The last week of February I ran across a course I had never heard of before. When I started checking it out, I found it to be one of the most fascinating stories I have ever seen. I starting watching videos of it, and reading up on it's history, and I fell in love with it.
As I have come to understand it, (and I may be wrong in some areas) a billionaire that loved golf, bought a flat piece of land about 15 miles out of Las Vegas. He had an oblong square plot of land dug out, and then had good soil brought in to fill it up and shape it into a 18 hole course. He hired Tom Fazio to design it. The open pit was about 75 feet deep, 1500 yards long, and 830 yards wide, and parts of the course protrude above land level. There are 6 or 7 lakes throughout, and a creek that flows thru it with waterfalls. Also trees bushes and shrubbery were brought it from all parts of the country. The more I looked it over, the more I liked it, and the more doubt I had about being able to do it. It looks by far to be the toughest course I've ever seen to replicate because of it's topography. I kept looking, and kept avoiding it until one night I decided to start to work on it, not knowing if it would ever get done.
I spent 2 full months, at 4 hours a night, just doing the elevations. It has a lot of contours.
I finally finished the elevation adjustments a couple of days ago and have just begun tweaking the shapes, starting with the cart paths. This is as far as I have made it, so far. (2 months??? My God, Sage would have finished the whole course a month ago. 
) There is a possibility I may have set a record for the most elevation points used to start a layout before creating any shapes. Keep in mind that these are only elevation points and not shapes that have been created. The shapes are just beginning now that the elevations are set.I hesitated saying anything about the course because due to time and health issues, I don't know if it will ever get completed, . But I am going to give it my best effort while I can. Adelade reminded me that it might be best if I checked with everyone to make sure someone else hasn't taken it on. I've not seen any discussions about it in the past, but I may have missed it if there was. If someone else is actively working on it, please let me know.
Here's a view of the elevation verts only. There are 6109 of them.
- sc-elev2.jpg (217.89 KiB) Viewed 4752 times
- sc-elev1.jpg (1.05 MiB) Viewed 4752 times
Some side notes: This was not originally a public course, but I understand that it has recently been made public. However, it's for the very rich and currently boasts the most expensive greens fees in the world, at $1000.00 a round IF you can actually get a tee time. It also takes a special invite from the owners, and you must be staying at the Las Vegas MGM Hotel to be able to get invited. Here's a explanation from their site.
"How can you play glitzy Shadow Creek? Though it is technically open to the public—ranked fifth on Golf Digest’s latest 100 Greatest Public list—you must stay at an MGM property, taking only an MGM-owned limo to and from the course. Of course, all of that isn’t always enough—being a high-roller and working with a casino concierge to set it up is the best way to secure a tee time."
If you do, you are taken there by limousine. I'm going to guess that there are not many Linksters that have ever, or will ever, get to play this course IRL. (I may be wrong. Some of you guys have been around a while and may have played it.
) My hope is that I can complete it so we can all enjoy a round at the course with "the most expensive greens fee in the world".
Dan
I look forward to seeing your APCD build.
