The vision behind Tom’s 10 at Spanish Peaks Mountain Club

Three years ago, right in the middle of the pandemic, Spanish Peaks Mountain Club (SPMC) was booming like most golf courses, with member play and new members joining. We have 538 members at the club with 346 of those being golf members; we will eventually be capping our golf members at 395. With the growth of golf memberships and the new Montage Hotel on property, we were looking for a location to add an additional 18 holes.

Unfortunately, additional space for a full regulation 18-hole course was unavailable, but we knew something was needed to keep up with the desire for golf at our club. One morning, Tom Weiskopf walked into my office, pointed at a property map I had hanging and said, “We should build a par-3 course, and that’s the perfect location for a nine-hole par 3. Let’s go walk it right now; you have time?”

Of course, I always had time for our course designer. A 16-time winner on the PGA Tour and the 1973 Open Championship winner, Tom is local to Big Sky, Mont. Since his playing days, Tom has had a celebrated career as a designer, with notable projects like Yellowstone Club, also in Big Sky, Loch Lomond in Dunbartonshire, Scotland, and most recently Black Desert in Ivins, Utah.

We loaded up in the cart, and off we went to walk the 35 acres he pointed to. Tom knew that section of property better than I did and had walked this area many times with his dog Spanky. It was heavily wooded with lots of streams and wetlands throughout, not a place I would have ever imagined you could build a golf hole, let alone a par-3 course.

We were walking through thick timber; it was hard to see anything, but Tom could see it all. He was in his visioning mode, telling me about where there could be teeing grounds and green sites, when suddenly a black bear popped out 20 feet from us. The bear startled me, and as I jumped back, I looked over at Tom, thinking he would also be surprised. However, he was calm and just told me, “It’s just a year-old black bear, don’t worry.”

Despite his calm demeanor, I was worried — we were in the woods in an area where no one ever walks, and we had no bear spray. I immediately radioed my superintendent, Beau, to bring out some bear spray.

Getting started

If I had to guess, I would say I walked this area with Tom about 12 times before we broke ground in 2021. It was such an incredible experience walking with Tom and listening to him explain where the teeing grounds and green sites should be placed. It was like he was a bird and could see everything from above, like it was already laid out and cut in, despite it still being heavy timber.

Throughout the design and construction phases, Tom brought in Phil Smith of Phil Smith Design. Phil and Tom have worked together for years on projects, and they both think alike. We have worked with Phil previously on some course renovations and will continue to work with him in the future. Before we moved forward with any grassing, Tom and Phil needed to sign off on anything to make sure it was just right.

With all the wetlands and streams, there was a big chunk of 35 acres we couldn’t use. We wanted to make sure we were environmentally sensitive when building this course and were careful not to disturb any wetlands or streams. After three different routings, we ended up finding one that fit the parcel best, eventually installing eight bridges to make it work. We had BMPs in place before construction started and a stormwater permit in place with the Montana Department of Environmental Quality throughout the entire construction process. To make sure the BMPs were working, we had weekly inspections, which were critical in ensuring there were zero impacts on the wetlands and streams.

In the years leading up to the par-3 project, we had been doing some renovation projects on the original golf course with the golf construction company Frontier Golf. We were so impressed with Frontier and the work they did on the original course that we decided to have them bid on this project. Because of the complexity of this project, Frontier bid this as a three-year project. They were the main contractor of three total contractors involved in the construction of the par 3. We had a tree-clearing contractor do the initial clearing work and a pond expert who built the water feature on hole 9.

The project originally was bid at $5.5 million. However, we spent $6.4 million to complete the project. There were two areas we looked at related to cost savings: a pump station and cart paths. Eventually, we ended up connecting the water supply to the original golf course, saving a significant amount of money. The cart paths we determined would work best were poured concrete, matching with the original course, which increased the overall cost. With a budget in place, we got the green light to start.

Sudden, and sad, changes

The first step was bringing in a wetland scientist to delineate all wetlands by flagging and creating a map we could utilize with our contractors for planning and avoidance. Once that was complete, we marked all the green and teeing grounds with colored PVC pipe and flagged the clearing limits with neon ribbon. Tom was very sensitive about removing too many trees, so we were careful with our clearing limits.

Next, the clearing contractor came on site, and due to the complexity and volume of sensitive areas, they spent the first two weeks creating access around streams and wetlands to get their equipment in place for the clearing. Once that was completed, they cleared all the timber and chipped it into mulch piles, which were eventually spread out in the native areas.

The entire 2021 season was spent on design and tree clearing because we wanted to start 2022 with shaping and infrastructure installation. One thing I learned during this process was that everything changes, and usually on the fly. During clearing, Tom would change a hole design, the layout of an approach or green complex. We had to stay in front of the clearing crew with all design changes to ensure the correct trees were removed while maintaining progress. The goal was to create an unbelievable par-3 course with minimal disturbance to the existing landscape. In fact, the cut and fill on this project balanced out — no material was hauled in or out.

