his work on this project, would actually be a great person to include as a feature interview.