Tom Doak's Harmony Club, new routing vs. old routing

[Jimmy Muratt]

Thanks to Mike's teaching abilities on how to post pictures, I can now post the old and new routings for Tom Doak's Harmony Club on Lake Oconee in Georgia.

There have been quite a few changes and there are some new great looking holes.  A few of the major changes that you'll notice:

#4  a new par 3 over a pond
#8  great looking par 3 over Lake Oconee to a green surrounded by bunkers.  Also notice the new green to tee walk to #9 is much better now.
#9  a par 5 that shares a fairway with #17
#10  par 3 that appears to be a Redan

Old Routing


New Routing

[Tom_Doak]

Jimmy:

Nearly all the changes you note are a reaction to a single real change, and to having been on the site twice more and getting to know it better.

The "real change" was the fact that Georgia Power (which actually owns the shoreline of all of Lake Oconee, including 30-100 feet of Harmony Club) is getting more stringent on clearing along the lakeshore, and did not want us to clear so many trees along the cove for the original par-3 8th hole.

I really wanted one hole on the front side to touch the lake, so I suggested the new 8th shown, which requires only a narrow clearing on the tee side ... and Georgia Power approved of this.  It will probably be the most dramatic hole on the course, and it has a very secluded feel.  It also has a much better background (out to the open lake) than the old 17th or a reversed version of the old 17th.

However, that one substantial change to the routing had a domino effect.  To use the new eighth hole, we had to change the sixth and seventh and ninth and tenth.  The changes add variety to the course:  six is now a longer par 5 than anything on the old routing, seven a very short par 4, nine a good short par 5 up the hill, and ten a Redan-like par 3 back to the center of the routing.  The tenth adds a hole to the routing, so we had one to give up, and changed the old fourth and fifth into a single hole instead.

Also, we've reversed the seventeenth and eighteenth so they play clockwise instead of counter-clockwise.  The seventeenth, heading out toward the open lake, is a gorgeous view.

Most people don't realize how a slight change of priorities can lead to a significantly different routing.  These two maps illustrate the concept nicely.

P.S.  One of the other things I really like about the change is that the routing is more broken up into little "mini loops" of three or four holes which keep coming back to the starter's shack.  Members will be able to choose several different loops if they want to play a couple more holes before dark.

[Norbert P]

 Tom, interesting how it seems that The Turn is made AFTER Hole 10.

  I'm not criticizing #8 but that bunkering does not, from what I've seen, follow any style I've seen of yours before.  Was surrounding the green with bunkers part of a fert issue with Lake Oconee?

 

[Tom_Doak]

Slag,

First of all, I guess I should have included my general disclaimer about our maps:  no one should pay too close attention to the bunkers depicted.  When the course is finished, maybe 50-60% of the bunkers will actually be where we drew them at this stage.  I've got to do something while I'm on site!

I haven't heard anything specifically yet about the turf restrictions on the shore of Lake Oconee, but I did sort of assume they don't want the putting surface of that hole right next to the lake.  Also, the natural grade there right now is only maybe two feet higher than the lake level, so I figured we would have to fill the green and leave bunkers where we don't.

You are right that I very rarely surround a green with bunkers -- I prefer an "unbalanced" look that gets golfers leaning in one direction.  But on a par 3 with water basically all around it, that's out the window.  And all you'll see behind this green is water, whether we use bunkers for a buffer or not.

[Mike Nuzzo]

Tom,
Very nice.
The loops are great.  Was their any aprehension to a "non-returning nine"?  It's nice to have modern examples to point to that "say" it's ok to do things that make the most out of the land.
Do the parking and access road come into view at all?
Thanks

P.S.  I liked the look of your routing a lot more than the striped fairway version of the marketeers.

[Tom_Doak]

Mike,

The clubhouse will be just to the right of the range on these maps, with the access drive coming down the bottom property line.  The founders are currently thinking they will park cars up by the entrance to the site (bottom left in the maps), a la Pine Valley, so there are no cars in view at all; but really the only place on the course where you could possibly see the entrance drive would be on the 13th tee.

And, no, they had no real qualms about the unevenness of the two nines.  I suppose this is in part because they are familiar with Stonewall, where both courses return to the clubhouse at the 8th hole!

[Mike Nuzzo]

Tom,
Wow.  I've never seen them.  I'll have to check all of your scorecards.
Thanks
Mike

[Tom_Doak]

Mike,

That's just one of a zillion things that don't show up on the scorecard.

However, if you did check out the scorecards of our 16 courses to date [including Cape Kidnappers but not Barnbougle yet], here's what you'd find:

Courses over 7000 yards:  5 out of 16 ... Black Forest because it's a par 73, Beechtree because the owner added a tee, Apache Stronghold and The Rawls Course because they're at 3200 feet, and Cape Kidnappers because Julian Robertson wants to host the NZ Open.  [I liked my percentage better when I was two for ten.]

Par 70:  3 - Stonewall (both courses), Atlantic City CC
Par 71: 10
Par 72:  2 - Apache Stronghold and The Rawls Course
Par 73:  1 - Black Forest

[Brian Phillips]

Tom,

Just thought I would say that I love the strategy on the new 11th.  To me that is pure Colt...but you may disagree!!

Which way is the green going tilt?

What made you go over from pantone style to photoshop style on your masterplans?

Brian

[Tom_Ross]

Tom,

The new design looks very interesting an a measured improvement over the original.  

One question...how severe is the sun on the 18th hole, as it appears to play almost due-West into the setting sun?  How about taking the trees down to the right of 18 fairway and making a combined 9-17-18 fairway (HUGE!!), which would allow players on 18 to play farther right and potentially avoid looking directly into the sun for their approach.  Could be potentially hazardous to player coming up 17, but then again it probably wouldn't be used much except at the end of the day.