Sand Hills Golf Club (in the middle of no where Nebraska)

On my way home everyone. Before I go home I'm visiting the number one modern day golf course and one of the top courses in the world. yes, its in Nebraska and yes its in the middle of nowhere Nebraska. It was a great drive and an adventure to get there. If your ever in Nebraska don't take I-80 take highway 2 you will be enlightened. I never seen such a landscape before. the terrain was formed from wind blown sand deposits and native vegetation.
The course Sand Hills Golf Club was designed about 10 years ago by Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw. If there is any course I have visited on this trip that is nearly harmonious with the land this would be the one. This course has no drainage system in place all natural. during construction there was little to no earthwork down. almost all of the bunkers you see on this course are natural. What I mean by natural is these bunkers were formed by the wind blown sand to make these concave forms(better known as blow outs). The only thing that cost money was the irrigation system and turf. This course is truly unique and one of a kind. The closet town in 20 miles away. The native areas you see in the picture are considered no maintenance areas. The only thing they do is harvest hay in the fall. To give a perspective of how inexpensive the course was the greens average cost was $300.

Transforming an Industrial Site Into a Public Amenity

Hey everyone, I'm on my last week of travels and just got done visiting one of the more interesting sites. The golf course is Three Crowns Golf Course located in Casper, Wyoming. The reason I wanted to visit this site is because it was a major phytoremediation project. The original site was a oil refinery that dated back to the 1920's and was one of the largest refinery's in the world at one time. the refinery is located in the heart of Casper just minutes from downtown. It was also located along the Platte river and over the years groundwater leached into the river. In its 80 years of operation an estimation of 30 million gallons of oil was spilled. In result the soils and ground water was seriously contaminated.

The process for cleaning up of the site took well over 10 years. I will try to sum up the cleaning process. First everything was recycled all the concrete and all the 200 miles of pipe they dug up. To control the ground water problem they constructed a barrier wall along the platte river so no contaminated water enters the river. BP then installed over 100 recovering wells on this 400 acre site. Wells pump the ground water which goes through a oil and water separate. after that process the water then goes there a wetland treatment process. Once the water goes through this natural process it is then pipe to a local wild life refuge.

The site is made up of a golf course, walking trails, commercial development and a kayaking park. This was a major project and is evident a success the space is used by everyone and is a great case study for been environmentally conscious.

Experiencing Rocky Mountain National Park

After visiting the Denver area for a week I planned on spending a few days at Rocky Mountain National Park. I've been to the park a few times, but on this occasion it was different. The first day was beautiful, warm and sunny. Perfect day to hike and enjoy the mountain scenery. Then the rain came the first night and then continued for about 24 hours straight. yeah it sucked, but I caught up on some work and I knew it was snowing in the higher elevations which would make my trip worth while. After waiting the rain out, the mountains revealed themselves again and it was awesome. above the tree line in areas there was up to two feet of snow. I've been determined to climb a mountain for a long time ever since I first came here as a young boy. I didn’t let the snow stop me it actually made the experience better. I ended up climbing Flat Top Mountain (approx. 12,300 feet). it was a 4.5 mile hike one way with almost 3,000 feet of elevation change. The Pictures below kind of tell the story.

Mile High Golf Courses

I’ve been on the road for almost two weeks and enjoying every bit of it. I spent about six days in the Denver area and went to five different golf courses including an office visit to award winning architect Jim Engh. Although he was not there I meet with his associates. One associate actually took me out to one of the courses they opened four years ago and it was great to hear the logistics to the design. Jim Engh is a award winning architect and has a unique style from anyone else. He really thinks outside the box and created his own style. The courses consists of concave green and fairways which provides a player friendly golf course because the ball will bounce back to the fairway or green. Also, the strategy of the course allows the player options. Which means there isn't just one way to play the hole like most holes that are lined with trees or even houses. When a player has options he can play the hole in multiple ways. This makes the game more interesting and the player can never figure out the course the first time playing it. Also, this type of strategy benefits the lesser player because the course in more forgiving.

The courses I visited in the Denver area were The Club at Pradera, Fossil Trace Golf Club, Castle Pines Country Club, Red Hawk Ridge and The Heritage at Westmoor.

Fossil Trace Golf Club was pretty awesome. The site was once a clay mine and was an eye soar for the community of Golden, Colorado. The course is not located on top of clay ash that was caped during the construction part of the golf courses. Number 12 is a very unique golf hole. As you can see from the pictures the old shovels were integrated into the design. Also the sand stone rocks was too. These are called fins because when they mined the clay they went around this sand stone and left they tall pillar like structures. Finally while playing this hole you will see remnants of dinosaur fossils hence Fossils Trace Golf Club.





