The Last Week in Florida

After a trip through alligator alley I visited a course in Palm Beach and cruised up the coast to Jacksonville to meet with golf course architect Bobby Weed and visited TPC Sawgrass. Sawgrass is where the Players Championship is played in March. It was designed by Pete Dye. It really didn’t fit my agenda, but was a course you have to see from an architectural stand point. It has one of the toughest finishing holes in golf and one of the most recognized holes in golf. You guys might recognize this hole even if you don’t know much about golf. Look at the pictures.

Island green at TPC Sawgrass

Tee box is on the right side - green on the left.
The course I looked at in Palm Beach was the Old Marsh Golf Club another Pete Dye course. I didn’t spend too much time on this course, but it was very unique and is actually rated the 28th toughest course in the country. It is a private community and golf club, but what I have found on these private community golf courses was how the residents take great ownership in the course. They really value the course and appreciate the setting and the environment.





I’ve been visiting a lot of Pete Dye golf courses. Pete Dye is one of the most influential architects in the modern era. He really took advantage at what could be done with modern technologies and construction techniques. His designs were really imaginative by using very unique and distinct features such as railroad ties.


On my way up to Hilton Head Island I stopped at a resort called Amelia Island. It was designed by Pete Dye and Bobby Weed . The courses were listed in Golf Magazines as a top 10 Environmentally Friendly Golf course. The course provides protection for the native tidal marshes, oceanfront dunes, grasslands and savannahs. The course also created a 40 foot vegetative buffer to allow waterways to remain pristine.
The article was in the March issue of Golf magazine. I thought I would stop and look at some of these courses on my trip. There are two golf courses on this resort. The ocean course had five holes routed along the ocean which is my first experience of a ocean side golf course. The other course Oak Marsh was very similar to the Old Marsh Golf Club. The course was built through live oaks and marshes. I didn’t get to talk to any superintendents about the course, but it was worth taking a look at since I was driving right by it.

The Last of Naples

The two other courses I visited in Naples were Collier Reserve and Corkscrew golf club. Collier Reserve was a residential golf course. What I found interesting about this course was the way it was laid out. There were buffer zones between golf course and houses. Soon after I noticed this I realized the whole community used very little turf grass in the front and back yards. It was all native plantings. This was a nice change from a typical golf course community where the fairways are lined with houses and all you see is acres of turf. Driving around Collier Reserve was fun because between holes the cart paths were built through protected areas of swamp.




The other course Corkscrew golf club has achieved Audubon silver certification. This course just opened last year and was a Jack Nickalus designed course. I spent a few hours talking to the superintendent Chris Hughes on the course and the Audubon program. Some of the key features Audubon did was install these drainage boxes that collect all of the greens runoff and filters the water before it’s released through the fairway and into constructed wetlands. This was also the first course I visited where the superintendent used a lot of organic fertilizers in the fairways.

The Old Collier Golf Club/ Good Case Study

I’ve spent six days in the Naples area and visited three golf courses. The one course I wanted to visit was the Old Collier Golf Club. This course was the first course to be certified by the Audubon International Signature program (gold certification). I based this fellowship on the Audubon International golf course certification programs. It seems like it’s a great program to get involved, at least the signature program. The Old Collier Golf Club was a great visit. They were really nice and very supporting in what I was doing. According to them I was on the right track in becoming a golf course architect. I spent two days there the first day Tim Hiers (golf course manager) showed me around. This course is a great study for my fellowship for many reasons and I can't possibly type this all out as it would be about a 20 page report. However, some of the significance of this course was the use of a turf grass called Seashore Paspalum from tee to green. It was the first course that used it from tee to green and what’s great about this grass is it can be watered with brackish water which is pretty much waste water or high salinity. Since this area has been in extreme drought conditions this course has not had any restrictions put on them. Its hard to cover it all on this course, but some of the great things about this course is how this site went from basically nothing and almost a housing development to a breeding ground for lots of wildlife. Tim Hiers and his crew has worked hard in creating habitats and connecting corridors for wildlife. One being the gopher tortoise population which is a protected species. The population on this site has almost doubled (140 count) since the course has been open in 2000. This course is managed in a very efficient way. Even the maintenance buildings would exceed LEED certification. The course was a beautiful Tom Fazio design. This was an excellent case study and has won many Florida sustainable awards. This is certainly a way a course can be designed and maintained in a efficient and sustainable manner.

Words Can't Describe a Sunset

Wow…finally made it to Florida and the first thing I did was watch the sunset. I’m in Naples which is located southwest Florida. Kind of reminds me of the rose bowl trip and driving through Beverly hills. Some areas down here are just that nice. I think this was the most beautiful sunset ever. However, every day has a great sunset.

Farmlinks Golf Club/First Ever Research and Demostration Golf Course

Hey all

I hope everyone’s summer is going great. Mine has been eventful so far. I got a late start on this fellowship, but I finally took off on June 14th. My first stop was a golf course called Farmlinks Golf Club. The course is located 50 minutes southeast of Birmingham, Alabama. This site was not on my original itinerary, but I wanted to visit this course because it’s the first and only research demonstration golf course. This course is visited by over a 1,000 superintendents, researchers, and students a year. I met with the director of agronomics Mark Langner to find out about what the course was about. After meeting with Mark I realized golf courses can almost enhance an ecosystem if you think about it. They release a lot of oxygen, act as a filter and can help recharge groundwater. At Farmlinks they do a lot of testing on different varieties of turf grasses and a lot of studies on fertilizers, among many other things. One of the first things he told me is that golf courses don’t hurt the existing ecosystem it enhances the existing ecosystem. Another topic he brought up that was really interesting is some of the studies done on fertlizer use on a golf course vs. home owner use. The course was built around small foothills in rural Alabama. What I really enjoyed about this course is the experiences through many different landscapes such as wildflower meadows, native prarie meadows, wetlands and coniferous and deciduous forest. The signature hole on the courses is a 180 yard par 3 with a huge elevation drop (coolest hole I have ever seen). Just look at some of the pictures:)