Salishan Golf Links, the course that once first showcased the golfing promise of Oregon’s coastline, reopened following a major redesign by Jacobsen Hardy Golf Course Design. Featuring 18 new greens, an additional 400 yards and new views of the Pacific Ocean and Siletz Bay, Salishan, located in Gleneden Beach, Ore., has reclaimed its standing as one of the Northwest’s top golf resorts.
“The major changes needed at Salishan were to identify drainage of the entire course and make the greens playable and receptive,” says Oregon native Peter Jacobsen, PGA Tour veteran and partner with Jim Hardy in Houston-based Jacobsen Hardy. “I feel we accomplished both of those goals, but we did a lot more than that.”
The Salishan layout was completely rebunkered, and one hole, the par-3 15th, was completely reimagined.
“The most dramatic change is the new No. 15,” Jacobsen says. “Instead of a blind, uphill par 3, it’s now a downhill par 3 playing directly toward the Pacific Ocean on the horizon. It’s one of the exciting changes and improvements that we feel puts Salishan back on the map of tremendous Oregon golf courses.”
Complete renovation
After purchasing Salishan in 2003, Eugene-based owner Spring Capital Group embarked on a multi-million-dollar renovation of The Lodge at Salishan. This fall, Salishan’s day spa will open. But most important to golfers, Spring Capital committed $3 million to Jacobsen Hardy’s course upgrade.
Opened in 1965, Salishan Golf Links pioneered the Oregon coast for resort golf. Bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the west and the saltwater Siletz Bay to the north, Salishan attracted golfers because of its scenic location. However, the golf course never took maximum advantage of its location, according to Jacobsen. The layout was short, 6,000 yards, and throughout time, the course developed major drainage problems.
“One of our primary goals with the restoration of this course was to bring it into the 21st century,” says Mark Swift, Salishan’s director of golf. “Technology of course design and maintenance had passed us by, and we wanted to preserve Salishan’s place as one of the finest golf courses in the Pacific Northwest.”
Focus on the course
Salishan was a tired golf course and needed more than minor improvements, according to Rex VanHoose, Jacobsen Hardy’s senior architect in charge of the Salishan project.
“We solved the drainage issues, but we also brought a coherent strategy to the entire design,” VanHoose says. “Peter’s always telling us to let the land be the hero, and that’s what we did here. The holes relate much better to the terrain now. I never suspected that we could change things so dramatically on every hole.”
Salishan’s new 10th hole illustrates the scope of Jacobsen Hardy’s work. What had been a downhill, straightaway par 5 of 440 yards, with a perpetually soggy fairway, is now a dry, 457-yard double-dogleg thanks to strategic, fairway-pinching bunkers and a green that sits 30 yards to the right of the old one.
“It’s a great improvement, but we also created a tremendous view of Siletz Bay behind the green,” says VanHoose. “When we got there, the view was completely hidden by dense grouping of trees. You didn’t even know the bay was there until you got to the 11th tee. Now you see it from 10th tee.
“The 10th and 11th (a 202-yard par-3 hole) both capitalize on the ambience of Siletz Bay in ways they never did before. The 11th green used to sit below a dike that runs along the bay’s edge. We built up a new putting surface to the dike’s elevation, so now you’re looking out over the water across a horizon green. We also incorporated a sweeping dune feature behind the green, covered in beach grass, to provide a real sense of arrival on the links nine.”
Working with Salishan superintendent Ryan Bancroft and course contractor Eagle View Golf of Spring, Texas, Jacobsen Hardy accentuated the beach grass/waste area look throughout the seaside back nine. The front nine, which plays inland through a thick forest of pine, also was the subject of major improvements in playability and design.
“On the front side, I’d say the most notable improvement came at No. 3,” Hardy says. “We found a spot for a back tee, which added 50 yards to the third hole and revealed a beautiful escarpment feature. The hole measures 416 yards now, and the drive plays right over a miniature gulch. The old hole was a shorter par 4 with a hidden creek at 230 yards. Resort guests were always in it. With this back tee, the creek is 300, so it’s not such an issue.”
