Architect's
Gallery
Featuring
ASGCA Members and their work
Richard
P. Nugent
Nugent
Golf , Inc.
Sun Lakes,
AZ
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PHILOSOPHY
OF DESIGN
We
feel that great golf courses have some common elements which we incorporate
into each of our designs.
THE
ROUTING
First
and foremost is the routing. A good routing has several facets. It
should work with the sun, have good circulation from green to tee,
have a good mix of par and length (or pace), change direction often,
and move the golfer through various environments. Each hole should
have an individual identity, but should also carry a common style
with the rest of the holes -- much like brothers and sisters in a
large family.
THE
PAR FOURS
The
strength of a golf course lies in the long par fours. There should
be at least two par fours of 420 yards on each nine. Medium and short
par fours should test the golfer accuracy and shotmaking ability
by setting up risk/reward strategies from the tee to the green.
THE
PAR THREES
The
par threes should be memorable. Natural features such as the water
or ravines on this site would give a sense of tragedy that invoke
golfers "love-hate" relationships with par threes. Par
threes should be both aesthetically pleasing to look at and a stern
test of middle and high iron play. The shorter the hole, the more
demanding the green should be so as to reward a shot executed to
the proper portion of the green with a birdie putt.
THE
PAR FIVES
Of
the par fives on their respective nines, one should be reachable
in two great shots for the possibility of making the much covenanted "eagle".
To discourage all but stout of heart, the green site should be well
protected. The other par five should be a three shot hole where the
length of the second shot could flirt with disaster, but yield an
easier third shot to the green.
THE
GREENS
It
has been written that the greens are the heart of a golf course.
With half the time of a round of golf occurring on the greens, the
level of scrutiny is highest here. Golfers will overlook many blemished
areas of a golf course, but they will not forgive poor greens. For
this reason, we spend a great deal of time both in design and in
the field to insure that the putting surfaces are to our standards.
In fact, Tim Nugent has been known to spend every day that the greens
are being constructed on site monitoring the contouring to make sure
that the slopes, contours and breaks are just right. A misplaced
break may render a portion of the green unpinable.
We
have been moving toward smaller greens with less undulating and more
subtle contouring for several reasons.
*
Greens require the highest degree of maintenance, therefore physically
limiting their size has a direct impact on yearly maintenance costs
by lowering the actual quantity of costly chemicals and sand topdressing
while lessening the time spent on mowing and aerification. Additionally,
with today's trend to go back to walking greens mowers due to their
superior level of cut and less wear and tear on the turf, less
undulation eliminates the scaling and puffiness that severe contours
can lead to.
*
Severe or large slopes with today's faster greens speeds can limit
usable areas of the green since the ball may keep rolling off the
green. Many of the old clubs on the north shore have had to modify
portions of their greens to get back lost pin placements. While
others, for fear of degrading a masterpiece, have greens with only
one or two pin placements as they are down to under 1,000 sf of
pinable surface. This leads to high traffic wear and limited variety
in play.
*
Large greens are the main cause of three putting. Not only is this
unrewarding for the golfers who want to score well, it is frustrating
to the other players in the group and those waiting behind them
in the fairway. If it only takes one minute for each putt and if,
on average, two members of a foursome three putt on each green,
it would increase the playing time of a round by 36 minutes (the
difference between a 4:20 and 5:00 hour round).
*
With the USGA sand greens construction method prevalent, severe
undulations can cause isolated dry areas which can require constant
attention.
THE
BUNKERS
If
the greens are the heart of a golf course then the bunkers are it's
soul. The contrast of the tan sand nestled into the emerald green
grass stands out to cause the golfer to contemplate his strategy
for playing the upcoming hole. We believe that the bunkering on a
course should appear to be random while each having a distinct reason
for being in its location. Bunkers are used to direct play, as in
the case of turning bunkers on the corner of a dogleg to produce
a risk-reward situation depending on whether the golfer elects to
play over them or around them, to save a shot from rolling into a
water hazard or down a steep embankment, or to penalize a too bold
of a tee shot or a misaligned shot to the green. We view a bunker
as a half stoke penalty meaning the player should be able to advance
his ball, but not necessarily to the degree of playing off the fairway.
Not
every hole requires bunkers and the overuse of bunkers as a hazard
can become redundant and tiresome. Additionally, not all bunkers
require sand. Grass bunkers or hollows add a different element and
require a different type of shot. Just as we believe that every hole
should have an individual nature to it so should each bunker. It
is our view that, with the naturalistic design of the course, the
bunkers should not only conform to this, they should highlight it.
Smooth, rounded bunker shapes do not have a place in this style of
design. Rather, the edges should be more irregular in nature. To
achieve this, we insist that the final sand line of the bunker be
drawn on the bunker cavity in the field by us. As with the greens,
this takes the final interpretation out of the hands of the contractor
and leaves it with the designer.
