The 101 formal bunkers on the Firecliff Course at the resort property in Palm Desert, Calif. were becoming a problem after 19 years of aging, so a $600,000-plus renovation project was undertaken to improve playability.
If there was a single word to describe the Firecliff Course at Desert Willow Golf Resort in Palm Desert, Calif. it would probably be sand, The Desert Sun of Palm Springs, Calif. reported.
The Firecliff Course, one of two courses at the city-owned Desert Willow facility, was originally designed with large bunkers both in the fairways and around the greens, The Desert Sun reported. There are waste bunkers incorporated into the design, and a shot that wanders too far left or right can find the natural desert dunes on which the course was built.
But with 101 formal bunkers and 19 years of aging on the course, was it possible the bunkers were becoming a reason not to play the Firecliff Course, or a reason golfers might complain about the course?
For officials at Desert Willow, the answer was that the bunkers were indeed becoming a problem, The Desert Sun reported. So the Firecliff Course was closed in May to allow grounds crews to do a variety of renovations to the course’s bunkers. That work, approved by the City Council with an original $632,000 price tag, is now completed, just in time for the course to go down for its traditional overseeding.
“We jumped into this renovation about four years ago,” said Ryan Szydlowski, Desert Willow’s head golf professional. “Dr. Michael Hurdzan was our original course designer and he helped us every step of the way.”
Hurdzan, who designed the course with Dan Frye and with PGA Tour player John Cook as a consultant, made 12 trips to the course in the last three years, including six in the last 12 months, The Desert Sun reported. Those trips allowed Hurdzan to modify and renovate the course’s bunkers without changing the overall playing characteristics of the layout.
The renovation came from two main concerns, The Desert Sun reported. First, the bunkers were actually getting tougher and tougher with age, which was producing a second problem, pace of play on the course.
As bunkers age, sand from the bottom of the bunker is hit out onto the slopes or out of the bunkers completely, The Desert Sun explained. That tends to make the bunkers deeper over time with steeper slopes. It also means the regular softer sand in the desert is replaced by blowing sand from the nearby dunes or the sand beneath the bunker sand, which is generally firmer.
“This renovation was really about playability,” Szydlowski said. “Number one, we have over 80,000 guests a year who play with us, and it is important that we offer a consistent and expected lie in our bunkers. We don’t want our guests hitting off downslopes, upslopes, sideslopes. Our bunkers started to firm up, we had some drainage issues, and the cultivation practices got really hard and demanding.”
The renovation of the bunkers included eliminating three bunkers, including key bunkers on the sixth and 13th holes, leaving 98 formal bunkers on the course, The Desert Sun reported.
Of the bunkers left, many have been cut in half in terms of size, making it easier for golfers to avoid the sand. In addition, many bunkers that have become deeper and steeper through the years have been flattened out, making a shot out of the sand easier. Finally, new sand was put into all of the course’s formal bunkers.
As for pace of play, bunkers tend to be the slowest of hazards on a golf course, with players taking time to get in and out of bunkers, taking time to figure out the shot to hit and often having to take more time when their first shot doesn’t get out of the bunker. As the Firecliff bunkers became more difficult, the pace of play on the course suffered.
“We’ve had a GPS on our carts for the last eight years and we have been able to track play on [Mountain View, the resort’s other course] versus Firecliff,” Szydlowski said. “Firecliff has been about eight to 10 minutes slower, and we dedicate that wholly to bunkers.
“So we should have a lot more chances to get people around four hours and 15 minutes,” Sydlowski added in referring to post-renovation expectations. “They are going to jump in the bunker and get it out in one try, instead of two or three.”
The renovations went so quickly that the Firecliff Course was able to open the past two weekends for a preview of the changes, The Desert Sun reported. The course has now closed again for overseeding, with a projected opening of October 24 for the winter season.
The Desert Willow Golf Resort’s prominence as a FootGolf venue is featured in the October issue of Club & Resort Business.
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