“That was the story with a lot of holes at Salishan,” VanHoose adds. “They were mediocre in terms of fairness and strategy, and now they’re quite spectacular, with bolder bunkering. The 6th green, for example, used to be circled by eight little, sod-walled bunkers. Peter looked at them one day and said, ‘Wow, that looks like my wife’s vanity mirror.’ So we took them out, recontoured the green, set in a bunker back right and another deep one front left. The hole has a strategic angle to it now – and it doesn’t look like a vanity mirror.”
Drainage solution
Jacobsen Hardy mitigated the site’s long-standing drainage issues by implementing a new technique called Sand Slits, in which drain lines were trenched, and the excavated soil was conveyed directly to a holding area without ever touching the ground.
“The subcontractor on this job [Mt. Vernon, Wash.-based Greenshield Systems] has developed custom-built equipment to execute this procedure, which is faster and cleaner than any drainage-installation process we’ve seen,” VanHoose says. “Basically, it’s a wheel-trencher attached to a Bobcat that features an integrated conveyer system that carries the dirt straight into a Ty-Crop – clean as can be. The dirt never hits the ground. The trench is cut perfectly. It’s laser equipped to monitor depth. But here’s the really neat part: With another attachment, Greenshield can reverse the process, conveying sand from a Ty-Crop into a portal that funnels sand into the trench while laying the pipe in the same motion.”
Many contractors struggle to lay 2,000 feet a day using traditional methods, and that doesn’t always include backfilling. With this system, 3,000 feet of drainage lines fully capped were laid a day, according to VanHoose.
The six trouble holes at Salishan – the first, 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th and 14th, where soggy conditions had prevented maintenance crews from mowing for weeks at a time – were built in the 1960s atop an old bog. A layer of peat was laid down, then a foot of sand, then another foot of clay-peat mixture, then more sand, then another layer of clay and peat.
“By using these layers, they had basically created the ideal conditions for a perched water table; it was a quagmire,” VanHoose says. “The Sand Slits enabled us to look at a hole, determine the natural surface-drainage fall lines, then lay in the pipe perpendicular to the flow. We installed them in 15-foot spacings. They all meet at a trunk line that carries off and discharges the water. It’s an incredible process that helped us meet a tight construction schedule. It cut down our soil disturbance obviously, but it also freed us from going back and re-establishing or improving the existing grade, which was maintained.”
Greens improvement
The greens Jacobsen Hardy encountered prior to the renovation at Salishan were severely contoured and averaged 5,000 square feet in size. The green contours, designed in the 1960s when mowing heights ranged from 9/32 to 1/4 of an inch, were a continual source of frustration for resort guests. Presently, the poa annua putting surfaces are cut at 1/8 to 1/10 of an inch.
“The greens at Salishan had become unplayable and unfair, and pin placements were scarce,” VanHoose says. “This is not to say that greens today can’t be designed with significant movement. To make them fair, however, the size of the green must increase to allow for this movement and for multiple pin placements. Because we were salvaging the existing turf from the existing green surfaces (100 percent pure poa annua), we were confined to the same average green size. In response to lower mowing heights, greater green speeds and 5,000-square-foot greens, we redesigned the putting surfaces with softer contours – no slope greater than 3 percent. The new greens offer subtle movement within each surface, creating a fair and playable test that’s plenty challenging, too.” GCN
At a glance:
Salishan Golf Links
www.salishan.com
Location: Gleneden Beach, Ore.
Course Type: Resort
Cost: $3 million
Construction began: Aug. 18, 2003
Course opened: Nov. 15, 2003 (course opened
Memorial Day weekend, 2004)
Yardage: 6,470
Par: 71
Number of bunkers: 58
Average green size: 5,000 square feet
Greens: 100-percent poa annua
Tees: bluegrass/rye mix
Fairways: bluegrass/rye mix
Accent: native and beach grasses
Slopes: 134 from the back,
130 from the middle,
128 from the forward
Ratings: 72.2, 70.4, 71.3
Professional: Mark Swift
Director of Golf: Mark Swift
Superintendent: Ryan Bancroft
Architects: Jim Hardy and Rex VanHoose
Design Firm: Jacobsen Hardy
Design Builder: Eagle View Golf
Hal Phillips is president of Phillips Golf Media. He is based in New Gloucester, Maine, and can be reached at onintwo@maine.rr.com.
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