THE SIXTEENTH AT MACH DUNES

In this third and final part of my interview with David McLay Kidd about Mach Dunes (part 1 and part 2, here), the architect refutes one of my and others’ main criticisms of the course- an unwieldy routing with lots of blind shots and long transitions between greens and tees. It was my thought that if David and his team had compacted the routing at Mach Dunes and created a shorter course (7,200 yards was about the yardage from the tips) that wandered over less of the site, than maybe the environmentalists would have been more willing to make a few concessions and allow slightly more grading in the affected areas, resulting in a more playable and walkable course.

David refutes this by saying that he believed that they would look at it in the complete opposite way, that making the affected areas more compact would increase the overall degradation of the natural environment of the site. He also defends the length by saying that Tom Doak has made building shorter courses “half trendy”  and he was trying to build something that would still be a challenge 100 years from now and was different from its 6,400 yard neighbor. If only David was accurate in saying that a trend was developing around shorter courses golf would be in a much better and more sustainable place. (Video after the jump).

Our conversation shifted to the cost of building an extreme minimalist course like Mach Dunes. David shared that the construction cost of the course was half of what Bandon Dunes  cost a decade earlier. This was partly because of the restrictions and also because it was a project without significant backing.

David is very frank in saying that the course may not meet people expectations if they are hoping for a modern, polished golf course- “it could be that people’s expectations are far higher than what the course is not capable of delivering today.” He goes on to say that Mach Dunes is “a step way the hell back in time,” but the fundamentals are there and it will take time for the course to evolve in to greatness.

We also talk about his design at the Gleneagles West development which may open in 2012 and then we talk about an amazing site on the Washington coast that is permitted and was once under construction. Unfortunately the environmental restrictions are such, that in my opinion, a good course could not be built. David poses the question about how far we as golf guys would be willing to go to be able to build a course on sand next to the ocean. And that ultimately is the question. At Mach Dunes, David gives his answer. It is my sincere hope for David and the game of golf, that the course is given the time to evolve and change into the great course that it could be.

THE BEAUTIFUL SETTING AT MACH DUNES

This is the second part of my lengthy discussion with David McLay Kidd about his new course Mach Dunes in Scotland (Part One, here). One aspect of Kidd’s perspective on the course that I really respect is his bravery to put a product out there that he and the rest of the team knows has flaws. As he tells me, he wants the course to be judged on what it will become in fifty years when it has had a chance to evolve through grow in, management and environmentally sensitive alterations and not in one snap shot on opening day. You don’t hear an architect say this very often because it is sign of his lack of control. It is also show of humility that is often wanting in today’s top architects. (Video and Interview after the jump)

As Kidd says, getting the course in the ground was only the first step of many which may be tough story for many golfers to understand after making the trek out to the Mull of Kintyre. I am looking forward to seeing how the course changes over the decades, and I do think that is time frame we are looking at without a major change in environmental regulation.

Mach Dunes is a rarity in modern golf, a throwback to the 19th century where man did not have the ability to move large amounts of earth. Of course many of these course have been altered over the past century to make them more playable. At Mach Dunes, Kidd and team certainly had the technological ability to move dirt, but they were simply not allowed to. The restrictions seemed draconian and it seems like every minor grassing line, bunker, and tee site were endlessly argued over. The question is whether enough golfers will enjoy this rugged and different form of golf to make Mach Dunes a regular stop on their tour of Scotland.

One element that I did not get to experience is the grazing of sheep to control the rough. When I was there the rough was very thick as there had been very little play to thin it out. Kidd points out that the sheep had always been part of the ecology of the site and in fact the construction period was the only time that they not been on the site for as long as he can remember which has led to a denser native rough at opening. “The sheep are not a tourist attraction,” says Kidd. The black faced sheep were chosen because of they type of vegetation that they do or do not eat. As Kidd points out, Mach Dunes is breaking ground when it comes to looking at a site’s ecology and how it functions before and after the construction of the golf course. Golf will only benefit from this holistic approach.

AN ERODED BUNKER AT MACH DUNES

Mach Dunes opened in July of this past year at roughly the same time as Castle Stuart to the north. Neither is in the heart of Scottish golf touring area and so few if any have played them both. I did make it out to the Mull of Kintyre a few weeks before it opened and I had been warned in an email from architect David McLay Kidd, to, “just remember it’s a work in progress not a Fazio-esque insta-course!” I took this to heart and did not worry about conditioning as I played my way around. (Video and Interview with DMK after the jump)

There were some aspects of Mach Dunes that I thoroughly enjoyed. I thought the bunker work was excellent. The hazards look very natural and the chunks and clods of the faces that had fallen away and eroded really gave the course a rustic and ancient feel. Much has been made of the wild contours on the greens at the Kidd’s Castle course on the East coast, and similar contours can be found here. I did not find them overwhelming and if kept at the right speed, they will be enjoyable.

There were other elements of the course that I did not like nearly as much, such as its playability and routing. I knew that Kidd had been under very tight environmental restrictions on this project, and when I left the course, I leaned toward believing that if this was the best that could be produced than maybe the land even though it consisted of beautiful dunes should not have been converted into a golf course. Others who have made the trek out to Mach Dunes have had mixed things to say. This site’s co-creator Colin Sheehan who played the course just after its opening went further by writing a negative post on golfclubatlas.com, which immediately met with criticism from a number of sources.

