Life Update - TDI and Cowboys Golf Club

In July, I accepted an offer to rejoin TDI Golf (www.tdigolf.com), a golf course construction company I interned for last summer at the Dataw Island Club in Beaufort, South Carolina.  My first project has brought me to Dallas, Texas, where we are currently in the process of completing a bunker renovation project at Cowboys Golf Club in nearby Grapevine.  I will give a much more detailed review of the course once we have completed our work, but for now, I will just give a little background on the course and a preview of some of the work we are doing. 

The Jeff Brauer-designed course opened for play on June 14, 2001 and has been considered one of the premier daily-fee, resort golf courses in Texas since.  The golf club is the first (and only) NFL-themed golf course in the world; a tribute to...you guessed it, the Dallas Cowboys.  They're kind of a big deal around here.  The club was the brainchild of Dallas Cowboys owner and GM Jerry Jones.  It is operated by Eagle Golf (www.eaglegolf.com), a golf course management company based here in Dallas, but with courses located across the midwest and west. The course is littered with historical markers of past Cowboys' triumphs, and the Cowboys Hall of Honor in the clubhouse is definitely something to see.  Instead of cart numbers, the carts are named after famous Cowboys.  This place is ALL about the Cowboys.  If you hadn't figured it out by the time you reach the 4th hole, you will know for sure then!  Located directly in the middle of the fairway is a huge blue star, the easily recognizable logo of the Cowboys. 

The tee shot on the par 4 4th hole

The view from the fairway on number 4

The work we are doing is based on improving drainage in the bunkers.  It is pretty bad in a lot of places.  We are installing the Better Billy Bunker drainage system (www.billybunker.com).  A little history and information on that process and then on to some in-progress pictures. 

The Billy Bunker system was created by golf course architect Billy Fuller in the 1980's, while he was then Golf Course Superintendent at famed Augusta National in Georgia.  The system was the first of its kind.  It involved placing a 2" layer of pea gravel in the bunker before the sand, thus drastically improving the bunker's drainage potential.  A geo-textile fabric was placed between the gravel and sand to prevent contamination.  The original Billy Bunker system is believed to have been installed on 600-700 golf courses in the U.S.  Over time, however, it became apparent that the fabric layer was creating more problems than it was solving.  Years of raking, Sand Pros, and forces of nature were exposing the fabric, creating a difficult maintenance situation for supers.  Introducing, then, the Better Billy Bunker system.  The process is largely the same, however the geo-textile layer has been replaced with a bonded polymer spray that basically bonds the gravel, creating a solid, yet permeable, surface for the sand to sit on. 

The guys at Billy Bunker joined forces with Dow Chemical to create a solution, ST410 Polymer.  It is, in essence, a sprayable plastic.  It is a messy process, but the results are impressive.  With a 10 year guarantee, superintendents across the country are now switching to this drainage system and TDI Golf is a licensed installer.  The future looks good for both.  There are two other courses in the Dallas area that are already planning to switch to this system by the end of the year. 

Pretty much my life right now...

If you look back to the pictures of the 4th hole, you can notice the existing bunker sand.  It's a brownish, natural sand that looks good, but has been compromised.  The sand we are replacing it with is a bleached, white sand that has a better perc rate and definitely stands out more.  I won't get into the politics of natural vs bleached sand, but I think the white sand fits with the type of course that Cowboys Golf Club is trying to be.  The architect for this project is an in-house guy from Eagle Golf, Ed Easley, formerly a Senior Golf Course Architect with Desmond Muirhead, Inc. 

Here's a quick run-through of the process:

Some shaping work on the 1st hole.  Reduced the size of this bunker by 1/2

After shaping and drainage, a 2" layer of pea gravel is placed in the bunker

The Project Manager spraying the polymer on one of the fairway bunkers on #1

Lastly, the sand...

Now, for some before/after and in-progress pics:

The par 3 17th, post-spray/pre-sand and sod

The 17th completed

Left greenside bunker on the par 4 16th before...

...after

From the fairway on the par 5 18th, post-gravel (the left 3 sprayed/right 3 not)

Final product

The now-completed 18th hole from the tee

Keep checking back for more updates on our progress!

Course Review: Country Club of Charleston

Country Club of Charleston
Charleston, South Carolina
Seth Raynor - 1925

In late June, I had the pleasure of exploring my second Seth Raynor course, the esteemed Country Club of Charleston, just across the Ashley River from the beautiful battery of downtown Charleston.  The course opened for play in 1925, the same year as Raynor's other Lowcountry offering, Yeamans Hall.  Its proximity to downtown makes it a much more accessible course for its membership, but here, unlike at Yeamans Hall, Raynor was tasked with the proposition of creating a course of great interest on an extremely flat piece of land...no easy feat given that he lacked the large scale, land-moving equipment used in golf course construction today.  While it is not one of Raynor's most famous courses, it still presents an interesting study of golf course architecture.  I, for one, was looking forward to comparing it to Yeamans Hall, which I had just played earlier that week.

