[Randy Thompson]

Just when you think you have seen it all…. you haven´t! I think the golf world needs more courses like this, the question is, does anybody have the balls or the smarts??


                      Sand Greens, no rolling, no oil


                    Preparing the surface for putting


                    Putts better then I thought it would


                     Not bad


                    You gotta love the simplicity


                     The first tee shot, it narrower then it looks!

 
         Could I have done worst with the camera and such a magnaficant surroundings.


                                            Eighteen fun holes of Golf


                               Tee shot on……an interesting par five! Its natural for sure.

OK but whats a great golf course without great par three´s?


                                                 Here is one

And here comes another



              Not a good idea to try to hit it high and suck it back on this hole!


                         Cool, 200 yards and you gotta keep it low

A simple and charming golf course should only have the same for the clubhouse

[Ed Oden]

This hole is so absurdly bad, it actually looks like fun.  I suspect the novelty would fade quickly, however.  Where is this course?

[Dan Kelly]

Shades of Jans National.

[Bill_McBride]

Single file!   This reminds of a recurring nightmare where there is nowhere to hit the ball, the fairway is about a yard wide.

[Carl Nichols]

somewhere in la provincia de cordoba?

[Eric Smith]

This hole is so absurdly bad, it actually looks like fun.  I suspect the novelty would fade quickly, however.  Where is this course?

In complete honesty I imagine that putter is the choice of club off the tee for a decent percentage of players.

Old Tom special

[Stephen Davis]

This hole is so absurdly bad, it actually looks like fun.  I suspect the novelty would fade quickly, however.  Where is this course?

Ha! You were the first person I thought of when I read that! I love Old Tom!
In complete honesty I imagine that putter is the choice of club off the tee for a decent percentage of players.

Old Tom special

[Randy Thompson]

This hole is so absurdly bad, it actually looks like fun.  I suspect the novelty would fade quickly, however.  Where is this course?

In complete honesty I imagine that putter is the choice of club off the tee for a decent percentage of players. I've got to believe that those trees on the right take a beating with players attempting a knock down long iron tee shot which inevitably gets pushed low and right.

Where is the course Randy?

Obviously, the more alternative a hole produces the better but the hole is so unique i consider it great. You stand on the tee and its a complete tunnel and 200 yards long. I got the sensation of, quick somebody hand me a club and lets see how close i can come to producing a long - low shot.
The course is in Chile on the coast, two hours from Santiago. I agree, it would wear me out also over time.

[Stuart Hallett]

A couple of questions :
Looks like a place where grass grows, why the sand greens ?
Also looks like they spent decent money on the terrace & pool, should have maybe spent more on a GCA ?

Not a good advert for golf in my opinion.

[Randy Thompson]

A couple of questions :
Looks like a place where grass grows, why the sand greens ?
Also looks like they spent decent money on the terrace & pool, should have maybe spent more on a GCA ?

Not a good advert for golf in my opinion.

Nine months straight every year without rain.
You can´t spend more on something if you never spent anything to start with, I am sure they never had a GCA. This was done without hardly any capital investment outside of the land long time ago. They have about 100 members, who if not for its minimal maintenace cost would have not have been able to acess golf in this Country for economical restraints. Courses like this grow the game by increasing the market to a lesser income bracket. Some find that good and others would like to maintain it as a rich mans game! Members are pushing to grass it but I think something like this should be preserved, where is the historical society when you need them?

[Stuart Hallett]

Randy,
I know where you're coming from, just a quirky place to play golf.

My old job was Greenkeeping, so mainly observation.
The observation from the photos showed lush green fairways, do they water ?

Apron type greens are not expensive and certainly cheaper than a guy who rakes every putt.

Don't get me wrong, but my main concern is a future client that might actually find this a good idea, and I will have to spend time & energy to convince otherwise. 

[Randy Thompson]

Randy,
I know where you're coming from, just a quirky place to play golf.

My old job was Greenkeeping, so mainly observation.
The observation from the photos showed lush green fairways, do they water ?

Apron type greens are not expensive and certainly cheaper than a guy who rakes every putt.

Don't get me wrong, but my main concern is a future client that might actually find this a good idea, and I will have to spend time & energy to convince otherwise. 

We are currently in the three month rainy season, but the surfaces were dense, so i would imagine they have some kind of irrigation.
These tyoe of courses won´t ever make much money so I don´t see clients that would invest in such but maybe joint efforts  between park and recreation dept working with golf associations seem more like the formula. There is a lot out of the box but I find a lot to appreciate.

