Article on new course at Bandon Dunes

[Lester_Bernham]

Bandon Dunes finds the green in golf
By John Gunther, Sports Editor
BANDON - The burning piles of debris and stacks of logs might not look like anything special, but to officials at the Bandon Dunes Golf Resort they are a sign of tremendous progress.

To the south of the existing Bandon Dunes and Pacific Dunes golf courses, trees and shrubs are being cleared away to make space for the fairways and greens of the resort's third, as yet unnamed, 18-hole course.
By the time that course opens to the public in late spring or early summer 2005, and other related facilities have been expanded, the work force at the resort may increase by about 250 workers, said Hank Hickox, general manager at the resort.

For now, officials are excited to see the work on the new course.

Dave Axland, the on-site design associate for course architects Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw, said the site is about 50 percent cleared, a significant task since roughly 75 percent of the planned course routing was "heavily
forested."

The clearing is ahead of schedule, Axland said, adding that planners are delighted with what they are seeing.

"We're very, very pleased with what we're finding under the tree canopy," Axland said, referring to contours in the natural surface that lend themselves well to fairways.

A quick tour of the first several holes on the proposed routing, which has not yet been finalized by Crenshaw, Coore and resort owner Michael Keiser, gives visitors some idea of what to expect from the resort's third course.
They would also see that it's a lot different from Bandon Dunes and Pacific Dunes.

Unlike the first two courses, none of the holes on the new 18 will be along the ocean. The first and last several holes will be through a dunes area similar to Pacific Dunes, but seven holes, starting with No. 7, will be on the east side of a tall dune in a wooded area that includes a couple of lakes.

Troy Russell, the overall resort superintendent and superintendent of the new course, said it will be far from what might be considered a "woodlands course," but that there are no plans to wipe out all the trees.

"We're leaving a lot of nice trees - as many as we can," he said.

The ground cover for the new course also be different.

The area is filled with wild rhododendrons, salal, manzanita and other shrubs that will be left alone as much as possible.

A new lake will be built east of the large dune, to provide sand to cap the greens and fairways where needed on the eastern holes and also create an irrigation source for the new course, Russell said.

The imported sand will help give the fairways and greens a similar feel to the links-style fairways on the two existing courses.

Tucked away in a portion of the property for the new course is a test green, which serves a couple purposes, Russell said.

First, it is being used to test different grass combinations for the greens on the new course. It also is being used to test how a new style of bunker that Keiser would like to see implemented will hold up to a rainy Oregon winter. Keiser got the idea for the high-flash bunkers at Royal Melbourne, an Australian course, Russell said.

Bandon Dunes and Pacific Dunes both feature a combination of fine fescues and colonial bent grass.

Greens on the new course might have annual blue grass, the type of grass used on nearly every course that has been in the rotation to host the U.S. Open, Russell said.

If conditions continue to be ideal, the majority of the construction on the new course will begin after the new year, with shaping and seeding of the first fairways and greens.

That process will continue through next summer with the holes on the east side of the dune.

The earliest holes might be playable for preview rounds by next fall, Russell said.

"We're moving full-steam ahead," Hickox said.

[Mike_Sweeney]

"We're moving full-steam ahead," Hickox said.

I have been mentally planning to finally make a trip to Bandon when the C&C course opens. Is there a target date? I don't see one listed.

Thanks

[rgkeller]

From the article it seems that C&C are "manufacturing" the new course at BD.

So much for minimalist design.

[RJ_Daley]

I find two significant issues in the article.  First the comment of a test bunker construction next to a test green, because they are examining if the grass species and climate will allow for the Australian effect.  That sounds like they are going for the exacto knife sharp edged - cut into the bowels of greens, and high rolling lip curls that we see in Oz.  As I understant it, that requires an interface of deep knit roots (couch grass in the case with OZ) into a certain sort of sand-soil that can hold together without crumbling into the bunker bottom.  Secondly, I wonder if one course within the resort that seeds to poa annua will not overly infest the other two courses by migration of shared mowing and cultivating equipment, and golfers and carts.  I have heard some supers say they can keep the poa in check, and others say it is a battle with the certain outcome that poa will eventually win out.  I hope Pete Galea jumps in here to tell us what he thinks.

I have also thought that the next course in the Sand Hills ought to experiment with the grass species-sand soil interface to see if the Oz effect of the greeside bunkering might be brought here with its different and interesting design variety for us to enjoy too.

rjkeller:  What are they supposed to do, grub out these large stands of trees, and not fill in the root ball holes and not grade out anything?  I didn't interpret the methods Axeland is describing as overly manufactured.  But, within reason, they obviously have to grade out what is left rough after grubbing, and tie in what natural topo they find there with the planned routing of greensites and hazard features.  If minimalist means only turning over the prairie like the boys did at Wild Horse and Sand Hills, then I reckon you will be disappointed.  But, if minimalism means keeping as much as can be found in nature and working with that in a minimal manner to give you a good golf course, then...

