Waterfront Country Club in Moneta, VA

Once I completed renovation work at The Water’s Edge Country Club for the Willard Companies, I began the same process for another one of their facilities, Waterfront Country Club.  The existing golf course plays 6,694 yards from the tips and is a non-returning routing surrounded by residential home sites.  The majority of holes are not double loaded, though, which creates a core golf course feel.  Nonetheless, there is little room to adjust golf holes to increase yardage or safety buffers.  The nine holes closest to the clubhouse (one through eight and eighteen) were built in 1981 and the remaining nine holes were built in 1984.  

The site that Waterfront sits on is much more severe that Water’s Edge in terms of topography, which has a profound effect on the design style of the golf course.  The golf course is inherently more difficult because of the forced carries, narrow fairways, and severe uphill shots.  As a result, care must be taken in the renovation process not to make the golf course too difficult for the average golfer.  There is no one specific design trend with the golf course features.  The tees, hazards, and greens all appear to be built in response to the land and not one particular design style or look (such as the high-faced, flashed-sand bunkers of Buddy Loving at Water’s Edge).  The original architect was an assistant to Tom Fazio named George Dillon.  

Because Waterfront has no distinctive design characteristics to preserve, Richard Mandell Golf Architecture will make every effort to develop a character and design philosophy that contrasts with Water’s Edge Country Club to provide a variety of facilities for The Willard Companies.  Richard Mandell Golf Architecture will develop a design style based upon two goals: 1) create a look and character of the golf course features that contrasts well with that preserved and enhanced at Water’s Edge Country Club and; 2) maximize the existing site conditions to make the golf course as playable as possible for the higher handicapped players.  The challenge is already there for the lower-handicaps.

The look and style of a golf course most apparent to the average eye comes in the character of the sand bunkers first and the lay of the land next.  Therefore, our goal with Waterfront is to create a distinct sand bunker design style that contrasts with the Buddy Loving style replicated at Water’s Edge.  The contrasting style planned for Waterfront is a golden age look known as the cape and bay.  

The bunker shapes in a cape and bay look are cut along the lines created by random mound locations.  The sand line is not cut back into the mounds like they are in a seventies/eighties look.  This style is composed of more intricate sand lines that respond to the location of these mounds and noses, which are called capes (like the land form).  As the sand lines wrap around these capes, bays of sand (often flashed, but not as severely as the seventies/eighties look) are formed.  The result is a lot of visual interest that holds the golfer’s eye.  I plan to flash just enough sand to ensure visibility for the golfer and not make a deliberate flash as an element of style.

Proposed renovations at Waterfront include a few major cut/fill operations to improve visibility. One proposal is to add an alternative green to the tenth hole.  Currently the hole is an uphill par four where the tees, fairway, and green are all disjointed elements, partially due to a pond, drainage issues, and a misplaced cart path.  The alternative green will create a downhill par four to a green set on a peninsula along the pond where one can hit a 300 yard tee shot to the front of the green.  The pond will cut dangerously in front of part of the green and random bunkers will make the big tee shot a risky proposition.  The hole will be the epitome of risk and reward.  Current renovation plans are on hold until we complete a Renovation Business Plan for The Westlake Country Club, the third Willard project.