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Mark Kiely

  • Karma: +0/-0
New putting course by Jay Blasi in Palm Desert
« on: April 19, 2022, 03:20:53 AM »
An old-school club in Palm Desert has added a new wrinkle – quite literally! Shadow Mountain Golf Club recently opened The Flamingo Greens, a giant, rolling putting course designed by Jay Blasi. I stopped by on Sunday to check it out and loved it. I don't know much about the Himalayas course at St. Andrews but I believe the idea here was to create something similar. I'd estimate it's about 140 yards in length and 40 yards in width, full of humps and bumps and moguls that make for lots of interesting putts. It's only $5 to use it for as long as you want. The only thing I couldn't really figure out is whether or not there's an actual intended routing or if you just pick and choose where you want to putt to next. Two different Shadow Mountain employees didn't seem to have a whole lot of intel yet. (A guy who works for Jackson Kahn and helped build the course chimed in on my Instagram post and said he thinks Jay developed several routings and hopes players come up with their own as well.) Definitely worth checking out if you're in the area. I was solo on Sunday but look forward to going back with friends sometime for some putting games.


Here are some pictures:
2022-04-18_11-59-21 by Mark, on Flickr

2022-04-18_11-59-49 by Mark, on Flickr

2022-04-19_12-00-45 by Mark, on Flickr

2022-04-19_12-00-11 by Mark, on Flickr

2022-04-19_12-01-36 by Mark, on Flickr

2022-04-19_12-02-24 by Mark, on Flickr

(If you want to view these full size, clicking on them should take you to my Flickr page where you can click on the image to view it much larger.)

One last note: I've played a few putting courses throughout my life, but they've always been the type to have individual, defined holes. This format is far superior with all one surface instead of segmenting them out.
My golf course photo albums on Flickr: https://goo.gl/dWPF9z

Mark Kiely

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: New putting course by Jay Blasi in Palm Desert
« Reply #1 on: April 22, 2022, 08:46:02 PM »
In case anyone cares, Jay replied to an Instagram post of mine where I mentioned the lack of direction, and said the general routing is to play in a clockwise manner around the course. That still doesn't entirely clear things up because there were many pins out in the middle areas. But as he added, "If you are lucky enough to get the green to yourself, then the best way to play is just pick whichever hole looks like the most fun. And repeat!!!"


Agreed!
My golf course photo albums on Flickr: https://goo.gl/dWPF9z

Jason Topp

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: New putting course by Jay Blasi in Palm Desert
« Reply #2 on: April 22, 2022, 09:25:15 PM »
Nice conversion of a limited flight golf ball range. 

Connor Dougherty

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re: New putting course by Jay Blasi in Palm Desert New
« Reply #3 on: April 26, 2022, 02:00:29 PM »
I'm working for Jackson Kahn now but want to be clear that I was not at the time of this project. I helped just in small part build the course as one of my last projects working for Don Mahaffey and Greenscape Methods as the contractor. Just want to remove any ambiguity that JKD was involved. Jay deserves all the credit for the design.


It was an incredibly fun project to build. Jay had a great vision for what he was looking for, taking concepts from the Himalayas course but scaling it up, at times giving the green a more bold feel and a little more variety in different putts (some which have a halfpipe feel, others which putt up over surfaces).


Jay has multiple routings for the course, but more routings are planned. Everyone was hoping that some of the first tee kids would come and have some vision for future routings, but I'll let Jay comment more on that if he chooses.


Building it was an incredible experience. Jay was really fun to work for and with and everyone involved really believed in the end product. Jay did a great job of expressing his vision, working with us, thinking outside the box, and getting us to the finish line. On top of that, the owner, Lindi Biggi, deserves a lot of credit. We often get stuck in our own world here and can struggle to think outside of the box. While the concept of a putting course might not be new, we do feel like we created something different, and several future aspects of this project that revolve around keeping the place as a popular location to hang out should really take it to the next level. Jay was able take his vision for what Lindi was hoping for and really do something great with it.


On an unrelated note, obviously, my own career has gone in a new direction. Spending 3 1/2 years working for Don taught me an incredible amount about the process of building golf courses and reinvigorated my passion for golf course design and architecture. It also gave me the opportunity to work for some of the best architects in the industry. Working for Don changed my life, and has made all of the dreams I had as a high school kid pursuing this come true. This was the last project we did together and I couldn't have picked a better one.


I post less on this discussion group, in large part because I look back at some of the comments I made when I was younger and cringe at how dumb and naive I was. But I never would have met Don were it not for the outing he had at Wolf Point back in 2018, and for that reason, I'll be forever grateful to this site and Ran for letting me join in the first place.
« Last Edit: April 26, 2022, 02:23:40 PM by Connor Dougherty »
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