Many have asked me what process I go through to “find” the golf course on the site.  Finding the golf course is a process that begins with choosing the routing.  You start by getting to know the property and identifying which portion of the property will become the site for the golf course, and then you look at aerial photographs, topographic surveys of the site, and, most importantly, you walk the site.  As you walk any site, the land tells you where the golf course should go (and, in this case, how it should work with the community).  At Waterford, the land told me to follow the creek, to get to the lake and to use the flood plain.      

 

After the routing is selected and you have a general location and strategy for each hole, the land also tells you what each hole wants to be and what it wants to look like.  As a golf course architect, I sculpt the land.  Everything that I do is an art form (which is why most, including myself, prefer the term designer to architect), and just like a sculptor would say that the marble he was working with told him what was inside of it, I see the forms and features that need to be brought out of a piece of land.  However, unlike an artist, I must also focus on function and refine the existing topography to incorporate strategy into each hole, to insure a variety of the holes within the course and to insure the playability of the course.  Achieving the right delicate balance between form and function and artistic design is what makes a golf course a great golf course.  At Waterford, the right balance was struck, and the course is visually simulating and strategically challenging to players of any level.

 

Waterford breaks tradition and does not maintain a singular “look” throughout the entire golf course.  Typically a “look” is achieved by utilizing a constant style throughout the course, and most often by using a single bunker style.  As I am sure you have noticed, albeit subconsciously, certain holes on many golf courses feel contrived or forced.  Often this is the result of trying to force this “look” on each hole.  As I began to draw Waterford, what fit on this site was not a fixed “look” but rather a hole by hole evolution that complemented the changing topography.  These variations in the overall “look” of the course are seamless and natural because each hole fits perfectly into the land that surrounds it.  In the narrow places located in the hills, the approach was often minimalist, and in the flood plain, where the elevation was raised by more than 20 feet, the approach required was to masterfully manipulate the land.  Because the holes fit onto the site, even though the “look” changes, the golf course fits together and maintains its identity throughout the experience.  I know you will enjoy the challenge of the variety of bunker styles, which vary from revetted (stacked sod face) to pot and from fluid “fingers and noses” to more rigid geometric shapes.  

 

 

Favorite holes at Waterford.

 

Everyone has their own favorite hole(s) on each golf course they play, but my favorite holes on each of my courses happen for a lot of reasons that are not simply related to the final result.  Sometimes favorite holes are those where we achieved a very aesthetic result when that result was very difficult to achieve; those that fit where it is so well that it looks a though it was always there; or those that require thought before execution.  Almost always, it is a hole that requires the golfer to execute a precise shot to gain the advantage, but at the same time doesn’t ask more of a golfer than can be expected.  

 

At Waterford, it’s hard to pick a favorite hole because there are several that compel me.  

•    Hole #1, for the mystery of the shots, you can see yet you cannot truly see.  

•    Hole #3, for the temptations that it offers a golfer.  

•    Hole #6, for its classic simplicity.  

•    Hole #17, for its majestic vistas.  

If I must pick one hole through, it is hole #4.  Hole #4 only fits where it is located.  It is a beautiful hole, and the revetted bunkers are dramatic.  Chiefly it is my favorite because of the excitement of playing a relatively short par 3 that requires you to match the direction of your shot to the distance of your hit.  It is this principle that forms the basis for using angles rather than length to create a challenge for the good player.  

You will notice that the green sits at an approximately 45 degree angle to the line of play with three distinct pinable areas with hazards paralleling the green, the average golfer can play to the center of he green and have the full width of the green available to them, but if you choose to “go for it”, you must match the distance to the line.  If you fail to match these two factors, the result you achieve is having to recover your second shot from a hazard.