I have been meaning to post a journal thread like menacewarf did with the "Executing the Dream" and did not want to Hi-Jack the original thread where goose is posting his updates...so here goes my personal journey into Executing The Dream: East Texas Edition. I will post updates to this thread as I make more progress and would love to hear feedback and comments. Constructive criticism is always appreciated :hfive: .
Background: I acquired 21.3 Acres of Deep East texas forest from a small section of my dads overall 160 acres. This property is surrounded by multi thousand acre tracks of pine plantation. Like wise, the property that I have has also been utilized largely for this same purpose (which I find pine plantation as both a waste of property, resources and investment $$ but that's another subject and a bit off topic). About 1/3 of the pines have been thinned from my property in a first thinning and as a result a lot of regeneration forest has grown under the pine canopies.
Currently, I am waiting on loggers to come out to take out about 50% of the remaining pines in the area so that I can continue the design of the complete course. In the mean time I have began clearing out my first hole. Because of the enormous amount of dense under brush, thorns, vines and saplings getting a overall feel of the property has been challenging to say the least.
Because of the density of the property coupled with the need to have the final logging done on 1/2 of the property I have decided to clear one hole out to begin with and now look for more holes. I have read nearly all of John houck's articles that I could get my hands on and look forward to putting as many of his principles to work as possible. I know it is a bad idea to just mark a basket and a tee and cut out the growth.I have read many designers suggest it better to look at multiple angels, areas and come out with the greatest hole versus the first obvious one.
Course Layout:
- 9 Tee's and 9 baskets to start out
- add alternate tee's as well as pin locations later to fill it out into a full 18 Holes.
- Have fun and learn, learn, learn
Now for pics ...:thmbup:
Day 1 (No Pics lol)
Spent the first day Surveying for the first possible hole. Had a couple area's that looked promising but finally settled on an old logging trail that had been logged maybe 4 years prior so less tree removal was necessary. Also this trail ran along a seasonal Creek that remains dry ~90% of the year. I was able to hack out the beginning tee area and the general area that the pin would be. A day well spent, im liking the look of this first hole.
Day 2
Hole #1 From the Tee. Fairway is not carved or hardly defined yet. Bush Hogged a lot of sapling and blackberry thorns out of the way though.
Brush Hogging Completed. Landing area established. Now to begin the tedious process of machete work to fine tune the hole where the bush hog couldn't reach. Still a lot of saplings and tree's in the way. This is another pic of from the Tee box looking down the beginning of the fairway. Oh and btw this is a Dogleg right.
Wearing shorts a happened to have the machete hit my shin. Luckily it wasn't worse. Be safe out there, I know this was a lesson well learned.
Day 3: Burn day, and more clearing... After finishing up the previous session of bush hogging there is a ton of downed brush, saplings and trash that has got to go. With the previous days rain it was a PITA to get a fire started and burning hot enough to be able to burn up the greener foliage but I managed.
Looking from the Tee...
Middle of fairway is getting clearer and more defined. This is right around where the fairway starts to dogleg right.
Final shot of the day is from the Burn pile far left of the fairway looking towards the basket.
Background: I acquired 21.3 Acres of Deep East texas forest from a small section of my dads overall 160 acres. This property is surrounded by multi thousand acre tracks of pine plantation. Like wise, the property that I have has also been utilized largely for this same purpose (which I find pine plantation as both a waste of property, resources and investment $$ but that's another subject and a bit off topic). About 1/3 of the pines have been thinned from my property in a first thinning and as a result a lot of regeneration forest has grown under the pine canopies.
Currently, I am waiting on loggers to come out to take out about 50% of the remaining pines in the area so that I can continue the design of the complete course. In the mean time I have began clearing out my first hole. Because of the enormous amount of dense under brush, thorns, vines and saplings getting a overall feel of the property has been challenging to say the least.
Because of the density of the property coupled with the need to have the final logging done on 1/2 of the property I have decided to clear one hole out to begin with and now look for more holes. I have read nearly all of John houck's articles that I could get my hands on and look forward to putting as many of his principles to work as possible. I know it is a bad idea to just mark a basket and a tee and cut out the growth.I have read many designers suggest it better to look at multiple angels, areas and come out with the greatest hole versus the first obvious one.
Course Layout:
- 9 Tee's and 9 baskets to start out
- add alternate tee's as well as pin locations later to fill it out into a full 18 Holes.
- Have fun and learn, learn, learn
Now for pics ...:thmbup:
Day 1 (No Pics lol)
Spent the first day Surveying for the first possible hole. Had a couple area's that looked promising but finally settled on an old logging trail that had been logged maybe 4 years prior so less tree removal was necessary. Also this trail ran along a seasonal Creek that remains dry ~90% of the year. I was able to hack out the beginning tee area and the general area that the pin would be. A day well spent, im liking the look of this first hole.
Day 2
Hole #1 From the Tee. Fairway is not carved or hardly defined yet. Bush Hogged a lot of sapling and blackberry thorns out of the way though.
Brush Hogging Completed. Landing area established. Now to begin the tedious process of machete work to fine tune the hole where the bush hog couldn't reach. Still a lot of saplings and tree's in the way. This is another pic of from the Tee box looking down the beginning of the fairway. Oh and btw this is a Dogleg right.
Wearing shorts a happened to have the machete hit my shin. Luckily it wasn't worse. Be safe out there, I know this was a lesson well learned.
Day 3: Burn day, and more clearing... After finishing up the previous session of bush hogging there is a ton of downed brush, saplings and trash that has got to go. With the previous days rain it was a PITA to get a fire started and burning hot enough to be able to burn up the greener foliage but I managed.
Looking from the Tee...
Middle of fairway is getting clearer and more defined. This is right around where the fairway starts to dogleg right.
Final shot of the day is from the Burn pile far left of the fairway looking towards the basket.