NAPLES, Fla. – Kinsale Club, with its new private course designed by Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner, showcases what a great team of architects can do with a flat piece of land.
Given 174 acres to accommodate the entire club – including parking and all amenities – Hanse and Wagner had to construct all the intrigue from the course with hard boundary edges, a preserved area of wetland at the center and no distinguished landforms rising from the site just a few hundred yards from the Gulf of Mexico. To make it all work, they relied on classic architectural templates for inspiration, making golfers consider strategy and proper lines for every swing.
That strategy is dictated mostly by sand – lots of sand. Wherever you might want to land a tee ball, there’s often a steep-faced, relatively flat-bottomed bunker in the way. Players must steer their balls around all the hazards, often playing toward the edges of wide fairways to set up the best line for an approach shot. Heading into the greens, plenty more bunkers await. Players who take the proper lines off the tee are rewarded with a much more welcoming approach through all the sand and past the frequent run-offs…