I played out there just before the work was started it was 108 degrees and there was just two of us on the course after a shotgun event in the am. The course was short which is to be understood from the time frame the course is from. From what I have gathered from photos and some time on the course with Jeff the Super at the time, was that the earlier course was further away from the current clubhouse as they had a bottleing plant that was located to the left of the current 1st green. That and you can see some of the old sand greens that were abandoned at some point over by the resovoirs. The greens were rather small and simple circles that were ever so slightly raised.
I could not find my old photos of the course from this summer otherwise I would post them. I did make a trip there this last weekend while I was volunteering at Sonoma. I met George(I hope I got that right, I am not good with names), from Doak's crew and watched them as they added sand to the green at #3. They had finally gotten the permit to work on the 4th hole that is a short hole that plays up into a canyon. It was an orignal hole from the earlier course that was abandoned at some point. Anyway, onto the pictures.
View of the 1st green from just short of the green shows a creek bed that runs in front of the green and to the right.
View of the tee shot at the 3rd hole. THe green is in the upper left hand corner. Shows some of the work in the fwy of some bunkers in the distance.
Rough shape of a fwy bunker on the third hole.
Nearly done bunker. hard to tell from picture but the portion in the foreground is a lower than the rest of the bunker.
View from the tee at the 4th hole up a canyon to the green. This was one of the abandoned holes.
View from the tee at the 5th hole. This tee had been abandoned for a period of time as well and is being back into play. The green is just under the black plastic in the distance between the two trees and under their drip line!!!
The 6th green is at the end of this road. It has an old abandoned sand green to its right.
Close up of the greensite. The foreground is the remnants of the old sand green.
A close look at the creek bed that will come into play on the 8th. The green is off to the right between the two trees and is rather small.
View of the 9th green under construction. Bunkers are in foreground with more in the fwy short of the green.
They have made some changes to the proposed routing since I was last out there. The 1st and 9th holes have been shifted and the clubhouse will get built in a new area. they also shifted the 2nd tee and 3rd green. When I get around to it I will scan a layout that I picked up while there.
The neat part about Aetna is the old Maybeck buildings that are in different stages of disrepair. Some very interesting buildings from around the early part of the 1890's when Maybeck first got out to CA. They need a lot of work, but if restored they can be something special.
Looking forward to seeing the course soon to see the progress.
Tully