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Course of the Week: Bakker Crossing GC completes renovation

By |  November 25, 2014 0 Comments

Anyone who has played golf in Sioux Falls, S.D., knows that the golfers there have plenty of great options for places to play. In such a strong market, differentiating a course from the competition can be difficult.

That’s the challenge golf course architect Kevin Norby faced when the owners of Bakker Crossing Golf Course hired him nearly four years ago.

“We started with a master plan geared towards improving revenue, increasing rounds and finding Bakker Crossing’s niche in the market,” Norby says. “It had nice routing, and at 6,900 yards the course was a pretty good test of golf for the low handicap player.”

But the site was very flat with only about 12 feet of elevation change, according to Norby. The contractor who built the course in 2002 excavated numerous shallow ponds to facilitate drainage and to generate soil to construct greens, tees and other features. As a result the course had many forced carries, and 16 of the 18 holes had water hazards and cattails which made the fairways look narrow and far too intimidating for the average golfer.

In the Sioux Falls market there are two private clubs, two regulation-length city courses and a handful of other regulation 9- or 18-hole courses. Bakker Crossing lacked a real brand of its own, and Norby wanted to see that change.

Following the master plan, the third, seventh and 12th holes were rebuilt to eliminate forced carries and to reposition the landing areas. The third hole was rebuilt with a split fairway and a centering bunker. “We consolidated ponds, repositioned bunkers and changed the angles of approach to challenge the better golfer while at the same time making the course more fun and more playable for the average golfer,” Norby says.

In 2014 the bunkers were reconstructed using a unique timber facing.

“This is such a flat site that it’s hard to see the sand without flashing it up — that creates maintenance concerns,” Norby says. “It seems like the wind blows all the time at Bakker Crossing, so the timber facing allowed us to keep the sand flat while also allowing the golfer to see the hazards.”

“The master plan changes have been a huge success for us,” says Owner Donn Hill. “Rounds are up 40 percent from 2011, and we are seeing a lot of new golfers.”

Kevin Norby is the owner and senior architect of Herfort Norby Golf Course Architects and recently completed master plans for Hillcrest Golf Course in Colorado and Waveland Golf Course in Des Moines, Iowa.

 

Photos: Bakker Crossing GC

This is posted in Course of the Week, People


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