By Design – Issue 53, Summer 2021

24 Quitno. “The community land plan maximized the housing component, which led to corridor restrictions based on the desired density and adjacent land uses. Our assessment for golf was that it was too narrow for ‘driver’ length holes but could suit par threes where teeing areas and yardages were controlled.” Quitno’s design has holes ranging between 95 and 280 yards and includes green layouts inspired by some of golf ’s most famous holes, including a Double Plateau, a Biarritz, a Punchbowl, and the iconic short seventh at Pebble Beach. “Creating this shorter course means that the club can share its maintenance resources with the owners’ other course [Hawks Landing Golf Club],” says Quitno. “Another benefit for the club is that by limiting the maintained turf footprint, it therefore limits the club’s labor needs. We’re using grasses and an irrigation strategy that minimizes herbicide use and tolerates drought conditions. Outer rough areas will be left unmown.” The non-traditional element of shorter courses is a factor that Quitno highlights as a draw for some people. “These layouts inspire fun without the constraints of ‘real golf,’ they encourage other forms of play, taking the emphasis off score; and they foster golfers of all abilities,” he says. “Shorter layouts can also facilitate other land functions due to their minimal footprint, such as environmental restoration, storm management, ecological development and multi- recreational use. “But most simply, they require less land and resources to build and maintain, and less time commitment to play.” In Stuart, Florida, Sanford Golf Design is transforming the former 36-hole Martin County Golf Course into a 27-hole facility called Sailfish Sands, which includes a reversible nine-hole course. A 40-acre expansion of the airport runway protection zone into the course, combined with a feasibility study that revealed there wasn’t a need for 36 holes, drove the decision to transform, explains ASGCA Past President John Sanford. “Many local patrons still wanted a 36-hole facility, hence the reversible nine.” “By reducing the number of holes and the overall golf course footprint, Martin County is able to reduce their maintenance inputs, such as fertilizers, pesticides, mowing, labor and water,” says LESS IS MORE Pioneer Pointe is a thirteen-hole par-three layout designed by Todd Quitno, ASGCA, which will be the centerpiece of a new residential development Image: Todd Quitno, ASGCA “ Shorter courses require less land and resources to build and maintain, and less time commitment to play”