In 2020, Tom had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He went through a rigorous treatment process, including multiple surgeries in 2021 while we were in the design and clearing phase. In the early spring of 2022, we were given the sad news that Tom’s cancer was back, and we had only a few months with him. We immediately decided to bring in two shapers for the season to have Tom be as involved and approve as much as he was able.

Typically, on a project like this, they would only have one shaper; however, with two shapers, we were able to get nearly everything shaped by October. Unfortunately, we lost Tom in August of 2022, but he was able to approve all but one hole. Tom was heavily involved in the par 3 until the week leading up to his passing. I was fortunate enough to work with Tom throughout the entire time he was with us, and I count it among my most memorable experiences in this profession.

I believe this project gave him a distraction from his diagnosis, and it helped fuel him to see it through. He was so passionate about this course, and I am proud we were able to accomplish what he envisioned. That year, we were able to get most everything shaped, drainage and irrigation installed, green and tee surrounds top-soiled and all greens were constructed to USGA specifications. Additionally, bridges were installed, and some cart paths were poured. For a short construction window, we were able to get a lot completed that year. At our elevation, the construction season is generally four to five months, but 2022 was even less with an early onset of snow in October.

A top-10 experience

We started back up in June 2023, coming off one of the biggest snow years and wettest springs that I have ever experienced. Because of the snowpack and wet weather, we couldn’t get out to do any work on the par 3 until late June.

It was a busy 2023 season with final shaping, cartpath installation, grassing and native establishment. We sodded the last green in early September and laid the last bluegrass sod in the rough surrounds at the end of September. We were able to mow the greens a few times before spraying our snow mold protection, preparing the course for winter, and for the most part, all the sod had rooted before we got our first snowfall. The course was ready for winter, and we felt good about where we were at.

We dedicated the par-3 course to Tom by calling it Tom’s 10. All the holes were homages to his favorite par-3 holes he had played throughout his career:

• Hole 1. Design concept from Loch Lomond’s 18th green in Scotland, bunker within a bunker.
• Hole 2. Design concept from the Riviera CC’s No. 6 green with the bunker in the middle of the green.
• Hole 3. Design concept from Royal Troon’s No. 8 called the Postage Stamp, very small green with bunkers surrounding. Built a sod stacked bunker using ecoturf product.
• Hole 4. Design concept from Augusta’s No. 16, we built the pond to mimic.
• Hole 5. Design concept from Pine Valley’s No. 10, deep bunker front right of green. We ended up making the depth of this bunker the height of Tom, 6 foot, 3 inches.
• Hole 6. Recreation of the original 18th green at Spanish Peaks before we redesigned it in 2020.
• Hole 7. Design concept from the greens at Pinehurst No. 2 course, perched greens, convex movement.
• Hole 8. Design concept from Merion’s No. 17 green — ridge in front, balls go to back right.
• Hole 9. Design concept from Pebble Beach’s No. 7, the short downhill par 3.
• Hole 10. Design concept from the Frost Creek’s No. 14 green in Eagle, Colo.

I often am asked, “Why a 10-hole par-3 course instead of a traditional nine-hole course?” The original design was a nine-hole par 3, but during the routing exercises, Tom made it a 10-hole routing. Tom’s answer was, “If we could fit more holes in this parcel, we would; I want to give them as much golf as we can see fit.” So we ended up with 10 holes and a practice putting green.

The pond on hole No. 9 was a man-made, half-acre pond stocked with over 1,000 native Westslope Cutthroat trout (our state fish for Montana). We created a separate cart path to the pond so our members can safely access the pond for fly-fishing and not disturb the golf course.

Before Tom passed, he gave us an old log stack cabin that he once had on one of his properties, with the intention we could use it someday at the course. It had been stored for over 10 years in Bozeman and was in rough shape. I really wanted to include this in the par-3 course, so I was determined to get it put back together to see how we could incorporate it into the layout.

Since we had no pictures or drawings of the cabin while it was on his property, I hired a contractor to put it back together so we could get measurements to have an architect draw up plans to make it a comfort station. We were able to start the construction of the cabin in the spring of 2024, and I was excited to have it completed before opening the course in July. The cabin will be filled with Tom’s memorabilia that his wife Laurie donated to us and will honor Tom and all of his accomplishments as a professional golfer and great person.

One of the accomplishments we are excited to celebrate is Tom’s posthumous induction to the World Golf Hall of Fame. This June, he was inducted, and my family and I were excited to be there with Laurie and others to celebrate Tom and his accomplishments in golf.

Experience of a lifetime

This was such an exciting project to manage. I would say the highlight of my past three years has been working on this project.

I learned a lot on this project: to be patient, to listen, and I would say one thing that made it easier on my end was hiring an experienced contractor. Having an experienced contractor is key to being successful and eliminating a lot of the stress that goes along with the decision-making.

The best part of this experience was getting to know Tom on a professional and personal level. While he was going through his radiation treatments, my family was able to spend a lot of time with him and Laurie, which led to us ultimately becoming close friends, a friendship we truly cherish. If Tom were here today, he would be excited to see Tom’s 10 and share it with everyone.

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