Golf Course Architecture - Issue 63, January 2021

64 Aspen, another classic, has morphed into a concentration of $2,000 per night rooms and $15,000 per night mansions. They were rough, sparsely populated landforms sculpted into recreational destinations of excellence. This mirrors successful golf investments. Lead with the activity, the accoutrements will follow. A Landmand ruckus was not necessarily the original intent of Landmand’s owner and founder, Will Andersen. Will, a single digit player, sought to build a golf course for he and the folks around his home town. He is a joy to play golf with who relishes dew sweeping with friends as the wind blows and the sun rises. He reconstructed a nine-hole oasis in his home town named Old Dane. Will’s pal CJ dared him to think big. Will called the bet and long story short, he invited bids to rebuild Old Dane. This led to a cold-call-email to King-Collins. They responded and the Landmand project is the result of that email chain. The Landmand first cut The Laurentide ice sheet and glaciers have been good for US golf. Its retreat, melt and debris carved the ground for Greywalls, left the sand piles of Sand Valley and Forest Dunes, the rolling moraines of Lawsonia, and the alleged 150,000 or so lakes and swales marketed by Minnesota, home of White Bear Yacht Club. The glacier also forged what is now the Missouri River Valley. The Loess Hills were formed at the end of the glacier’s path much like snow banks at the edge of a snow plough. These banks of glacial debris are now hills of sedimentary glacial till. Glacial till is like the food left on the edge of a dinner plate. They could be nasty parts of gristle and chewy artichoke leaf remnants. They could also surprise with a sliver of butter cream frosting hidden beneath a tasty, not-quite-melted dollop of ice cream. Landmand sits atop a dramatic glacial tilled ridge. The Landmand first cut would determine if the team was scraping gristle or spreading frosting. The Andersen family are farmers. Excellent farmers. Growing things is not a problem for Will. He’d just as soon as hop in the truck to grab 20 tons of river sand or jump on the tractor to plant a test acre of a grass strain. They know where to grow and not to grow crops. The f lat land below the glacial till is excellent farmland. They grow crops there. The land atop the glacial till was not excellent farmland so they don’t grow crops there. That said, they hate waste so decided that perhaps they might grow golf where they don’t grow crops. It was unknown was how well glacial till works for golf. Within moments of the first diesel belch, the group ran to the dozer tracks to review and hand sift the till. The outlines cut by the dozer blade were crisp and clean. Turns out that this mound of till was cake frosting. The dozers continued to push the moist putty. When the blade raised and retreated, the smooth landforms of the new fairways and greens stood their ground, free of crumble or collapse. The consistency of damp loamy sand shapes were malleable and accurate. Upon dismounting the D-8 Cat, King remarked with an ear-to-ear grin: “It’s like butter.” How will it play? Some early visitors to the raw Landmand site proclaimed it too severe to build. Based on minimalist design approaches, they were not wrong. King and Collins agreed, yes, it was likely too severe to build a minimalist course, but it was too spectacular an opportunity to walk away. Landmand is why electro-diesel hydraulic vehicles were invented. The King-Collins routing is bold. Up-and-out-and-out, and-out-and- back-across-and-out-and back in. A dramatic trek across ridges, rolls and ravines. Admittedly, upon an initial LANDMAND