Last week I was happy to play my first round of 2016 at one of my home courses and favorites, Bonneville Golf Course. Bonneville is the most popular golf course in the state, home of some of the best greens around.
Last season they switched from manual/hand watering and installed a controversial automated irrigation system. That’s all done now and a byproduct of said irrigation system is a change on the first hole. The first is a very reachable par-5. I’m usually approaching this green with anything from 9-iron to a 5-iron depending on conditions. Just short of the green is a very steep slope which historically has had very deep grass. That deep grass typically ate balls up, keeping them from bouncing up to the green. It also made chipping a challenge.
Shot taken with my phone, so not the best quality. This is the slope which is now cut short.
That long grass is gone now. Apparently one of the reasons for the long grass was a watering issue. Now that there is a better irrigation system, that grass can be, and is cut short like the fairway. I’m not sure how this will play out yet. It could mean many more 2nd shots will bounce up onto the green. It could also mean that short shots and bad chips which don’t make the green may roll back anywhere from 10-30 yards.
It’s going to be interesting to track the scoring and analyze my approaches on #1 this coming season and see how what seems to be a minor change affects the outcome.
Today was likely the last round I’ll ever play at one of my all time favorite golf courses, Wingpointe. Wingpointe is at the Salt Lake City International Airport. The course is known as “Utah’s Links,” and is the design of well known golf architect Arthur Hills.
14th Hole – Wingpointe Golf Course
The city of Salt Lake owns/operates the course and will be shutting it down November 15th, 2015. It’s a damn shame.
Panorama view of Wingpointe’s 3rd and 4th holes
I have many great memories at “Wingy” and she will be missed. Somehow, despite the bad soil there, the greens were always fantastic.
Panorama of Wingpointe’s 13th and 14th holes
For many years Wingpointe was my home course, and I had a nice relationship with the pro Lynn Langren. From the black tees, the course is (soon to be was) one of the most challenging courses in the state, especially with wind.
The course seemed to always fit my eye and I’ve shot many great rounds there under par.
If it isn’t too cold I may try to play it on the last day it is open, if it isn’t covered in snow.
Pop quiz: What’s the first thing golf courses who just switched to a new automated sprinkling system do?
Answer: Over-water.
For decades Bonneville Golf Course here in Salt Lake City, Utah has been the most popular public course in the state and for good reason. It is awesome. For decades the course has been known for being a “hard and fast” course which calls for the player to accurately calculate approach shots, landing them at just the right place. Some shots needed to hit short and bounce up in order to stay on the putting surface.
Commonplace at Bonney now… bring your divot tool.
Over this summer the course has switched from manual, hand-watering to a new automated irrigation system. The change is done and the new sprinklers are working, really well. The course is as green as ever but it is very, very different. The greens are no longer the fast and hard greens I’ve grown to love (and hate in a good way on some days). They’re country club soft. Shots which once would bounce over the green when hitting the front half are now backing up. On the 3rd hole, a green which is very hard to stick, I hit a wedge to the middle of the green and spun it back off and down the hill. On #10 I did the same thing, hitting the middle of the green then spinning entirely off the surface.
Some shots this softness has helped though. I hit an 8-iron to the par-5 first, a back pin. My shot flew to the back pin, hitting about a foot short of the flag. Normally that shot would bounce over the green and leave an impossible downhill chip. Instead, I had a 15″ eagle putt.
The speed of the greens is considerably slower right now. This could of course be a factor of the blade length of the mowers, or it could be that they’re just slower because they’re more moist. Those of us who are used to “Bonney” speed and the fine and tough breaks those fast greens produces are now befuddled by putts which come up short and don’t break.
I’m not saying the change is good or bad. It’s just, “different.” The strategy has changed. Rather than hitting shots with the goal of hitting the front or even in front of the green, one must think pin high and go even longer than that. I’m finding that any club less than an 8-iron requires getting the to-the-pin yardage and aiming 10-15 feet past it.
Welcome to the new Bonneville.
Sadly, an Arthur Hills “links” style course here in Salt Lake looks to be closing at the end of this season. I could go into the politics of why this is happening, and talk about mismanagement and all that, but I’ll just say that we have a lot of new bike trails in town now.
View of Salt Lake City from Wingpointe’s 4th tee – click to see more
I played Wingpointe a few days ago and the greens were as good as ever. Unfortunately the fairways are not that great and the only good lie a player is guaranteed is on the tee. But that’s the nature of the beast when you are on soil full of salt from the Great Salt Lake.
Wingpointe Golf Course
That round a few days ago might be my last there. As much as I love the design and the greens, the whole experience is tainted by the poor fairways.
I have many great memories at Wingpointe, like the time I shot 31-41 for a very irritating 72. Won a tournament there too a couple of years ago.
Sad to see this course closing. It won’t be the last golf course closure here in Salt Lake I’m afraid.
Bye wingy.
I had quite an enjoyable round yesterday at the Mountain Dell Canyon Course, between Salt Lake City and Park City, Utah in Emigration Canyon. The Canyon course is one of two courses on the property, and the one I prefer.
I had some spectacular shots yesterday. One was a punch 8-iron from under a tree in the right rough on the par-4 9th. The ball ended up 12 inches. Birdie. The next one was a punch 9-iron from 145 (lots of wind), from a severe side-hill lie. That 3rd shot on the par-5 14th astonishingly didn’t go in. It must have lipped out for eagle. The ball was TWO inches behind the hole. Birdie.
I had some other fantastic shots after the round, via my golf aerial photo/video hexacopter drone.
Mountain Dell Canyon Course – click to see more
They should get rid of the cart paths…
More aerial golf photos: Mountain Dell Canyon Course and Mountain Dell Lake Course.
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