Swinkelsche photo tour

[Frank Pont]

A number of people have asked me to have pictures posted of Swinkelsche in the south of the Netherlands. I will not add too much text, but rather have you ask questions, if there is any interest. Keep in mind the course was still growing in when I made most of the pics (Aug-Nov 2012), so it is still very rough in spots.  First an overview of the course:



Site is 220 acres, pure sand, used to be heathland until 1920 when it was converted to agricultural land.
Site was virtually flat, every landform you see on the golf course was created (I worked with a number of good shapers, led by Conor Walsh)
Site was bordered by forests on three sides, and five holes are routed through the forest. On these virtually no shaping was done.
Site was crossed by a creek that had been canalized, it now is again meandering.
I had to put a certain minimum amount of water in the site, stipulated by environmental authorities,  my preference would have been to have no water. Now water is concentrated in a few holes.

Here is the score card:



There are five tees, to let all handicaps have fun.

We moved about 600,000 cubic yards of sand, and put in a state of the art double/triple row irrigation system (that hopefully will be used as little as possible).
Greens are between 6000 and 900 square yards, and large areas around the greens were also finished with green mix (indicated on the strokesavers) sometimes as much as 1600 square yards.
Total cost of building the course was less than 2.5 million euro

Hole 1. A gentle starting hole, I let myself be inspired by the first hole of my home course De Pan, which has no bunkers. (that is a par 5, this is a par 4)
The further one gets on the fairway the extremer the undulations become, that is the only hazard of this hole next to the green defence.











Hole 2. A short par 5 with a strong dogleg left. The drive is essential here if you want to go for the green in two. The green is inspired by the organic rollercoasters at Machrihanish.









Hole 3. A short driveable par 4, but danger lurks. From the tee one thinks there is hardly any space to put the tee shot, but it is visual deception.







Hole 4. Now things start to become serious, this is the first really difficult hole, a 4.5 where you probably score better if you play it as a par 5











Hole 5. The longest of the par 3 holes. Still looking a bit bland because the fescue rough isn't up yet. This was the hardest part of the site visually.
  








Hole 6. Somewhat of a breather before two more hard holes come. Client wanted the big oak to stay on the fairway, it definitely plays a big role in the strategy. Maybe do not plant a new one if it dies   . Very difficult undulating raised green.

[Frank Pont]

Hole 7.  The next two holes cover an area of 25 acres (!) and have water in play. Its a relatively short par 5 where its all about risk, how much do you want to take to go for the green. No bunkers at the green!












Hole 8. The other water hole. I've tried to make it a completely different hole. Its either a long long par 4, or if you are brave a mid length par 4. You choose. In the last case the shot into the green is much harder though.








Hole 9. The second par 3 hole, cut our of the forest. Virtually no shaping was done here, like in most of the other holes cut out of the forest. Because it was the first hole we finished it was being used as putting green when I made the picture.





Hole 10. A long classic style par 4 with a green sloping front to back, tough to make par, another 4.5









Hole 11. Weirdest hole on the course, it is 135 yards wide at its widest. Play it any way you want to, its short, its driveable.













Hole 12. Third par 3, again cut our of the forest, slightly uphill, very large green with ridge running through it

[Paul Gray]

I'll be the first to say I think the bunkering looks terrific. Nothing clumsy looking there.

[Frank Pont]

Hole 13. A medium length par 4, with a green on a raised plateau. Very wide fairway again. Hard to keep the ball on the green.










Hole 14. Long real 3 shot par 5. Shared fairway with hole 15. Wild green











Hole 15. A tribute to TOC 17, now with OB on the left. Hard green to approach from the right











Hole 16. Ode to the bottleneck 10th hole at De Pan. Trees around the green are being thinned out this winter (same for 17)












Hole 17. Last par 3, again cut from the forest. Very large green complex, great for match play












Hole 18. A long par 5 with a number of ways to play the hole. Lots of opportunity for smart, heroic and dumb plays

[Jonathan Davison]

Looks fantastic, I think the bunkers look really cool but the highlight for me is the green complexes ! They look natural and I love the horizon lines and the contouring around them, looks fun to play.

[Will Lozier]

Thanks Frank!  Looks really interesting and natural for the most part - save the multiple ponds in places.  Look forward to see pics as it grows in and matures.

