Grant -
- it is noticeable the bunkering sits in the rough. Is this theme continued throughout the course and how much of that decision is yours?
While the idea of bunkers right in the fairway cut is getting popular here, it wasn’t really considered in 1999-2000 when built. The entire course was sodded, with Zoysia fairways, bluegrass inner roughs (TPC staff decision for playability, graduated rough) and then fescue. They wanted one mower wide between the bunkers and fairway.
- there is a great feeling of width in the holes. Was this conscious purely from a playability perspective or was it also necessary to match the scale of the property?
Both. I was aware of both the visual scale of the place, and the possible 50MPH plus winds, together with many elevated tees which requires lots of room to play.
- in the below picture, the first bunker appears almost small in relation to its location. Was there a deliberate choice to try and distort the distance to carry it?
The photo is of the second hole. There were originally two bunkers there, filling up the slope. For whatever reason, they removed one but not both. They are very short off the tee, sort of fore bunkers, not hard to carry. I was actually surprised Jim Colbert let the one stay, because he is not fond of carry bunkers (see the large one on the left of 7, which they took out)
Jason
The course bills itself as a co-design between you and Jim Colbert. What was the relationship like between the two of you as you came up with the plans and built the course?
As a matter of fact, I was with Jim yesterday. I guess the relationship is still good! He always says I do the routing, he does the strategy, and he taught me more about how tour pros think their way around the course than anyone, so he was involved in that, but I wouldn’t say he did it all. But his name and money were on the course, so he had a lot of say, and was not just a typical figurehead in design.
Do you have a favorite hole? Is there a hole where you felt hamstrung or that you felt could have been better with different circumstances?
I like a lot of them, really. I also would like to tweak a few. I always thought 6 and 7 worked well. Jim and I discussed the 11th, a long par 3 from the back, with a bunker in front and a sideways green. That one turned out too tough, and they play it much shorter.
Colbert Hills is a uniquely expansive course that covers a gigantic amount of ground. What was the routing process like? Was the land available already determined by the land development, or were you able to choose the land within the development that you wanted to route the course through? What stipulations were there for how the routing needed to accommodate lots?
The TPC was involved early, and so real estate was a factor. There were three sites under consideration, but this had the best access to campus and had 1600 acres, perfect for a real estate type course. The owner actually wanted to give us just the southern 200 acres, without regard to topo. He was an old farmer without any development experience, but wanted to leave a legacy for his kids.
Oddly, the core routing on that 200 hilly acres had no chance of being the best course. Then, we routed it through the valleys, and he said we took all the best land, so we did a routing on the ridges, where he also said we took the best land. It was really just a matter of him needing someone he trusted to tell him we were doing the right thing.
If I had a regret, it would be some of the long walks/rides to get to the next natural hole locations, especially since it is a tournament course. The only other real constraint I felt was that holes 6 and 7 had to go there. That portion of the property drained to a different watershed and couldn't tie into the Manhattan sewer system, but those are two of my faves, so no big whup.
The property was very hilly, and also solid rock below, so the holes really, really had to fit the land, so the best routing all around was to use all the valleys as you normally would in a real estate course. I am told that the development is really taking off right now, after 15 years. This was a town that had about 35 housing starts a year, but in the last bit, the course is developing 10X that every year in different forms of housing. We actually did size the drain pipes for future development, and holes like 16 have 48" pipe running the length of the fairway. You can actually see that one empty into the pond in front of the tee.