The One that Got Away

The par five 11th, lots of width and lots or rock.





I will not identify the site, since this project is still a possibility, but the likelihood is now very small.

I was asked to get involved with a group to look at the purchase and development of this site. The site is a very large quarry in an ideal location for golf. I’ve seen some great sites through my time at Carrick Design, but I consider this better than all of those. What made the site so special was how all 18 holes would fit entirely inside the quarry. Imagine playing 18 holes off of the top of the quarry, along side the quarry walls, or right into the quarry faces for the entire round. Very few courses can match that drama, and it all of it was natural!





The short par four 8th, over the corner of the lake and the quarry wall, with25 feet of wall in behind.



I was very proud of my routing. I took a great deal of care to weave the holes down into the quarry bottom, through the maze of exposed quarry walls, around the two natural lakes, through the collection of enormous dune like spoil piles, and finally along the miles of quarry faces. I used the internal elevation changes to maximum advantage, providing numerous high tees that looked over multiple holes; yet the course was easily walked. I carefully mixed the par threes from 140 yards to a plateau, to a 235 yard downhill side hill redan. The par fours ranged from 470 to 315 yards touching all yardages in between. I stuck to my desire to have many short fours; one was a very drivable 315 yard hole on the back nine, and there was a cape hole of only 350 yards on the front nine where the green could also be challenged. Adding another at 370 yards and I had three par fours under 370 from the back tees! The par fives ranged from a long 590 yards playing into a quarry end, down to a very reachable 500 yards that was very uphill on the second shot hugging the quarry walls all the way along. Holes played downhill, uphill, side hill; the green sites were completely flat to the grade, up on natural plateaus and even two high in the air to maximize the mixture of approaches. There was a natural punchbowl, a redan, a fall away green site all sitting in the land looking to be used. I was fairly certain that this project could be my “career maker” because I knew I had the routing and the site to do it. But I guess that’s a familiar story in this business.





The 350 yard 5th, a cape around the lake, were you can go directly at the green.


What I have posted is some of the images I had done to show what the project would look like. We used them to secure the investors to finance the project, but unfortunately lost the project because another competing bid was higher for the property. This caught us completely off guard, since we were not fore warned, and it upset me a lot when this turn of events came about. I have been reluctant to post about this project or any other project that I’m working on until they become real projects.

I have spoken to a series of people looking to build new holes, and I have a couple of great prospects, but I’ve been through this enough times to wait until I have project that is going to happen. I will post announcements when things are confirmed, but not until then, that’s my personality I guess.