FAIRWAYS
Our
philosophy on fairways is that they should have generous and fairly
level landing areas. As the tee shot is the most difficult shot,
the golfer should not necessarily be punished if the tee shot is
slightly mis-hit. Even the touring pro don't hit every fairway so
why should everyone be expected to. Rather we like to set up "A" and "B" spots
in fairway which generate different successive shots. Once again,
searching and hitting shots from the rough tends to slow down the
speed of play. If you subscribe to the theory that golf is as mental
as physical, having a wide target off the tee offers a more confident
and thus relaxed player and landing in the fairway further builds
on that confidence. Nothing brings back repeat golfers as a course
that challenges but doesn't intimidate the golfer on every shot.
If the hole is a long par four or a par five where the golfer is
asked to hit the ball as far as possible the fairway should allow
it. However, on a short par four where it is the intention of the
design to take the driver out of the player's hand that a more demanding
fairway configuration is required since finesse rather than length
is required.
TEES
Although
the five tee system is a relatively new concept, we have already
built several courses including Ivanhoe, Green Bay, and Harborside
International with five tee systems. At Ivanhoe and Green Bay, the
five tees where used to allow the course to played at a more consistent
level by the wide range of players. At Harborside, it is used to
combat the changing wind direction to keep the hole "playing" the
distance intended. While five tee locations are created, five individual
tees aren't place on every hole. In addition to redundancy, individual
tees increase maintenance time while decreasing actual teeing surface
as it relates to actual square footage of tee surface due to the
unusable perimeter. Therefore in our designs, we may have as few
as two larger tees up to five smaller tees. The existing terrain
and angle to the fairway are the two main factors determining the
size and number of tees. We do believe that the tees should be large
enough to be mowed with riding tri-plex mowers to keep maintenance
costs down and this size, in turn, allows for adequate flexibilty
in tee box location to allow for the recovery of the turf.
COMPUTER
SOLUTIONS for EXCELLENCE IN GOLF COURSE DESIGN
Nugent
Golf takes pride in offering the most state-of-the-art interactive
computer technology available to support the design and engineering
excellence required in all phases of great golf course design. We
are committed to the idea that talented people, interacting with
highly integrated technology, consistently produce the best design
solutions.
Automating
the Golf Course Design Work Flow
Computer
technology provides an excellent and productive tool for every step
of the design process. Several automated methods are available to
capture survey data of all types, allowing early computer modeling
of the existing site. By first being able to closely examine the
three dimensional model of the existing topography, we are able to
rapidly generate routing plan options which best fit the natural
shape of the land, minimizing expensive and artificial earthwork.
After
routing, design of golf course topography is accomplished using sophisticated
civil engineering software. Using the three dimensional model, engineering
analysis such as cut and fill calculations, topsoil stripping and
replacement, cross sections and profiles can quickly and accurately
be produced. In later phases of design, many aspects of construction
plans are automatically generated from the model. Finally, the use
of cutting edge, 3-D computer visualization enhances communication
among the design team, the client and even the bulldozer operator
implementing the construction documentation.
Site
Data Acquisition
New
golf course projects usually start with a topographic map generated
from an aerial survey. These maps are available in 2-D and 3-D digital
format, both of which may be easily imported into our computer. If
a 3-D digital map is not available, the contours may be scanned into
the computer for quick analysis..
Golf
Course Routing
When
developing a golf course routing strategy, our designers can work
directly on the screen using the computer model, contour lines and
site analysis information to best route the direction of play. Powerful
computer drafting software provides all the tools required for producing
high quality routing plans.
Individual
Hole Design
After
the routing plan is determined, we can then model and shape the design
of each hole individually. Computer models of proposed grading for
a new golf hole is a straight-forward task. The system displays the
existing contours and the designer then digitizes in proposed contours
and golf hole elements such as tee boxes, fairway, bunker and greens.
At any time during this process, a new 3-D model can be produced
and viewed from any elevation or angle allowing real time analysis
of aesthetics and playability. Refer to the images on our home page
for an example.
Design
Detail Modification
Because
design is a process of constant change, the ability to easily modify
surface models is essential to efficient, sound design. Precision
horizontal and vertical editing tools allow us to fine tune the details
of each hole in a highly efficient way.
Engineering
Analysis
The
automatic calculation of earthwork cut and fill compares existing
and proposed surfaces. The results can be displayed either as a table
or as a colored 3-D model. This provides us with accurate data on
material movement in alternative designs. Automated cut and fill
calculation enhances communication with owners and contractors and
enables constant adherence to the project budget.
Construction
Documents
Throughout
the design process, all of the elements need to produce a full set
of construction documents have been input into our system. Upon completion
and approval of the design, we have the ability to produce the construction
documentation directly from the computer system. The high powered
drafting and plotting software allows us to produce plans at any
desired scale which are clear, concise and represent the full design
intent.
Golf
Course Presentation
An
additional service offered by Nugent Golf is a 3-D "fly-through" animation
of your golf course. Using a technique called key-frame animation,
we can walk you through the course. This can be produced in photo
or video form including a full action 3-D animation. We can also
produce high quality photo realistic presentaions of signature holes
on the course. |
