The Loop at Chaska - Chaska, MN  (Redesign by Benjamin Warren, 2021)

Even though I was only there for a month, this was one of the most fulfilling projects I have ever been involved with. This was for two reasons. The first is that it involved greens shaping, my favorite element of golf design. Furthermore, these greens were to be all about contour and short grass—no bunkers involved whatsoever—which made the challenge of creation even more fun as we could come up with all sorts of adventurous ground shots, both from on the tee and up at the green.

The project was also fulfilling for another bigger and more important reason—the course was to be the first designed entirely with adaptive golfers in mind. Adaptive golfers are those with varying disabilities, including players who need specialized single rider carts to move about the golf course. This makes regular golf features such as bunkers or steep banks particularly problematic with access and is what drove architect Ben Warren and non-profit developer Barrier Free golf to develop the no-bunker, all short grass concept. Surveys among these types of players indicated they still wanted to be challenged though. How do you do that then? Contours! I love golf on the ground more than any other form of the game, and Ben, who hails from North Berwick and its famous West Links, has it ingrained in his blood. With that, we had a lot of fun coming up with some greens that will be fun and continue to be fun the more you play them. Between that and helping be a part of creating a place for a vastly underserved part of our game to play, this project was a most wonderful experience.