Mountain Terrain - Routing Study / Space Planning

I think that was the push I needed!

Once you put it that way, made way too much sense to cut that knob left of my 4th hole out (hope it’s more dirt than rock 😂). It seemed obvious once I realized how it could tie into that ridge coming from 5.

I also made a much more substantial cut on 1 to open the view a bit.

Here’s that, and im hoping to shift some focus to getting some cut/fill lines on some of the side-sloping fairways like 3, 8, and 16, which look like they’re in that 10-15% slope range at the moment. Also want to dive into the driving range a bit more.

Sorry...we only have a pdf of that topo. AutoCAD is not in our workflow.

@connoradougherty this is really strong. Honestly, the critiques I have were proactively mentioned and resolved by your commentary. I know it’s been awhile, but if you still plan on doing a grading plan, we’d love to see it posted here. Good work! Love the simple rendering too for legibility.

@David Kahn Thanks David! I hadn't forgotten about it, but I will say, as I started to work out a grading plan, the more uncomfortable I felt with the way the front 9 routing came together. I always liked the back, but once I got to sketching out the grading, the more I felt like I was really fighting the land. Also, just can't underestimate the expense of that kind of cut/fill on a mountain landscape given the rock. There were two other things which I was never particularly happy about in the original iteration. I didn't like how short the 1st and 18th holes were. No one wants to start or finish their round without their driver in hand. The other thing was, to me, the coolest part of the property is all the valleys and big movements on the Eastern side of the property. I had the 5th hole along there, but always felt like it could have been a little better. Moving the 2nd and 3rd holes into their North-South direction allowed me to put in the 4th, which, to me, had the potential to be the coolest hole on the golf course: A reachable par 5 played along that chasm. It cost me the cool 2nd hole in my original routing, but the course fits far better into the existing landscape now. And the 5th and 6th, while maybe not as cool as the original second, use some of the cool landscape features. Other Changes: -No range is always a tough sell, so I made the short course a hybrid. If you look at the magenta dashed line, that is set to be a driving range tee. This gives them the flexibility to use the space as both (like Bandon Dunes' shorty course).

-I put the maintenance facility on the south side of the pond. Assuming the pond is used to supply irrigation, pump station would be part of that complex. Obviously, I won't be diverting the overflow anymore.

-There's still some details to put in, the biggest being a putting green West of the Clubhouse, the housing along the 9th hole and the short course, and the grading plan. But I feel like this is at least a better routing to work off of with less earthwork.

I've been sitting on this for a little while, it's kind of been that project that I could never get exactly the way I wanted, and just kept tinkering with it. This was my first crack at really putting together a grading plan, and I tried to make sure that cuts and fills were as local as possible. Next step for me is doing elevation profiles to make sure the grading plan keeps the site lines that I'm going for, and then getting into the nitty gritty of greens contours and stuff like that. Best way to go through this is to probably by hole. On the map, cuts are delineated by red lines and fills by blue lines. I'd love feedback here. I'm sure I missed several things and am aware that some of the contours are too strong (especially some of the fairway contours, like 1. 1: Cutting into the slope to open up sidelines from the back tee. I adjusted the greens complex to move the bunker from the front to the back to support the green and keep balls that go over from running way out. There's a fill in front of the low in the fairway to hold up balls (side note, getting a pipe in the ground for the pond overflow and to capture some of the water, given how much would be coming off the mountain, would likely be necessary) 2: Fill pad for the tees, but I did also add a bunker on the left side of 8 which is there to serve as a backdrop for the green. 3: I got rid of the fairway bunker and want to do some more modern-styled chocolate drops on the right (somewhat akin to what JKD did at Faye Ranch). At this point the fairway no longer crosses the watershed like it does on 1 and 18. 4: Been the hardest one to figure out. Drawing the topo lines, it's almost impossible to envision a scenario where this hole could be built without some sort of retaining wall along the left side where the major cut is as well as the right side of the approach area. 5: No changes here, and feel like any shaping would be minimal. The one thing I had been thinking about on a micro level was doing some sort of bunker-styled edge where the paths are located. If the paths are done with sand the effect would be like the paths at MPCC Shore. This would make the path coming behind the green much cooler aesthetically. 6: Fill in the fairway comes from cutting into the ridge on 4. Goal is to keep some of the movement in the native ground but soften it a bit so that it's more playable. I "kept" a tree between 6 and 7 green. Little bit of cut needed to get the green to sit in the saddle properly 7: Nothing changed here too much. 8: Some fill needed to get the green in that low. One note: I had it drawn in but the lines ended up getting weird, but the area the green sits in looks like it serves a massive watershed coming off the mountain. Goal would be to divert watershed behind the green and run it along the left side until it can reconnect with the watershed running on the left side of 3. Catching some of the water in a pipe before it crosses 4 fairway would probably be ideal. 9: Added bunkering along the pond side. The bunkers connecting to the pond would likely be more of a waste bunker style, ideally using native soils. Bunkering in front of the green helps support some of the fill for it, and the right side may need some sort of retaining wall to support the cut into the mountain. 10: Added bunkers to support the fill for the green. Also will keep balls for those trying to drive the green from running down the mountain.

11: Bunkers added to support the green on the back. They also serve as a backdrop for the 16th green.

12: Fill pad needed for the green and some cut in front to open up the view. 13: Major cut for the fairway and a substantial fill around the green and the tees for 4 and 14. This also softens the elevation change from tee to green, as now from the back tee you're gaining ~30 ft in elevation (still a big climb!) and coming down ~20 ft to the green. 14: Cut in the ridge is intended to open up the view into the fairway a little bit. 15: I added bunkers to cut into the mound behind the green and support the tees for 16. A little trick borrowed from Cypress Point 😉 16: Fill pad needed for the green, and the green kicked in a tad to make the fill a bit more allowable. The fairway slopes pretty hard right to left and I would envision some pockets to hold up balls a tad.

17: Benching the green in the slope, and the bunkering helps support the fill and make it feel more natural from 16 fairway.

18: Remains relatively unchanged. I added some bunkers just past the watershed to give some direction off the tee. Might require a little cut to open the view into that area.