[Craig Van Egmond]

Mike,

    The targeted opening is Spring/Summer 2005. I know I plan on being there.

[rgkeller]

rjkeller:  What are they supposed to do, grub out these large stands of trees, and not fill in the root ball holes and not grade out anything?  I didn't interpret the methods Axeland is describing as overly manufactured.  But, within reason, they obviously have to grade out what is left rough after grubbing, and tie in what natural topo they find there with the planned routing of greensites and hazard features.  If minimalist means only turning over the prairie like the boys did at Wild Horse and Sand Hills, then I reckon you will be disappointed.  But, if minimalism means keeping as much as can be found in nature and working with that in a minimal manner to give you a good golf course, then...

Well, they could forbear manufacturing a lake.

[RJ_Daley]

rg:  I suppose they could forebare[sic] it, and forgoe a reliable irrigation water resevoir.  It sounds like they are going to use on site sand to cap greens somewhat "California" method, or pushed-up, rather than use an offsite rootzone mix, USGA method.  

[rgkeller]

Well, I'm sure they can make a pretty water hole with the lake also.

[Norbert P]

  I'm not thrilled of an extra lake (water feature?) being constructed but if it's where I think they're going to dig it, just adjacent to the eastern slope of the huge dune ridge, then it will be a practical irrigation sump location.  It will gather plenty of agua from the slope and will be strategic for evacuating water from nearby fairways.  It will undoubtedly effectively contain any fert effluents as well.  

  I am biased against water features but if they are used tastefully (and are hidden from obtuse view) they are exceptable.  My favorite manmade lake is the lake at Bandon Dunes.  It is obscurely beautiful and effectively proficient for monitored and rational irrigation in times of drought.

  "Time is the only true critic, and time has a prolonged ledger."   Corey Engel

[W.H. Cosgrove]

Mr. Keller seems to want to find fault where none exists.  I was pleased to read that as the trees are being removed the designers are finding contours they like.  This would hardly sound manufactured.  

Several months ago there was the extensive discussion concerning the quality of the soil at the site.  It is hardly a surprise that C&C have decided to mine local sand and provide a cap to the exisiting soil.  The native forest floor is contaminated by natural material, not unlike leaves falling into your local bunkers.  This material will slow drainage by sealing the surface of the underlying sand.  Doak found this same type of situation at Pacific and transported sand in from the dunes beyond 17. Those of you who have seen the changes at Bandon will remember that the left side of #6 has changed pretty considerably.  This was an area that held water in the winter due to this capping from clay and decaying foiliage.  

As far as using annual Blue Grass/ Poa Annua for the putting surfaces, this would be the natural cover for courses in the Pacific Northwest. This has been an option for some time. I  discussed this with Troy Russell a couple of years ago. At that time I suggested he visit various courses in the PNW to obtain plugs from exisiting NW putting surfaces.  

Troy also gave me a firm lesson in how he managed the exisiting greens at Bandon.  Bandon has now been open what five years?  They have not yet seen a lot of poa in their greens.  The bent/fescue greens are kept pretty dry and firm.  Poa doesn't like these conditions.  The more inland course will be more protected which will probably allow for the poa to take hold.  Why not just begin with this surface and manage it appropriately?

And finally, there are any number of lakes behind the dune lines along the coast.  I hardly see this as "manufactured".  It seems a perfect solution to utilize a lake for irrigation and retention of drainage during the winter months.  In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if Department of Ecology was requiring it for runoff.  

Now who do I call for a tee time?  I can't wait to get back to Bandon to see this new 18.

[TEPaul]

rgkeller:

You appear to have a bit of a limited or perhaps naive perception of terms such as "minimalism", "manufacturerd" or even "lake" when they ultimately relate to golf architecture. "Minimalism" in golf architecture basically has two distinct meanings, in my opinion--the first one being  very little earth movement (Sand Hills) and the second one being earth movement in such a way that it becomes as indistinguishable from the natural site as possible. "Manufacturing" in the context of the concept of second meaning of "minimalism" sort of speaks for itself. The word "lake" in the context of C&C's efforts in Bandon are well explained by RJ Daley.

