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Old Bridge Golf Course
The Old Bridge Golf Course has been
routed after extensive periods of time spent on the site
familiarizing us with the magnificent natural features of
the land. Other considerations that influenced the routing
plan are the wetland fingers that protrude into the land at
several points. In order to avoid a lengthy and uncertain
permitting process we deliberately avoided playing over the
wetlands where proposed clearing of trees within the wetland
would be required, and would prolong the permitting process.
The Old Bridge Golf Course is a par 35
on the out bound holes, and a par 36 on the in bound holes.
Each loop of nine holes begins at, and returns to the
clubhouse. There are 6 sets of tees to accommodate the wide
range of golfing abilities expected to play at the course.
The championship tees measure 7,005 yards and are intended
for expert players. The back tees measure 6,745 yards, and
are intended for the low handicap players. The middle tees
measure 6,340 yards and are intended for the average
players, and the better senior players. The midward tees
measure 5,500 yards and will accommodate average senior
players, and longer hitting lady players. The forward tees
measure 4,935 yards and it is expected that beginning
players, or players who hit the ball a short distance will
be well suited for these tees. The junior tees measure
3,000 yards. Young, beginning players will find great
enjoyment in being able to play a course that allows them to
learn the game while making each hole play at a comfortable
distance.
The course features will be constructed
with the least amount of earthmoving possible. In some ways
it will be like a renovation project on an existing course
where we minimize the disruptions to the site by only
disturbing the areas where the greens, bunkers, and tees are
located. This approach will allow us to strip only the
topsoil that is required to build the features, thus keeping
intact the delicate soil structure, and natural grasses and
vegetation on most of the site.
Almost every hole on the routing has
some significant landform incorporated into the design of
the hole. Many holes are placed on top of ridges, with the
descending slopes on either side of the ridge. This
strategy accentuates the importance of the terrain in the
ground game, where the ball is directed by the pitch in the
land, and accentuates the importance of the uneven stance,
where the player is either helped or challenged by sidehill,
uphill, and downhill lies in the fairway. Examples of these
types of holes are holes #3, #4, #6, #9, #12, #13, and #17.
Even on a much smaller scale, the green sites are greatly
enhanced by their placement on magnificent, natural
landforms like the ridges at the green sites of holes #1,
#4, #12, #13, and #15, like the low, intimate spots on holes
#2, #5, #14, and like the high, dramatic hilltops at holes
#3, #6, #9, #17, and #18. Other holes offer a variety of
sidehill lies, such as hole #10 where the ball on the
fairway will be above the right-handed player’s feet, and
the next hole, #11, where the ball in the fairway will be
below the right-handed player’s feet. These attributes are
critical to capture in the routing plan phase, and will
greatly enhance the opportunities for us to design a golf
course that will be unmatched by any course with regards for
strategic excitement for all levels of players.
The golf course will have fairways of a
generous width to take advantage of the varied, and broken
natural terrain. This will give the better player the
opportunity to play the edges of the fairways in order to
gain better approach angles into the greens, better stances
in the fairway, or better bounces in the fairway to gain
distance or advantageous positions. For the average player,
wider fairways are more forgiving, and allow the player who
cannot strike the mighty blow off the tee more options to
position their tee shot in the fairway to make the next shot
easier, and maybe gain some advantage by playing a thinking
game.
The golf course will be designed in a
way that makes the undulating natural features foremost in
the final design of the fairways and greens. In this way
the course will play differently each time depending upon
where the pins are placed on the greens, and which part of
the fairway or the green the player’s ball finally comes to
rest. More emphasis will be on the strategic placement of
bunkers rather than on the number of bunkers. These design
qualities are essential to our desire to provide a golf
course that is pleasurable to the greatest number of
players, that is rich in strategic design and requires
thoughtful consideration each time it is played, that gives
the average player a challenge without being unfair while
making the better player excel at all skills if they want to
shoot under par, and finally, that creates a golf course
which appears to be sewn into the natural landscape in a
manner that makes it hard to distinguish the manmade work
from nature’s work.
The course routing respects one of the
most important traditions of playing golf, and that is being
able to walk the course rather than relying upon carts. The
pleasures and insights gained from walking a course are
important to understanding the design of the course, and
appreciating the natural surroundings. Despite the need to
cross a road twice, and despite the separations between
holes caused by the wetland fingers, the distance a player
must walk in getting from the green to the next tee when
totaled for all 18 holes comes to 1,500 yards. According to
Pacesetters, a company that specializes in improving pace of
play, the average course in the United States is more than
double that figure, or 3,100 yards.
We have been very aggressive in
promoting our beliefs in the type of course that will be
well suited to the golfer. Our enthusiasm has ignited a bit
of a passion fire within a broad circle of local residents,
thus elevating the expectations and subsequently the
pressure on us to deliver on our words. I find that
exciting. For me design is a life process rather than a
business, therefore much of what I wrote above reflects my
mindset today. Key to it is my desire to be better at
preserving more of the contours of the land. Also, I have
tried to organize myself in a way that allows me to spend
more time on site. Old Bridge represents a tremendous
opportunity for me to be onsite more than I have been on any
other project. I feel that the most stimulating design
happens when you are fully engaged in the process, and
certainly you are no better engaged than when you are
standing there on the land. More than anything the
engagement does not allow you to design in a “cliché”
fashion. As someone else said, “Drift, wait, and obey”,
and I believe on site is a great place to invoke that little
saying. Ultimately, you want to be different, you want the
mystery of creativity to lead you somewhere other than where
it might lead someone else. Again, to avoid cliché.
Finally, what has come out of this process is a notion that
occurred to me and has become somewhat of a mantra in my
presentations to the Township, and that is this project to
me feels more like a renovation project. Quoted from above:
“The course features will be constructed with the least
amount of earthmoving possible. In some ways it will be
like a renovation project on an existing course where we
minimize the disruptions to the site by only carefully
disturbing the areas where the greens, bunkers, and tees are
located.” For me this has been a powerful idea that
makes me think harder about how to fulfill the letter and
spirit of the statement, to find a process by which this can
be fully realized. This is in a nutshell is where we are
with Old Bridge.
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