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Unique Golf Holes Presented in partnership with E-Z-GO & the American Society of Golf Course Architects |
Super starter
Virginia layout wastes little time in getting golfers’ attention with a truly memorable opening hole.
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The attention-grabbing first hole at Augustine GC is bathed in a northern Virginia sunset. |
Few golf courses get your attention as quickly as Augustine Golf Club in Stafford, Va., thanks to the Mid-Atlantic gem’s opening hole.
No. 1 at Augustine GC, the latest in GCM’s ongoing Unique Golf Hole series, is a medium-length par 4 that gets the golfer into the round in a hurry by providing multiple choices and challenges.
The hole also showcases the key philosophies of Rick Jacobson, a member of the American Society of Golf Course Architects who designed and built the course a dozen years ago in the rolling woodlands of northern Virginia, 40 miles south of the nation’s capital. Jacobson notes that No. 1 is environmentally sensitive, ecologically responsible and designed to give the player risk-reward options.
Thanks to a 50-foot drop in elevation, the hole is laid out for all to see from the tee — a split fairway bisected by a wetlands corridor that travels almost its entire length to a strategically guarded green. The downhill vista is what golf course architects like Jacobson consider a designer delight — in this case, influencing the golfer to consider the pin placement first and then plot the best strategy to get there.
“It presents the entire hole to the golfer on the tee. That was something that Jack Nicklaus was always strong about, setting up the hole for the golfers to manage according to their abilities,” says Jacobson, who worked for Nicklaus Design before starting his own firm in 1991 out of Libertyville, Ill.
Challenging choices
Jacobson says the hole was originally planned as a dogleg right bordering the wetlands until more space on the right opened up when a practice area had to be changed because of the discovery of an archaeological site. Thus, an alternate landing area on the right of the wetlands was incorporated into the design, and player options doubled.
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No. 1’s downhill vista shows it all — split fairways, the long stretch of wetlands and the extension of new native plantings in the foreground. |
While the left fairway plays through to the green, the right side ends about 70 yards short of the putting surface and, depending on the pin location, demands a second shot to the green that must carry the wetlands, a tree and a bunker.
“We set the green so that with certain pin placements, there were advantages to playing the right side versus the traditional route,” Jacobson says.
The architect’s environmental accountability was considerable, as well. The wetlands corridor on No. 1 collects runoff from much of the course overall and carries it to a retention irrigation pond beyond and below the opening hole.
“It was a challenge both in integrating the wetlands into the design and then the functionality of the runoff,” Jacobson says.
A manageable mix
Augustine’s first hole has the attention of the daily-fee layout’s Class A superintendent, too. John Burns, who also has ties to Nicklaus, utilizes the course’s proximity to the transition zone to his advantage in maintaining No. 1.
“This is the fun part of the country,” the 13-year GCSAA member says in somewhat of a facetious way. “We’ve got bermudagrass fairways that we overseed with ryegrass and we’ve got a cool-season blend in the rough of bluegrass, rye and fescue that serves to stymie intrusion of the bermuda into the wetlands.”
Burns, a Virginia native who has been working on golf courses since his senior year in high school in 1978, also manages bentgrass greens (PennLinks) and tees (Penncross) to complete this turf menagerie of sorts on a layout that has been an Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary since the late 1990s. Meanwhile, maintenance of the wetlands corridor on No. 1 is part routine and part improvisation.
“We cut it down in the wintertime to stimulate new growth in the spring,” he says.
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A highlight in Augustine GC superintendent John Burns’ career is being back in his native state at one of the Mid-Atlantic region’s more highly rated venues. Photos courtesy of Augustine GC
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More is better
Burns spent several years in Florida, which included a stint with the TPC Eagle Trace in Coral Springs and another with Golden Bear Golf’s Paragon Golf Construction. He returned to Virginia in 1998 and has been at Augustine since 2004. These days, he’s in the midst of a project he hopes will settle some mowing issues connected with the first hole’s signature wetlands.
“It does stay a little wet down there, so we’ve extended the native portion all the way back (about 300 square yards) to the cart path and near the forward tee,” he says.
No. 1 can play as long as 411 yards and as short as 284 yards. No matter the choice, there’s still a lot to think about.
“It’s a different hole,” Burns says. “It’s kind of an eye-opener, especially off the first tee.”
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