In 2006, golf course architect Brian Silva was brought in to help restore some of Raynor's original features which had been lost over the years.  From the back tees, this par 71 course plays at 6,799 yards.  While this may seem short, the club was built on a cramped piece of property, and being at sea level makes it play a bit longer than most courses.  The Country Club of Charleston and Yeamans Hall share 11 template holes, including all 4 of the par 3's (Short, Redan, Eden, and Biarritz) and 2 of the par 5's (Long, Home). 

The Scorecard with Template Names

The Routing

The course starts out with the 436 yard, par 4 1st, aptly named Westward Ho!  Most opening holes in golf tend to play to the west (or really, any direction but east) so that players teeing off early in the day won't be hitting directly into the rising sun. 

The tee shot at the 1st.  You can see how flat this place really is

The large, flat, rectangular green at #1

The tee shot on #2, the 384 yard par 4 "Belvedere"

With its false front and similar bunkering, hole #3 at Country Club of Charleston, "Eden," reminds me very much of the Eden hole at Yeamans Hall, #13, though it plays more open thanks to the lack of trees on the left hand side of the hole.

The par 3 third hole, "Eden"

A closer look

Hole #4, the Alps hole.  Not a great example, in my opinion

Note the "Principal's Nose" type bunker on #4, a cool feature

The tee shot on the par 5 5th, "Narrows"

The 6th hole at CCofC is the "Biarritz" hole.  I was looking forward to comparing this hole to the 16th at Yeamans Hall.  Similarly, this hole also has the "dip" before the green.  I found this to be a very uninspiring version of the hole, even more so than the example at Yeamans Hall.  in fact, I had a hard time even justifying it being called a "Biarritz" green. To me, it's more a nice, long par 3 with a false front.

Hole 6 from the tee

The swale....eh, I don't know

The "Maiden" green at #7, a great example of the concept

A view across the river to downtown Charleston from the 7th fairway

The 8th green from the right side of the fairway

The approach to the par 5 9th hole

One thing of interest to me was the routing of the front nine compared to Yeamans Hall.  With the exception of an extra par 5 (the 5th) at Country Club of Charleston, the two courses could actually share a scorecard.  4-4-3-4-(5/4)-3-4-4-5

The approach on the 90 degree dogleg left 10th hole

The 11th hole is where this course really takes off, in my opinion.  That's not to say the first 10 holes are bad, or boring, golf holes.  It's simply a testament to the genius of the final 8.  The 11th hole is my favorite on the course, and probably the coolest par 3 I have seen.  This is the "Redan" hole at CCofC, though it is actually a Reverse Redan, sloping from front left to back right, as opposed to the normal front right to back left.  It also has the craziest false front I have seen.  It's at least 10 feet, maybe more. 

A zoomed in look at the tee shot on the 11th.  The golfer shows the scale of the false front

Another look at the false front, from the right side

The right side bunker...now that is deep!

From back right of the green with the clubhouse in the background

The tee shot on the 12th, a great example of the "Road" concept with a reverse cant fairway

The bunkering along the right side of the par 4 13th

The wild, three-tiered green at the par 4 14th, "Knoll"

The 15th hole, "Plantation," uses a very interesting concept to dictate the play on this 533 yard par 5.  At around 140 yards from the middle of the green is a large, grass berm that crosses the length of the fairway.  For the player to approach this as a three-shot hole, they must successfully navigate this feature with their second shot.  It becomes even more of a factor with a missed tee shot, as the trees on either side of the berm can then come into play. 

The tee shot on the par 5 15th

From just short of the grass berm

From the green looking back toward the tee

At 473 yards, the 16th hole, "Lion's Mouth," is a very long par 4 with another extraordinary feature fronting the green.  It is easy to see where this hole gets its name. 

The awe-inspiring "Lion's Mouth" at the 16th

A closer look

From just above the false front on the left

The appropriately named par 3 17th, "Short," followed by...

...the massive, 482 yard par 4 18th, "Home"

The huge 18th green with the beautiful clubhouse in the background

Snuck a picture of the hole location chart to help remember the shapes of the greens

I came away from this afternoon with a favorable impression of the Country Club of Charleston, especially so the last eight holes.  While often overshadowed by its sister course up the road in Hanahan, this is still easily one of the top three golf courses in the Charleston area, along with the aforementioned Yeamans Hall Club and the Ocean Course at Kiawah Island.  Raynor did what he could with a billiard table-flat site and managed to produce a unique golf course with a series of memorable holes that I look forward to visiting again (hopefully when the greens haven't been recently punched). 

In my next post, I'll give an update on what I have been up in the world of golf course architecture!