Peacock Gap - How to Spice Up a Bland Course

[Pete_Pittock]

Matt,
The new 7th hole at Tualatin CC (Cupp, Fought) is a medium length par 4 with a mound of the same dimension in approximately the same spot on the green. It is much more difficult to navigate over or around especially with the putter and i've heard many discussions about razing it. I doubt anyone has asked Forrest to lift the print.

[Wayne_Freedman]

Forrest,

I would never speak for Susan...

Jed — I am glad you enjoyed the par-3s. (I added the word "enjoyed")  My favorites are No. 13 and No. 6. I would not have routed No. 16 the way it was, but with housing, drainage and trees that were to be kept, it stayed put. No. 3 is a favorite of nearly everyone, but to me it just looks good.


Wayne — Yes, I met Susan. She thinks your wrong, too.   

[Joel_Stewart]

All talk about the par 3's and the greens but the basic problem with the course is lack of movement in the fairways.  The fairways lack all visual appeal and do not strike a balance with the movement on the greens.

[Kyle Henderson]

All talk about the par 3's and the greens but the basic problem with the course is lack of movement in the fairways.  The fairways lack all visual appeal and do not strike a balance with the movement on the greens.

I agree, however...

"Movement in fairways would have required importation of massive quantities of material which was voted down on two accounts:

(1) It would have raised the base elevations (to stay out of the water table) and this would effectively change flood limits for all of the homes surrounding the "Central Park" course. This was not do-able.

(2) It would have changed the nature of the old marshland / meadowland, and, even if we could have overcome (1) above, we felt the land should remain in the flat nature it always has been.

I suppose budget is a third, but moot when you look hard and long at just (1) alone."

-Forrest Richardson

[Joel_Stewart]

Kyle:

Maybe I don't understand grading and the water table issues which I know are very shallow but why can very minor grading be done in the fairways such as the photo below at Morgan Creek.  This may be an extreme example but it shows how minor cuts and grades can make a difference.

[Jed Peters]

Joel:

Too bad there's houses down the left and behind (distance where trees are) now....

But the course still looks like that...

HOWEVER, luckily the new super is "down with brown", so the ball runs a bunch more.

But yeah, that is one way to get movement out of an otherwise flat site of land....

[Kyle Henderson]

Kyle:

Maybe I don't understand grading and the water table issues which I know are very shallow but why can very minor grading be done in the fairways such as the photo below at Morgan Creek.  This may be an extreme example but it shows how minor cuts and grades can make a difference.

I recall that the water table was all of 2 feet below fairway height. That's not much of a margin for cutting, meaning most of the fill would have to be trucked in, shaped and seeded.

Would it make the course better? Most definitely, IMHO. But those involved clearly didn't think it would make enough of a difference to warrant the expenditure.

[Pete_Pittock]

It took less than a minute to fredge up this fact on the internet, here FR is talking about PG

"Our work began in 2004 during an acquisition study for Golf Solutions. The course was eventually purchased by Golf Solutions and we started master planning and devising a way to creatively drain the low-lying site. Many of the fairways at Peacock Gap are at or below sea level, which created an unusual - and sometimes unmanageable - situation for drainage and maintenance."

[Forrest Richardson]

The Morgan Creek work may look like subtle grading, the the gradient on the photo appears to be quite a bit. My guess is that the differential is at least in the 3% range ... 3 feet of fall in just 100 feet.

At Peacock that would put is in saltwater muck! When you dig an irrigation trench at Peacock that is just 3 feet deep the trench will fill with water in about 15 minutes.

Importation of material would have caused a host of issues: Re-calculation of the entire floodplain, possibly triggering a FEMA review of the official U.S. Floodplain maps. Typically a FEMA flood plain change takes 3-4 years...and that is only if the Federal Govt. is willing to listen. The Northern Calif. area is expecially sensitive to changes in flood plain mapping. It rarely gets done quickly.

So, besides the physical challenge, you have an approval challenge. And...perhaps most appropriate to consider: The site was a rather flat marshland in its ancient configuration. In fact, it was dead-flat except for the two hills — one for the clubhouse and the hill at No. 2, 3 and 6. Wm. F. Bell use the hills well in his routing. We did have a few routing options that involved the hill out on the course (Nos. 2, 3 and 6) better, but it would have meant re-routing 5 holes.

A reprieve for a hilly site is often softer, less dramatic greens — our approach here was to turn that notion upside-down; to create some dramatic greens as a contrast to the flat-ish site. In my option, the bunkers, greens and even the trees are all made more intensive because the "meadow" is flat and level.

[Kyle Henderson]

At Peacock that would put is in saltwater muck! When you dig an irrigation trench at Peacock that is just 3 feet deep the trench will fill with water in about 15 minutes.

Shoot. I said 2 feet. I was WAY off.

[Forrest Richardson]

A two foot deep trench will fill in 20 minutes.   

[Matt_Cohn]

Matt,
The new 7th hole at Tualatin CC (Cupp, Fought) is a medium length par 4 with a mound of the same dimension in approximately the same spot on the green. It is much more difficult to navigate over or around especially with the putter and i've heard many discussions about razing it. I doubt anyone has asjed Forrest to flift the print.

Do you think a 6-inch mound would have basically the same effect as a two-foot-deep dimple?

[Wayne_Freedman]

Forrest,

How are the 10th and 14th greens holding up? Any brownage along the contours?

[Forrest Richardson]

We added 3-4 feet to both sides of 14, but even this new area looks very good. So, no...No. 14 looks good. Better from what I remember it being when you played.

The areas on any green that we might expect any discoloration is at the bend point of decks or at more pronounced ridge lines. These soften out over time, as they have already done to either side of the 14th groove. Such areas (discoloration) do not usually affect surface quality, which is the important quality — not color. However, color seems to be essential to most people's idea of "quality."

No. 10 looked great when I was there last week.

Aside from a few areas on greens, it really does not look like a series of greens that are just 7 months old. We have been impressed with the Dominant Plus bentrgass and hope it looks as good at this time next year.