Justin Mandon has been a guest on the Earthworks podcast in the past, and we wanted to bring him back to discuss the reconstruction of the Alister MacKenzie-designed Pasatiempo Golf Club in Santa Cruz, California. This may be one of the best reconstructions we’ve seen in years, but it was not without its challenges. The work was broken into two parts: the front nine was completed first, and a year later, they worked on the back nine.
Justin talks about selecting and testing the greens mix both at the mine and on-site when the mix arrived, along with the challenges he faced there. The front nine did suffer some salt damage that was very difficult to identify. It wasn’t the total amount of salt in the water, but rather that the salt was the predominant element, overpowering all others and causing the young seedlings to wilt.
He also discusses the EarthWorks amendment package he incorporated into the greens mix, which allowed him to grow the entire project using under three pounds of nitrogen. Restoring the architecture of a classically designed course is different from simply building a modern golf course; it’s time-consuming and requires meticulous attention to detail to preserve the original MacKenzie layout. Justin and his architect, Jim Urbina, accomplished that and then some.