The Heritage at Westmoor is an Audubon gold signature course that was built about ten years ago. On this public course you will find buffer strips along all ponds. Around every pond there is a 25' buffer. This enables all drainage to go through a filtration process made up of native plant material. This technique is not evident on course that are not involved in the Audubon program.




The Country Club at Castle Pines was another great case study. The superintendent here has taking big steps in the environmental movement. The course was design in the mid 80s and has seen some changes from environmental issues. This course uses reclaimed water for the irrigation system and is kept healthy by the use of compost and organic fertilizers.

Prairie Dunes Golf Club

Hey everyone this is my first entry for the second leg of my trip. I started out in Hutchinson, Kansas visiting Prairie Dunes Golf Club. Nine holes of the course was built in 1937 by fame architect Perry Maxwell and the second nine holes was built by his son Press. The course was built around undisturbed tall grass prairie in south central Kansas. It was kind of hard to get to, but a nice drive through the flint hills.

Most of the property is made up of undisturbed native areas. Since those areas were never disturbed there is rich varity of plants that show vibrant colors and textures. This really enhances the wildlife on the property. Also, you experience a true native ecology when playing this course opposed to one that was planned out.

The course had an interesting layout and the logic behind the layout was based on the sand cavities between taller dune mounds. These cavities formed thousands of years ago and left a compacted sandy soil. As you can yes by the pictures the dunes are pretty tall and most of them are all sand and was all natural. Since the course in 70 years old minimal dirt was moved

I spent two days at Prairie Dunes because I felt like it was a place I need to spend sometime and really understand the routine and layout and a bit of the history. Most of the courses being built in the modern era are highly influenced by courses like this.

Also studies have been done on bird population and varieties between nearby Sand Hills State Park. I also found an article on line on the study.


#2 Par 3 Beautiful

18 Tee shot major dunes on the right

Hole 8 one of the top rated holes in golf

Some of the natives

Last week of trip #1

Ok I will sum up my journey so far. This has been the time of my life and the people I have met have been unbelievable and extremely nice. The golf industry must have the most genres and well mannered people ever. Anyways I’ve been to Alabama through some beautiful foot hills. Then down to the everglades in Naples, fl (Southwest Florida) and saw some of the greatest sunsets I might ever seen on top of some great case studies that fit my agenda. I also did a little hiking through a cypress swamp. Then on up the eastern coast of Florida and just hung around golf courses, talked to people running the course and I could not resist the beaches during my free time. Next, I traveled up through Georgia and made a quick stop at Savannah. I should have spent more time in Savannah that town is awesome. I spent almost a week in low country South Carolina. There’s a lot of civil war history here and acres and acres of salt marshes. It’s a totally different environment through the back roads through the marsh areas. Its just so rich in wildlife and the natural ecology. It beats driving through miles and miles of corn fields in Illinois. After low country I stop at Pinehurst, North Carolina which is a small historic town with one of the most prestige’s golf courses in the country. I visited Pinehurst #2 and #8. There are eight courses and some date back to 1895. Donald Ross was the architect of most of the Pinehurst courses and he was also considered the father of american golf course architecture. Pinehurst #2 has held many famous tournaments most recently the 2005 US Open. After Pinehurst I drove through the Smokey Mountains and made my way up to Detroit to meet up with some family. Here’s some pictures of thinks I did on my travel from place to place:


Creek in the Smokey's

Sunset in the Smokey's

On th ebeach in Naples, FL

Cypress swamp near Fort Myers

My last stop was Forest Dunes Golf Club in Roscommon. I met with the superintendent and he showed me around the course which is located in middle of some federal owned land that is dedicated to the Kirtland Warbler bird. The course has a unique drainage system that does not drain into any of the man made lakes almost like a level spreader solution. One of the big issue was a concern that the course would pollute the local water supply and a river that is famous for trout fishing. So their was 4 water monitoring wells located where the water leaves the site and to date there has been no impact on groundwater or runoff from the site. Anyways. The course was built on a old apple orchard through very sandy soils. The course is ranked in the top 100 public courses to play and #2 course in Michigan.

This would conclude trip one and trip two will be even better. I’m going west to Colorado and then hopefully fly to the West Coast. If cant do that I will just spend and look at courses in the Chicago area and maybe a few in Wisconsin.

Pinehurst

The last few weeks of my trip were pretty good. I spent a few days in Pinehurst, North Carolina. Visited Pinehurst #2 and #8. There are eight courses that date back to 1895. Donald Ross was the architect of Pinehurst courses and he was also considered the father of American golf course architecture. Pinehurst #2 has held many famous tournaments most recently the 2005 US Open. I also had a few extra days and spent some time at other area courses in the Pinehurst area.

Pinehurst #2






Pinehurst #8





Tobacco Road Golf Club