Among the many improvements players will notice when experiencing the all-new Poppy Ridge Golf Couse will be improved walkability.
As part the transformation of the course, and in taking advantage of the natural landscape, the greens are now within easy walking distance of the next teeing area. In a nod to today’s best industry practices, gone too are severe course elevation changes that could be a walking challenge for even the fittest players.
As noted by Blasi, whose previous work includes the recently highly acclaimed renovation at Golden Gate Park Golf Course in San Francisco and being a design associate for U.S. Open venue Chambers Bay in Washington, making the new course more walkable was a huge factor in the transformation process and effort to create a memorable, and enjoyable experience for all players.
We recently caught up with Blasi to have him talk about the importance of improved walkability in the design of the new course.
One of your goals was to make the course more walkable. How did you achieve that? What went into the design process in that regard?
The old layout of three nine-hole courses was not walkable for most people. There were very long walks between greens and tees and there were lots of steep grade changes that made it difficult especially in the heat of the summer. In order to improve the playability and take advantage of the best features of the site we re-routed the entire golf course. The byproduct of that re-routing is a course with much shorter green-to-tee walks and much smoother transitions across the landscape. If you are a golfer who normally plays from tees around 6,500 yards the walk on the new golf course will be about 2,000 yards shorter with around 400 feet less overall elevation change.
What can players expect when it comes to easier walkability?
The site at Poppy Ridge is big and bold with lots of elevation change. So the walk isn’t one that everyone would call easy, just by the nature of the site. But for those players who love to walk they should find a very compelling journey that is consistent and comparable with walks at other top courses in Northern California such as Pasatiempo, CordeValle and Spyglass Hill.
