Greetings, members of Echo Valley Country Club! As the introductory letter that you have received has said, I have been involved with Echo Valley for many years as the golf course architect. Mike Coppola has retained me to provide design and consulting services for changes and additions to Echo Valley, I am pleased to offer some insight to you about the new greens on the Vale Course. First, a little background on what we are trying to accomplish with this renovation and why.

The Vale Course at Echo Valley is a classic, parkland style golf course which was the most prevalent style of design in the northeast and Midwest from the 1920’s until the 1960’s. This style is defined by use of trees as a main way to define and separate golf holes, smaller, raised greens that slope from back to front, often circular in shape and often, sharply contoured. The Ridge is more of a links style course with larger greens that have movement in them that begins outside the putting surface on the mounds and hollows and works into the green from the edges. The Creek Course has elements of both styles, giving members at Echo Valley 3 distinct styles of play in the same complex.

We respect the heritage associated with the Parkland style of design on the Vale and feel it is an important part of what Echo Valley is to its owners and members. The renovation of the greens on the Vale Course has retained this style and simply expanded on it while adding some elements of design that match the Ridge. What we have accomplished is to restore the green’s size back to where it was originally designed, providing more useable pin locations. This will reduce wear by spreading out traffic on and off the green and bring the hole locations into more strategic positions as the putting surface gets closer to the bunkers.

I have provided a copy of the simple greens plan of hole #1 we used for this renovation. These plans served as a guide to how we wanted the green to be shaped but I did most of the layout and contouring directly on site with the contractor during my visits. Over the next 9 weeks each green will be shown with a little information from me about what was done to each green and what to expect. The illustrations show the outline of the original green in red, the new green in black and the new area created as the green shaded part. To the greatest extent possible, we retained the original contours of the greens surface and used the flatter areas around the edges to expand the surface. I have also shown both the original green’s size and how much we added to each one. In the case of Vale #1 green, 1,140 sq. ft. were added to the existing 4,368 to get a total area of 5,509 sq. ft. Considering that the average green size in our designs is around 6,500 sq. ft., this is still a small green in comparison.

On the first hole, we were able to bring the green out on the left and right sides, creating pin positions that bring the 2 bunkers more into play. The front of the green remained where it was because of the sharp upslope of the approach area. We also were able to gain some space in the back of the green that will bring the steep back slope into play for shots hit too long. This green did not have a lot of movement in the surface, which is appropriate for a starting hole. However, some of the new pin locations will make the approach shots have to be more carefully played. In general, the major part of the green slopes from back to front with some small areas sloping off the back edge. It is a good green for a short starting hole.

I look forward to the next installment in a week.

Rick Robbins, ASGCA