We are the Golf GC at Cabot and I have probably spent some part of 150 days in the last year on Kyle's course. There has been times when it felt like the stimulus meter was turned up a little high, but...
The bunkers are aging very nicely and the local sand plays beautifully. Nice and firm, but drains well. Many of the bunker type features do not require daily maintenance and most did not require modern bunker construction practices like liner, drainage or imported sand. In fact there are no liners at all on Kyle's design and all are native sand.
The maint staff is not huge, 18 staff + management, I believe and I'm not sure if they even have that many out there each day.
The course is new, and grass is still being added during this preview play period. I know its a lot to ask, but I'd suggest maybe going to see it before commenting too much on design, but I know how hard that is in this instagram world.
Jeff Brauer...would you make a comment like that is Kyle was a member of your society? pretty shitty post IMO.
Don,
It is more a theoretical comment than one aimed at Kyle or Cabot. I talked with Mike Nuzzo recently on some other matters and I am really happy for him to get the 21 commission with you.
There are a select few courses, and these would be one of them, where you need the visual pop of massive sand or other types of visual artistic impact. However, there are legit profession wide questions of just how much is necessary. I am sure the redesign will spark a lot of interest and play, at least for a while. If World Woods was struggling after an initial run of success, then I wonder if a new design is all that will be needed long term (as I would anywhere)
A lot of work for many architects in the last decade has been "sand bunker reduction" and that was my experience with nearly every course I had designed. Sand is difficult to keep and also very costly, and combined with Tom's spot on comment about how difficult those waste bunkers have been at TPC and many other Florida courses where they have been converted to grass and/or downsized makes me wonder why this time would be different? I believe every design struggles with the design of the "wow" factor for now and the practicality of a design long term.
I always designed for maintenance when financial times weren't so rosy, and keep going back to the Donald Ross statement that it is easy to over bunker a course. Some architects (ASGCA and non) have wondered out loud about the same. It's certainly a legit question, and I have spoken with other architects about whether the new generation is making similar mistakes to my generation, i.e., designing for photographic appeal and potential awards rather than the golfers who play themselves, and certainly the superintendents.
It would be hard to criticize anyone trying to build their name as an architect for doing visually great work, given I and most others did the same, but now I have seen owners who live with it and time has changed my perspective. We recently had an education session on "thinking like an owner" and most of our panelists said reducing sand was always a top priority for them.
So, not meant to be a crappy answer, but just a conglomeration of recent discussions and experiences I thought I might share. This is, after all, a discussion about architecture, and the question was very pointed about overdoing things, so I answered.