Cheers

[Jud_T]

Frank, Congrats!  Looks really good.  As mentioned, aesthetically the bunkers look fantastic.  What was the genesis of the idea behind #11?  Were you intentionally trying to incorporate the sand pit (natural?) in the middle?  Perhaps you could talk about the strategy of the hole in more detail.  Kudos for taking chances at the very least.

[Frank Pont]

What was the genesis of the idea behind #11?  Were you intentionally trying to incorporate the sand pit (natural?) in the middle?  Perhaps you could talk about the strategy of the hole in more detail.  

Judd, hole 11 was/is a big experiment. The area I had for this hole when I was doing the routing was about as long as it was wide. That brought me to design a very wide short par 4 hole. Key with such a hole is that the many ways of playing the hole kin of all are realistic under certain wind situations, pin positions etc.

You ask about intentionally incorporating the sand pit (natural) in the middle. When we started the whole area was flat cow pasture land. There was no sand pit. It was all created. I just worked about two weeks intensively with Conor Walsh in trying to create a wild but credible landscape, which also gave all players an exciting and fun hole. It took us so long that it even got the client nervous, the only time that happened in the whole process

So what are the strategies? Lets look at the strokesaver



Generically there are four ways to play the hole.

1. Try to drive the green. Can be done with the right wind, need to carry the sand pit. Carry is between 207-238 m depending on which tees you are playing from



2. Play two irons straight. This is the option I am sure no one will play, but probably yields the best scoring. For me it would be two iron 7 or 8 irons.



3. Play the shorter but harder left route. This route is about 25 yards shorter than the right route but has a lot more bunkering. This route does make more sense with a pin in the left back of the green, since you play away from the water behind the green.



4. Play the longer but more open right route. This is the route many of the weaker players will take since it has less hazards and the shot to the green is more open. However it is not an easier way in, since the green slopes away more from the player

My goal was to create a hole that you cannot wait to play again, because there are so many fun ways to play it.... we'll only know in a while if I have really succeeded

[Niall C]

Frank

Many thanks for posting that, looks like you've got some nice stuff going on there. It also doesn't look like this course would ever be described as being tight !

You described the land as being flat farmland, apart from the flatness what other constraints did you have and what were yo able to make use of ? I would imagine that you routed it pretty well on plan but how much of the design did you do on the ground in terms of individual hole design ?

Niall

[Jason Thurman]

Thanks for this. It's great to see new work being done in a part of the world that isn't necessarily the first place we think of for golf, at least here in the States.

The holes really lie beautifully on the land and the contours give the course a lot of character, at least in these photos. I agree with others that the bunkers look fantastic and really drive the visual interest of the course. It doesn't look like it has much elevation change, but the small contours and bunkering helps solidify it visually.

We don't have such expansive properties with understated contour near my home. Seeing these photos really makes me want to play the course (especially with the snow on the ground outside after yesterday). Looks like a lot of fun.

[Ulrich Mayring]

Easy to see why Hardelot got Frank Pont to restore their course!

Ulrich

[Gary Slatter]

Thanks, very interesting.  Is it above sea level?   The bottleneck on 16 looks a bit annoying, might end up with lots of divots around 110 from the green.
What does swinkelsche mean?  or is it a surname.
cheers

[Frank Pont]

Frank
You described the land as being flat farmland, apart from the flatness what other constraints did you have and what were yo able to make use of ? I would imagine that you routed it pretty well on plan but how much of the design did you do on the ground in terms of individual hole design ?

Niall

Only constraints were that I had to put a certain amount of water on the site. That however allowed us to build 5 holes in the forest, something that otherwise would not have been possible and that gives these holes a mature look and feel right away.

Interms of the landforms, these were pretty much made on site. I had drawn contours but we took quite some liberty to make it look credible and natural. Same with bunkers, I think we did changed about 15 bunkers from plan to asbuild. The greens were also first roughed in using GPS, but after that we just built what we liked rather than stick to the drawings...

[Frank Pont]

Just to give a sense of what the beginning landscape was in terms of flatness here two pics:



Here a view of the situation at the third tee before construction



This is the same location after construction




Here is a view of the situation at the eleventh tee before construction



This is the same location after construction

[Frank Pont]

Thanks, very interesting.  Is it above sea level?   The bottleneck on 16 looks a bit annoying, might end up with lots of divots around 110 from the green.
What does swinkelsche mean?  or is it a surname.
cheers

Gary,

The surname of the family building the golf course is Swinkels.
Swinkelsche means "of the Swinkels".

The course is 10 meter above sea level.