The trick with any architect and any architecture isn't how much they move or manufacture anyway--the ultimate test is can you tell or can't you and how does it play? Coore & Crenshaw use a bunch of methods in their attempt to make their architecture look natural and site natural. That would include moving earth in such a way as to blend their architecturally manufactured 'lines" into the natural "lines" of the site. It would also include various types of natural "grassing" and a certain ruggedness to some of their hazard features that look as natural as possible and less pristinely and immaculately maintained.

[TEPaul]

It's probably hard to estimate accurately at this point how Mike Keiser's efforts in Bandon Oregon will ultimately be evaluated in the broad scope of golf architecture but it just may be far more significant than we may now realize!

[SPDB]

I'm particularly interested to see how C&C responds to Keiser's desires to emulate Mac's Royal Melbourne bunkering. The sharp edges that characterizes that type of bunkering is at the opposite end of the spectrum from what C&C's typical style, which is, as somebody on this thread described it once, "dirty."

The best modern emulator of the style is, by far, Steve Smyers, who I believe is actually on record as saying the style of Mac's australian bunkers is what he aspires to. Here's a good example:



Might the design preferences of Keiser negatively affect C&C's product given that they will be working not from a blank slate, but under certain parameters, at least so far as the bunkering is concerned?

TEP - what does your canine friend Cooreshaw think about all of this?  

[rgkeller]

rgkeller:

You appear to have a bit of a limited or perhaps naive perception of terms such as "minimalism", "manufacturerd" or even "lake" when they ultimately relate to golf architecture. "Minimalism" in golf architecture basically has two distinct meanings, in my opinion--the first one being basically very little earth movement (Sand Hills) and the second one being earth movement in such a way that it becomes basically indistinguishable from the natural site. "Manufacturing" in the context of the concept of second meaning of "minimalism" sort of speaks for itself. The word "lake" in the context of C&C's efforts in Bandon are well explained by RJ Daley.

Well, when an architect builds a lake, changes the topsoil, and clears away the indigenous growth, that sounds like manufacturing a site to this naive soul.

And I suspect that no one will have any trouble distinguishing the finished product from the surrounding landscape - until BD boasts its seventh course and all the surrounding landscape is completely transformed.

[Tiger_Bernhardt]

It is as hard to get to as Scotland but I have to go each year.

[A_Clay_Man]

Mr. Keller- Is there some reason you want to call the boys hypocrits? Are you somehow involved in the industry?

Also, Can you imagine what would be there already, if the boys had first crack at the whole parcel?

DO you actually think MK will tell these guys how to buiild a golf course? With their body of work, he'd be nuts!

Anybody want to document it?

[Anthony_Nysse]

Just for the record, you cannot plant Poa greens. Poa will come in due time to Bentgrass greens, but generaly, poa is considered a weed.

[Scott_Burroughs]

Isn't Bermudagrass also considered a weed?  (not related to Bandon)

[Mike Erdmann]

Well, when an architect builds a lake, changes the topsoil, and clears away the indigenous growth, that sounds like manufacturing a site to this naive soul.

I think you misunderstand what's happening for the third course.  I was down at Bandon a few weeks ago and walked about half the routing for the third course.  C&C have no choice but to clear the indigenous growth.  The forest that much of the course is being built through is as thick as one can possibly imagine.  You'd have trouble hacking your way through it with a machete, it's that thick in places.  The ground contours are indeed wonderful once the trees and growth are removed.  The soil, however, ain't.  It's pretty heavy in places.  Why is capping existing contours with sand "manufacturing" a course?  I'd agree with you if they were going to be dozing the natural contours and building artificial ones of their own, but this isn't the case here.  

As to the test green, I understand they're using plugs of the poa greens from Eugene Country Club, which has perhaps the finest greens in the NW.  The bunker at the front of the test green is very flashed up, similar to the shaded part of the far left bunker in the photo posted by SPDB.  Given the amount of rain in the winter months at Bandon, I'll be interested in seeing how the flashed sand holds up.

[TEPaul]

"Well, when an architect builds a lake, changes the topsoil, and clears away the indigenous growth, that sounds like manufacturing a site to this naive soul."

rgkeller:

I'm sure it does and I have no idea at all at this point how Coore & Crenshaw or Mike Keiser intend to use that lake at Bandon Dunes.

But in that vein, I'll tell you about a "lake" that was manufactured by Coore & Crenshaw at Hidden Creek in New Jersey. I went down to that site starting before the course was cleared and perhaps routed and continued to go down there periodically throughout planning and construction. On one of those visits walking around the place with Coore I spotted a large manufactured lake and mentioned to Bill Coore that using a lake in their architecture didn't seem to me much like them.

