What's your white whale?

[Mark Fedeli]

Architects,

What design possibility do you obsess over? What haunts you?


Was there a piece of land that would have made an incredible golf hole but, for whatever reason, it couldn't come to pass?


Is there a terrific idea in your head that you fear you may never get to create?


If practical concerns like drainage or playability were suddenly not a factor, what would you immediately set out to do?

[Ian Andrew]

Mine was the Weir Course at Predator Ridge in British Columbia
 
It was part of the selection process for an architect and the assumed first project.
Everything went very well until the Financial Crisis of 2008 ended the project.

The land options were dropped and I doubt it will ever move forward...
 
The Plan
(you can click on it to have a closer look at the contours)

3's in Red
Short 4's in Yellow
Long 4's in Pink
5's in Blue

Site was up high, so I thought a lot about wind direction and changing directions regularly
I though key to routing was how to go uphill: 1, 5, 8, 12, 13, 14 (all into natural valleys)

 
(


2^nd Hole - par five


4^th Hole


8^th Hole


9^th Hole


13^th Hole



Hole 18 - clubhouse would be on the right side of the hole

[Dave McCollum]

Made me feel good looking at these renderings.  It's been a tough day.

[RJ_Daley]

Dave,  It sounds like the lament of a good businessman and manager.  But, I'm sure whatever it is, you'll handle it and tomorrow will be better.

Thanks for showing us your dream project, Ian.  It looks like a place a fellow could fall in love with.

[Dave McCollum]

Dick,

Nothing so petty.  Lost a good friend I've known for 60+ years.  Worked with me at the course (shared an office), golf buddy, my accountant for many years, and tolerated my gca rants.  Several from this site have played with him.  RIP, Bill. 

[Thomas Dai]

Ian,


Terrific visuals, many thanks for posting them, they must be of great use for presentations and the like. I'm not up on techie stuff but would I be correct in assuming they are on-site photos subsequently tweaked with an app or package of some kind?


Might be nice to have say a one-hole an AAA contest sometime based on an on-site landscape photo and see what folks could come up with, assuming I guess that appropriate apps or packages are easily available (and free or at least cheap) to amateurs.


Atb

[Tommy Williamsen]

Dick,

Nothing so petty.  Lost a good friend I've known for 60+ years.  Worked with me at the course (shared an office), golf buddy, my accountant for many years, and tolerated my gca rants.  Several from this site have played with him.  RIP, Bill.

It's tough to lose such a close friend. They can't be replaced. You were lucky to have him so long.

[Jeff Doerr]

Mine was the Weir Course at Predator Ridge in British Columbia
 
It was part of the selection process for an architect and the assumed first project.
Everything went very well until the Financial Crisis of 2008 ended the project.

The land options were dropped and I doubt it will ever move forward...
 
The Plan
(you can click on it to have a closer look at the contours)

3's in Red
Short 4's in Yellow
Long 4's in Pink
5's in Blue

Site was up high, so I thought a lot about wind direction and changing directions regularly
I though key to routing was how to go uphill: 1, 5, 8, 12, 13, 14 (all into natural valleys)

 
(


2^nd Hole - par five


4^th Hole


8^th Hole


9^th Hole


13^th Hole



Hole 18 - clubhouse would be on the right side of the hole

Thanks Ian - Hoping that we will get to see this some year.

[archie_struthers]

 




Like to build one on the water with a different feel than the first one.  Probably gotta self fund so buying a bunch of lottery tickets!

[Gib_Papazian]

The Inch Peninsula haunts me.

[Kirk Gill]

I'm certainly not an architect, but there is a property near where I grew up that would make for a spectacular course. However, it's on top of a local mesa with houses down below which would likely be pelted with golf balls should the course of my dreams ever be built. Here's one view of where an uphill par three would need to be built:





And the view of that location from below:





And a view of the terrain on the mesa:





There's a lot of reasons why it would never be built - not the least of which being that it is currently a great park enjoyed by lots of people. But I still see golf holes there !

[Thomas Dai]

The sand dunes and linksland north of Aberdeen and across the River Ythan towards Collieston.
Newborough Burrows, SW Anglesey
South of Saunton GC towards the mouth of the River Taw
Llangannith Burrows, western end of the Gower Peninsula
Just about any bay on the coast of County Donegal

Atb

[Mark Fedeli]

Like to build one on the water with a different feel than the first one.  Probably gotta self fund so buying a bunch of lottery tickets!

Archie, was there anything specific you left on the table at Twisted Dune that you really wish you could have done there?