I decided to go directly to David McLay Kidd and get the whole story. The result was a very interesting conversation that I recorded and have edited into a series of videos. In this first video, David explains in detail the background of the project. You can clearly hear his passion for this project. While each of the videos are long, I do believe that they shed some light on how Mach Dunes came to be, why the course is the way it is and where golf course design and development is heading in the face of stricter and stricter environmental restrictions.

The second video will cover the decision to build Mach Dunes, the expectations of the golfing public, and a discussion of using sheep to manage the roughs.

The third video will cover the routing and the future of environmentally sensitive golf projects.

The next installment of Kemper Golf’s videos from Old Macdonald. John Dunn hangs around with Grant Rogers and learns how to play true links golf shots with the putter from just about anywhere. This video will get you drooling and wishing you were in Bandon right now.

For more videos on Old Mac click here.

Chisholm Park Golf Links is the place to play for Scots away from home on a vacation to the colonies, lying on the outskirts of Dunedin (New Edinburgh) on the south island of New Zealand.  While this course is a links by classical definition, in general it has better views and fewer exceptional holes than most links.  The middle of the course overlooks several sterling beaches, and is home to some solid revetted bunker entropy on occasion.  Don’t go to this wonderful part of the world expressly for a game at Chisholm Park, but if you are lucky enough to find yourself here with a hankering for a game, by all means stop by this scenic layout.

Some of the rumply fanfair to be found at Baltray, home to the County Louth Golf Club, a wee bit north of Dublin.  This Tom Simpson design has gained more notoriety in recent years and an accompanying renovation, and must always fall in the category of ‘Links That Make You Smile.’  Baltray doesn’t have the views of its big brother links around the Emerald Isle, but don’t be caught at a parkland course with 100km if a game can be arranged here.

The fifteenth at Chambers Bay (C.J. Anderson)

In the second part of my interview with superintendent Dave Wieneke, he discusses the wall-to-wall use of fescue on at Chambers Bay. A mature strand of fescue will play very fast, allowing for the bump and run shots that the course calls for, but achieving this level of density and health takes time. Chambers Bay has also been extremely popular (39,000 rounds in 2008) which has meant a high amount of traffic on the young fescue. While the fairways seem to have come in very well, there are a few spots on the greens that had to be re-sodded this winter. (video after jump)

Dave admits that the greens are the place that have been hardest to establish. It seems that the worst spots are along the edge of greens pinched by a bunker. The foot traffic is funneled in these spots and it is almost impossible to get them dense and healthy.

Chambers Bay’s greens are filled with bold contour and are not meant to be particularly fast. The use of fescue, which can not be mowed too tightly, prevents the greens from ever getting too fast. This has proven to be a point of contention with some of the paying public who are used to lightning fast, bent grass greens. Because the fescue on the greens is still relatively immature, Dave has not been able to get the greens to the speeds that he desires, but in this video he explains what he has been doing to get them rolling faster.

In the last part of the video, Dave talks about their management of the faux-dunes created by Robert Trent Jones Jr. These were seeded directly into the bulldozer tracks and early pictures of the place showed the tracks quite starkly. Some areas have come in quite well and others not so well. Dave discusses these problem spots and what he is doing to address them.

Clearly the wind and weather have eroded some of the tracks, making them look a lot better. Dave’s main concern is getting the areas where the seed did not establish to grow in. This of course is a very delicate task. Over watering and over fertilizing will make these areas a nightmare for anyone unfortunate enough to hit the ball there. Chamber’s Bay has wisely been very cautious about trying to overstimulate these faux-dunes and this has helped make the course playable for all levels of players.

Foe more of the interview with Dave Wieneke  see here. For the interview with Chamebr’s Bay GM Matt Allen see here.

A BUNKER AT THE PRAIRIE CLUB

I have worked with Kyle Franz on a number of projects, most recently at the Prairie Club for Tom Lehman and Chris Brands. Kyle is an immensely talented person, who is almost singularly obsessed with golf course architecture. He has worked on some of the best courses built in the past ten years including Pacific Dunes, Stone Eagle, and Barnbougle Dunes, as well as Kyle Phillips’s renovation of the Cal Club in San Francisco.

Out in Valentine, one of his greatest contributions was introducing the idea of using fence posts to shore up parts of both the natural, blow out bunkers and bunkers that we created. In the video, he refers to them as Snowdonian bunkers after the region in Wales that is home to Porthmadog Golf Club. While traveling in the UK, Kyle visited this obscure course and saw a bunker where a few pieces of wood had been used to prevent a bunker from eroding, triggering the idea of using them here in the U.S. (HD video after jump).

When Kyle expressed this idea to Tom and Chris, they readily got behind it. It was a way to distinguish their course from Sand Hills and Ballyneal. As you can see in the video, Tom was integral to developing the process of creating these bunkers, as well as the look. Kyle and I were a little shocked to see Tom wailing away on these fence posts, trying to break them so that they were a more manageable size, especially considering he was playing in a tournament in four days.

We used the Snowdonian Bunkers (this was our working name in the field, but who knows what other people will call them) sparingly. They are located in a few key spots on the golf course and add another layer of texture to the course. I think they turned out pretty well and am interested to see how they weatherd the winter.