The slopes around 110 yards from the green are quite unforgiving, you probably want to hit it in from 120-140 yards.
Also keep in mind that the fairway is 80 yards wide and very undulating. Given that I am not too worried about divots...

[Frank Pont]

Thanks Frank!  Looks really interesting and natural for the most part - save the multiple ponds in places.  Look forward to see pics as it grows in and matures.

Cheers

Will,

The shallow lakes will mature quickly and have quite nice texture grasses growing in them.
I include a picture of a natural pond just across the road from the golf course, that is how our ponds will look in 3-4 years

[Will Lozier]

Thanks Frank!  Looks really interesting and natural for the most part - save the multiple ponds in places.  Look forward to see pics as it grows in and matures.

Cheers

Will,

The shallow lakes will mature quickly and have quite nice texture grasses growing in them.
I include a picture of a natural pond just across the road from the golf course, that is how our ponds will look in 3-4 years.

Thanks for the reply Frank.  They will look very nice and natural if they mature in the same way.  Still curious as to why there are sections.  could you explain as it would seem to be more work to create multiple ponds.  Does it have anything to do with irrigation?

Cheers

[Josh Tarble]

Frank,
Thanks for taking the time to showcase your course for us. As everyone else has said, it looks fantastic.

#11 looks really cool and likely will become even better with multiple plays. I hope it plays as good as it looks.

[Frank Pont]

Looks fantastic, I think the bunkers look really cool but the highlight for me is the green complexes ! They look natural and I love the horizon lines and the contouring around them, looks fun to play.

Jonathan, thanks.

For the 13 greens in the open areas I did originally draw the greens in detail (10 cm contour plans) like I had done for my other courses, but decided to just use that as an initial iteration point. The contractor had all dozers and excavators fitted with GPS which meant that they could quite easily roughly shape the greens I had drawn, after which then the real shaping started. I must say the end result is much more organic looking than the more formal way of working.

For the 5 greens in the forest I did no drawings but just used the contours that were there naturally as the begin point. These greens in my view are even more natural looking than the other greens.

I don't think I will ever go back to the more manufactured way of building greens....

[Jonathan Davison]

Frank,
What type of green construction did you use?

I stopped doing green details, I think more time on site during the shaping is the way forward.

[Frank Pont]

We used a pure sand base of 60 cm deep, with drainage underneath, capped by 30 cm of green mix  with 3% organic content.
Around the greens we used the same green mix but then 15 cm deep.

[Frank Pont]

With the course maturing nicely and now showing abundant fescues in the rough I thought it time to post a photo update.

Hole 1.









Hole 2.









Hole 3.









Hole 4.









Hole 5.









Hole 6.









Hole 7.









Hole 8.









Hole 9.









Hole 10.









Hole 11.











Hole 12.





Hole 13.









Hole 14.









Hole 15.









Hole 16.









Hole 17.







Hole 18.

[Thomas Dai]

I've enjoyed comparing the 'then' and 'now' photos. Thank you Frank for sharing your work with us.

Looking at the renovation work you're doing in the Tandridge thread that is live at the moment, I can't help but wonder what will happen at Swinkelsche if the trees are not kept back over the years and the green sizes and contours, the bunkering and the mowing lines etc etc are allowed to vary from design. Okay I appreciate that evolution in course maintenance, equipment and expectations are part of golfing life, but still it somehow seems sad if key design features are permitted to evolve away from what was originally envisaged and then, like at Tandridge, 70 yrs later a thorough renovation project is required to bring back the key original features.

I guess what I'm really asking in a kind of roundabout way is what influence do designers have on how their courses will be maintained after opening?

I can see how any influence on maintenance can dissipate decades down the line, but to what effect does influence occur after opening and for the first few years thereafter?

Not aiming any criticising at anyone in the maintenance aspect of the business, far from it, but given these days the 'Great God of Course Rankings' it would really peeve me off if I'd designed and constructed a much praised course when it opened only to find a few years later that any nice rankings it originally received had dropped like a stone and my design was now being criticised when the maintenance practices that are being used are very different to what I'd planned the course around.

All the best

[Will Lozier]

Looks excellent...interesting and fun.  I love the colors of the fescues!  Curious if 13 green is as severe as it looks and if you have any concerns about playability?  Thanks Frank.

Cheers

[David Harshbarger]

Frank, great looking course.  Congratulations.  Shadow Creek it is not, and that is a compliment.

Thanks for sharing.