By Design - Fall 2015

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golfers will experience on the course. “The only limitation
a golfer should have is his or her own imagination—
especially practicing short game shots, from varying lies,
angles, conditions, distances, elevations, turf or sand,” says
Nathan Crace, ASGCA Associate.
One of a number of short game projects Crace has
recently completed is at Tupelo CC in Mississippi. During
the master planning process, he and superintendent Jim
Kwasinski identified approximately six acres of scrub
and brush between the back of the existing driving range
and the fifth tee that had been unused since the club
was founded. “Jim said ‘It’s too bad you can’t use this for
something,” says Crace. “I agreed, but while we stood
there it came to me like an epiphany—we could put two
double greens and a triple green in that area and make a
short course out of it.”
One particular innovation would set this apart frommost
short courses, as Crace explains: “As we got into the actual
design studies, I decided to intentionally omit one thing that
originally had the green committee thinking I was crazy: tees.
This reduced maintenance and allowed the area to be more
free-form and less structured. You practice what you want when
you want at your pace. One day you could work on green side
bunker shots, one day you can work on wedge approach shots,
Emulating Augusta
The University of Illinois has this year opened a
new outdoor practice area to complement its state-
of-the-art indoor facility. Golf coach Mike Small and
alumnus Steve Stricker both admired the practice
range at Augusta National, so ASGCA Past President
Jeff Brauer started the project by placing an aerial
image of the Augusta range onto their site. It was a
good fit, and Brauer set about developing the design.
“The key element was the dual fairways with trees
between to set up both draw and fade options on the
subtle dogleg,” says Brauer. “We then added tees on
every corner so golfers could practice in any wind
direction, and to target greens at multiple distances.
While central Illinois is pretty flat, we did have one hill
in the north east corner, so we put a green up there
to practice the uphill lob shots. There was one tree,
and we left it for practice over, under and around.
The putting green is about 13,000 square feet, and
configured from level, for stroke practice, to all sorts of
rolls, tiers and valleys.”
WRIGHT STREET
ST. MARY'S ROAD
60 yds
70 yds
50 yds
80 yds
90 yds
100 yds
Pitch shots
(55-105 yds)
80 yds
83'
75'
115 yds
25 yds
35 yds
15 yds
Green slopes up1.5% front toback
Zoysia
BentFW/Tee/ChippingArea
FWBunker
"JaggedEdge"
"SmoothEdge"
Bluegrass
Fescue
BentFairway 50 yds
80yds
Zoysia
BentFW/Tee
Flat
Ridge
SideHill
Flat
W
W
W
Well2
Well 3
Well1
Fescue
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PROJECT FEATURES
OUTDOOR GOLF PRACTICE
AREA AT DEMIRJIAN GOLF
FACILITY
30,000 sfpractice tee
-half zoysia grass - half bentgrass
- slight rolls in tee topracticeunlevel lies
12,700 sfbentgrassputtinggreen
N-SPractice teew/bunker
5,500 sf chippinggreenw/bunker
110,000GallonWaterTank
-Tank tobe styledafter round barn
3,300 sfpractice tee
-practicedownhill shots
4,000 sfTargetgreenwithbunker
Target fairways
Practice tees(Zoysia,Bluegrass,Ryegrass,&Fescue)
- practiceuphill shots
5,000 sfTargetgreen
Target greenswithbunkers
10,500 sf chippinggreen
- pitch shots (55-105 yds)
- chip/flop shots
- long greenside sand bunker shots
- shortgreenside sandbunker shots
- long greenside turfbunker shots
- shortgreenside turfbunker shots
- bump-n-run shots
- sidehill fairway& rough shots
Universityof Ill.GolfWalk ofFame
-wall of fame containing formerUof I
golf athletes, coaches,etc.
- outdoor seating areas
-new landscaping
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Fighting Illini
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20' x50'Maintenance/StorageBldg
PavedServicePath
PerimeterFencing
-ChainLinkwithBlackSlats
ProtectiveNetting
75' high
25' high
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+3
+5
+4
-2
0
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+1
+6
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2771E.BroadStreet,Suite 217-132
Mansfield,Texas 76063
Ph: (817) 797-6376 Web:
GOLFCOURSEARCHITECT:
BEST PRACTICE
Augusta National’s range was the inspiration for the new
facilities at the University of Illinois
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At Tupelo in Mississippi, the new practice
facilities include a ‘free-form’ short course