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

Hilton Head Island

Well I made it to Hilton Head Island and made some stops at a few beaches on the way up here. there are 3 courses I’m looking at in the area. First I will talk about Old Tabby Links and Chechessee Country Club.

Old Tabby links

This course was located on Spring Island in South Carolina. The island is 3,000 acres and has 410 housing units, a golf course, community gardens, and a nature center. The golf course was built in 1991 by Arnold Palmer. This is one of his more special designings and visits the course often. The original plan of this island was a 5,0000 housing development. This would have fragmented and degraded the land that serves as an important area for wildlife. The existing piece of land also has a lot of history.
The original owner of this property besides Native Americans was a guy named George Edwards. He was one of the richest men in America in the 1850’s. He was a cotton farmer and a good portion of the island was cotton fields. The layout of the course was highly influenced by the ruins of George Edwards house and the old cotton fields. The front nine was built through areas of managed timber and around the ruins of Edwards plantation house. At first look you think there was serious clearing of timber, but that was not the case. The back side was routed though meadow thickets where the old cotton fields existed.
Talking to Jay Gratton about this course I found he manages the course in a totally different way than some of the other golf course superintendents do. Since the island is a nature preserve there is a naturalist who works with Jay on management practices. The naturalist, Dr. Marsh has worked with him to become better stewards of the environment and have a better understanding how ecosystems work and function. The two major wildlife species that were a concern on the island was the Fox Squirrel and the Painted Bunting bird. These are both protected species and require as Dr. Marsh puts it open space to survive. On this course he has done a lot of surveys and has found an increase in these two indicator species.
Another interesting feature of this course is the housing units almost appear as if they emerged on the landscape. There was very little disturbance to the existing landscape with huge offsets from the golf course. The property owners were given a certain amount of space to build a house and small opening to view the golf course.











Chechesessee Country Club
The other golf course Chechesessee Country Club is also overlooked by Jay, however I did talk to the superintendent Bill Kennedy. This course has a more classic design with very unique green complexes and bunkers. Every green in sloped back to front and has a false front to almost everyone. The architect Bill Coore and Ben Crenshaw wanted the bunkers to have a look as if they were bunkers on a driving range. Most bunkers are edged to have a clean look, but not the case on this course. They were more rough around the edges appearing like they were eroding.
Dr. Marsh has also helped on the management on this course as well. When I was visiting they mapped out all the out of play areas and set zones to them. After mapping out the out of play areas they developed a management scheme for each area. This was recommendations and suggestions to maintain and improve on these areas.





Harbour Town Golf Links

I spent a day catching up on some work and decided to visit Harbour Town Golf Links. This was another Pete Dye design and also hosts a PGA event in April. I played really good on this course for not knowing much about it. I shot a 75 with a triple bogey on the 18th.