When Gil Hanse and I built the original eighteen holes for Stonewall in 1992, there was no thought of ever building more. But the success of the project made the financial side of expansion easy, and the founders’ fear of having to accommodate older members on a walking-only golf course led them to build a second course where carts were optional.
Just because they were going to allow carts didn’t mean they didn’t want the new course to be walkable, and the founders were clear from the beginning that the project wasn’t worth doing if the second course wasn’t just as good as the first, while adding something different. So, instead of the classic back-to-front greens we built for the original course, my associates Brian Schneider, Brian Slawnik and Eric Iverson [along with Kye Goalby] got much more creative in building a set of greens where the best miss for teach day is different, depending on where the hole is cut. The first time visitor might shriek at the unfairness of it all, but members with local knowledge can avoid the “impossible” putts with a thoughtful approach.
