Not 100% on topic, but from one of my recent Golf Course Industry Columns, called "Senior Moments in Golf Design:"
[font=]While many of these are documented, some are anecdotal, so I present them only as legend…..(wink, wink)[/font]
[font=]Math Mistakes – Part 1, Correlating Units[/font]
[font=]When Donald Ross designed a course in western Canada, he sent plans with horizontal measurements in yards and vertical elevations marked in feet. [/font]His green detail showed grades as “0”, +5, (-2), etc. The inexperienced contractor assumed all units were in yards, initially building mounds and green contours 3 times higher than Ross intended, resembling the nearby ski hills.
[font=]Other architects have had problems when first working in meters rather than feet. [/font]A meter is 10% longer than a yard, causing some exaggerated contours. It happened on my first Asia project, but I liked the boldness, and figured slower greens would allow us to get by with wild contours.
[font=]Pete Dye doesn’t use plans, but likes to contour greens aggressively, like he did at the original TPC. [/font]The pros formed a committee to work with him to soften greens. One pro commented, “Pete, there is nothing wrong with that mound in the middle of the first green…..but you liked it so well you repeated it 17 times!”
[font=]Math Mistakes – Part 2, Simple Counting[/font]
[font=]Inverness and Crystal Downs mistakenly were routed with only 17 holes, and fixed by inserting a par 3 hole. [/font]Robert Trent Jones is said to have handled a comparable situation by saying, “When you pay me, I will tell you where the last hole goes.”
[font=]There’s an old saying – “If a routing plan is finished easily and quickly, it probably has 17 or 19 holes.” [/font]At least having 19 holes on the first try allows an excuse – you were proposing a “betting hole.”
[font=]Another had budgeted 120,000 Sq. Ft. of bunker sand, but placed an 180,000 Sq. Ft. sand bunker between the first two holes built, requiring a change order to build the other bunkers on the course.[/font]
[font=]Even the Best Made Plans…. [/font]
[font=]Blueprints (and modern digital images, reversed with the click of a button) have been printed backward, or at wrong scale. One architect designed a long and narrow green, but mistakenly drew it 90 degrees to hole, creating a wide and shallow green. [/font]In many cases, golfers wouldn’t know a green design was wrong, but in this case, the backing mounds were in front of the green, hiding it from golfers.
[font=]Another architect designed the greens in 1” = 20 feet scale, but inadvertently put 1” = 30 feet scale on the plans, resulting in – to his surprise - greens being built 50% too large. [/font]
[font=]Contour/Elevations labeling mistakes occur – one architect designed a 10-foot-high mound, but actually drew – and got - a 10-foot-deep hole. To save face, the architect maintained he wanted the deep hole, even requesting it be made deeper to sell the story.[/font]
[font=]Crossing the Line[/font]
[font=]Property lines are sometimes inconvenient, and some have built golf holes on adjoining property. [/font]Sometimes the Owner will buy the required property as being a cheaper correction than rebuilding the offending golf hole(s).
[font=]Sometimes You Don’t Notice It Right Away…or Just Don’t Care[/font]
[font=]Failure to account for future tree growth is a common design mistake, in back yards or along fairways. [/font]However, trees grow so slowly, no one notices for decades as their hole gradually becomes poorly designed.
[font=]I have seen a few large trees used to create dog leg par 3 holes, which tree hugging golfers seemingly continue to happily play.[/font]
[font=]Tropical Trees have been proposed in Northern climates, which sometimes lasts a few years, but ends in dead trees sooner or later.[/font]
[font=]You can’t beat Mother Nature[/font]
[font=]Large waste sand areas have been designed in rainy climates where unwanted plants (i.e., weeds) grow too easily, quickly over running the sand, which is often eliminated later.[/font]
[font=]Beach bunkers were trendy, until someone realized they couldn’t be drained properly, since the drain pipes were underwater. [/font]
[font=]Designing without site analysis has led to many problems, including building a golf course on the contaminated soils old salt mine, where turf wouldn’t grow, and allocating the best land at a multi season resort for golf on the north side of the hill……. leaving the ski hill south facing the sun, and very slushy slopes. [/font]
[font=]Surely, Someone Has Tried Chocolate on Roast Beef[/font]
[font=]Looking for a unique signature, one designer experimented with a “flooded grass bunker”, but turf wouldn’t grow under 3” of water, and water moccasins soon used it as a sunning area, hastening its early demise.[/font]
[font=]Failure to Keep Track[/font]
[font=]Busy architect and consulting tour pros hand work off to talented associates, limiting their design participation to sporadic sites visits, where their project unfamiliarity can be embarrassing. [/font]One architect, proclaimed a huge mound near a green to be “an excellent spectator mound, just as I envisioned”. Everyone else knew it was just topsoil storage pile. Others have had to be told what hole they are on, or maybe even the name of the course.
[font=]Carts – Can’t Live With Them, Can’t Live Without Them[/font]
[font=]Some architects leave paths to be field designed during shaping, occasionally resulting in expensive cart tunnels, either to hide paths, or because course circulation forced them to tunnel under a tee.[/font]
[font=]One architect lined fairways with a solid row of huge mounds. [/font]Golfers couldn’t access the fairways from the paths, and gaps had to be cut in later.
[font=]A Fitting Finale - A Senior Moment in A Senior Community[/font]
[font=]Years ago, in a senior citizen community, the golf course featured par 3 holes averaging over 240 yards, out of reach by the locals. [/font]Maybe the developer insisted that the architect stretch the course through the community to yield more golf front lots, regardless of how it would play for future members, because such courses still get built.
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[font=]There could be a longer column on construction mistakes......[/font]