Luckily, the green at 9 and the fairway on 10 had all been covered with buckthorn, which they insisted we remove, and since there was no moss there we were allowed to convert those areas to fescue. But that's why there is such a long walk from 9 green to 10 tee . . .
Tom
Off topic, but interesting to me at least. Would you have the 10th tee closer to the 9th green if possible? Perhaps a forward tee?
My original plan was to have two more holes in between, a par-4 playing back to the west below #9, and then a par-3 out toward 10 tee. But we couldn't build those.
The forward [ladies'] tee for #10 is actually up there close to #9 green. It's fun to play from there -- I think it's 275 yards -- but since it comes between two other par-3's, they would never have gone for that as the main option. The two existing tees are really the only others that made sense, anything closer would be right under the slope of the hill and it would be impossible to get your bearings on where to aim.
When I was wandering around that land plotting the best “additions” in 2009, I am sure I saw a plan that went:
8 (old 11), then old 12 (which was a sad loss), then a par 4 dogleg left on the same corridor and orientation that the current par-3 11th is, then current 9 (but probably further left), then current 10, a walk up to the old 13th which was a par-3… this would have meant no new par-3 15th.
Was that ever on the table or am I dreaming that? Or was it possibly my plan and my memory is confused!