But he said; "Oh, no one will ever see that lake from the golf course". I guess, I could've continued and asked him why they built it but he followed up with it's just for water control and irrigation purposes and again basically couldn't be seen from the golf course.

[TEPaul]

rgkeller:

On the subject of manufacturing, topsoil, natural contours etc, etc, I'd tell you a couple of quick stories that once were a real education to me particularly about the way Coore and Crenshaw seem to look at these subjects.

When I started visiting construction sites (C&C, Hanse, Doak and some other architects) I notice on one of them (another architect) on a site near me that there was an absolute mountain of earth piled on a part of the propety---and I do mean a real mountain. I asked what it was and was told it was all the topsoil that had been stripped off the entire site for shaping and manufacturing to begin before being replaced on the shaped course. I came back to that site when it was nearly done and the "lines" of the architectural shaping into containment mounding and such throughout the entire mid-bodies of holes and including green and tee ends had been done. Those "man-made lines" (architectural shaping) and their top profiles cut tree-lines and such in half and basically looked just like what it was--massive architectural shaping that appeared to take little into consideration how the man made architectural "lines" blended with the natural "lines" of the site and surrounding area.

Coore and Crenshaw don't really do that. They try to blend their "lines" with those of the site or surrounding area.

And on the subject of topsoil I did ask Coore once at Ardrossan Farm about what they did as far as removing topsoil. He told me that if the soil structure was good and they could figure out how best to use the exsiting natural contours of the land they'd basically just leave things alone and plant it for golf!

When he said very little one Saturday, perhaps the first day I met him, I asked him not only if something was wrong but what exactly he was looking for or at. He proceeded to tell me that he was looking at ground contours, even if they were no more than a foot in dimension and looking at how all of them twisted and turned together with others farther out and how they twisted and turned with the top profile of that hill out there and how that twisted and turned against that distance treeline and how that twisted and turned against the sky and the skyline.

That was somewhat amazing to me and then he said he'd eventually look to see how all the ground contours twisted and turned against each other and those other "lines" from basically every vantage point of the property!! Can you imagine that? And then he finally said he'd use all those twists and turns on the ground that could be used well for golf and the play of the holes and for drainage and when they couldn't be he'd have to enhance them somehow.

If you want a primer in "minimalism" and what "minimalism" really is in the context of minimalistic golf architectural manufacturing that's about as good an example, in a nutshell, as you can get.

[rgkeller]

Clearly, C&C can be minimalists when the land suits them but are now willing to become manufacturers when the land does not fit what the owner wants.

I think it is sad that a team with such an eye and an appreciation for the opportunities afforded for building what the land offers has seen fit to manufacture a resort course at BD.

I have no idea what architect will do the fourth course at BD but I predict that Arnold Palmer will be contracted to do the sixth.

[TEPaul]

rgkeller:

Clearly, there's a good deal you're just not understanding here or else you're just trying to be purposefully facetious on this subject.

Go back and read Mike Erdmann's post again. Do you know what sand-capping is? That's not done to manufacture or destroy or change natural ground contours, it's basically done for a more effective growing medium that enhances playability and very likely firmer and faster conditions ultimately.

Mike Erdmann has said very clearly that what they're doing there is clearing the ground of underbrush and trees, not altering the ground through thoughtless manufacturing. You don't expect them to leave the trees and dense underbrush there do you? Have you ever seen a good golf course that has fairways that're planted with thick underbrush and trees instead of grass? I sure haven't nor has anyone else.

Again, what leads you to assume C&C are wiping away or altering existing ground contours that are truly useful for golf either for playability of natural aesthetics instead of using them as is?

Please tell us most of your posts on this thread are some attempt to be facetious because if not one pretty much has to assume you're just kind of naive about golf architecture or at least some of the construction methods of it, particularly some truths about terms that are used!

[rgkeller]

Bandon Dunes has been praised to the high heavens for the two wonderful golf courses created on ground made by nature for golf courses.

Now we find a high profile architectual team, lavishly praised for minimalist designs and construction, being employed by BD Resort to manufacture a golf course that requires scrubbing of the land, new topsoil and a man made lake - so far - to create a proper golf course.

I find the departure from form for BD to be predictable, considering that BD is, after all, a resort. I find the departure for C&C to be sad.

Does anyone know when the spa will open at BD?

[Craig Van Egmond]

rgkeller,

     All golf courses, no matter how much earth is moved, are manufactured. So I don't see why you are making a big deal about this.

     Secondly, the site Pacific Dunes is on was completly covered with nasty gorse. That all had to be scrubbed off, does that make it not minimalist? All courses have trees and brush that must be cleared.