Golf Course Architecture - Issue 66, October 2021

70 “I had seen him use the cross bunkering at the seventeenth [a massive hazard restored but moved 40 yards up the fairway on the 653-yard par five], which is kind of a tribute to Hell’s Half Acre at Pine Valley where he was a member and on Crump’s design panel,” says Hanse. “But I’d never seen the way he used it on the second hole on the Lower course, which is kind of a shortish par four up over a hill. That was the one hole that seemed fascinating, in and of itself. It made us wonder what his thought process was there.” Hanse was also left curious about the par-four eleventh’s green, the largest on the Lower course. “It’s big, huge and rolling. There are no dramatic contours, but there’s so much going on – tilting and tipping in all different directions. That was really fascinating.” Overall, the biggest challenge for Hanse and his team had to do more with aesthetics than hole design. “It was removing the f lowers behind the fourth green,” he says, referring to a palette of colourful azaleas and rhododendrons on that par three. “And I’m not joking. The members got used to it over a period of time, and we were coming in and asking to make changes more ref lective of what Tillinghast had out there. We wanted that to be consistent across the golf landscape as much as possible. When a decision gets made that is about golf but not really impacting play, I think members tend to be less understanding of that.” “ If the golf course is designed properly, that means on any given day you can set it up to play as difficult or as easy as you want” The Sahara bunker complex on the seventeenth was moved 40 yards down the fairway so that it is more in play for the bigger hitters