[Adrian_Stiff]

99% of the world would say this course is crap.
I don't see why the greens are not grassed.

[Jaeger Kovich]

I do think its cool what you can do with trees as a 3D hazard around the greens when you dont have to worry about sunlight.

It gets an A for originality... It might be a contender for the best sand green course. I have only played 1 and it had a green in a giant metal silo! It was also very flat, and was hard to differentiate the holes aside from the "island green" and whatever the cows did. This course wouldn't have that problem! If you are going with sand greens I can get behind the day of doing some "different stuff"

However I think the best way to describe it is with the definition for a Doak 2 - "Play it in a scramble, and drink a lot of beer."

[Randy Thompson]

Adrian,
So then we can label it crap! There is a lot more crap out there that spent a ton more of money and even worked with so called professionals. No question, we are a very conventional society and most take the game to seriously!! I am sure more then one percent would find it fun but not on a daily basis although the membership is happy but much like you would pprefer to have grass greens.

[Carl Nichols]

Serious question:  what's the approximate stimp reading on those greens?

[cary lichtenstein]

Serious question:  what's the approximate stimp reading on those greens?

probably a 4

[jeffwarne]

99% of the world would say this course is crap.
I don't see why the greens are not grassed.

Well clearly this course is designed for the exclusive 1%.
Love the clubhouse.
While I must admit I did initially notice the green fairways and wonder why greens had to be sand, I must say we are a harsh bunch here on GCA.
Kudos to the club for doing what it takes to keep the doors open in a harsh climate and get people who would not otherwise be involved playing
looks like fun

[Adrian_Stiff]

Other than the tunnel hole, the individual holes look ok to good.
It is the greens that kill it.

[Jon Wiggett]

Other than the tunnel hole, the individual holes look ok to good.
It is the greens that kill it.

Adrian,

yes the greens are sand but if that is all they can sustain then why not? Hopefully as they gain the finances they might upgrade. After all Pinehirst started with sand greens before upgrading when finances allowed and I would not say that was crap.

Jon

[Adrian_Stiff]

Jon - Yes I agree if that's all they can do then fair enough. A Chilean climate I guess is very specialist, I just look at the green grass all around and it baffles me to have the sand greens.....that's what I mean when I say 99% would call it crap, case of "in the land of the blind the one eyed man is king" I suppose.

[Randy Thompson]

Serious question:  what's the approximate stimp reading on those greens?

I have my doubts if they are as fast as a 4, I would guess two to three. What was interesting was watching them putt. It´s still all about feeling and transfering that feeling to a properly executed shot. Going from a Green that stemps 7 to a Green that stemps 13 takes an adjustment but its still a lot about feeling. Going down with speed seems to me pretty much the same. Ball runs true! They are experimenting with adding a material called marcilla and mixing it with the sand on the surface to firm them up and speed them up. Marcilla seems to be something similar to sand stone.
Many on here have come to the conclusión that they are bad with there imagination but without any actually experience to arrive to those conclusions.

[Jason Thurman]

Members are pushing to grass it but I think something like this should be preserved, where is the historical society when you need them?

While I really enjoy the novelty of sand greens, I can certainly relate to the members who would like an improved putting surface despite the interests of any GCAers or historical societies who might instead prefer to keep the novelty intact. I live in an historic inner city neighborhood that’s about to see its first meaningful commercial development in about 70 years. The construction has met with strong opposition from non-residents who would prefer to see the community preserved in its current state so that they can drive through once a year and dream of what the 1940s were like, even if it means denying us residents opportunities for quality retail and dining, not to mention increased property value. The same people throw fits every time that an old, condemned warehouse is slated to be torn down, showing up with newspaper articles from the 1870s that detail how the building processed four cases of goetta 10 years after the war and should therefore be preserved forever. If the members want grass greens, I hope they get their grass greens.

Regardless, I’d love to play it. Courses like this are some of my favorite places in the world.

[Dave McCollum]

I know nothing about the climate.  But I’m guessing that like other regions of Pacific South America, the dry season has a lot of fog that brings moisture to the grass.  The Atacama Desert in northern Chile is the driest place on the planet, but along the coast there is some vegetation sustained by the fog.  Something to do with the Humboldt Current.

[Tom_Doak]

Randy:

That one hole is certainly an example of minimalist clearing !

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