Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 3616 | December 2016 #juniorgolfmag Visit us at juniorgolfmag.net “The developer wanted to see what kind of golf amenity he could put on the property, recognizing that space was limited,” notes Davis. “The idea was to make it fun and challenging, much more than a simple pitch ‘n put. Though it was going to be shorter than a traditional course, we didn’t want to dumb it down. “A course like Trilogy at Ocala Preserve makes a lot of sense from a development standpoint. With less land, the development costs are less and so is the maintenance. When tucked into a nice residential community such as this, it allows res- idents – and others, for that matter – to get in a quick round of golf at their own convenience, in a shorter time period. So it’s a win-win for everyone.” A PARTNERSHIP OF NEW IDEAS Davis and developer Jess Hinkle first played around with various concepts, originally thinking that they would create an 18-hole Par 3 track. Creative juices flowed from there, and the idea began to evolve. Lehman was brought in to pro- vide his own unique perspective, and this combi- nation of Davis as course architect and Lehman as designer proved to be visionary. “I knew Tom’s brother Jim very well because we had played in a number of amateur golf events together and maintained a friendship over the years,” Davis remembers. “He and I often talked about how nice it would be if Tom and I could work as a team on a design project. I think the partnership has led to a very interesting golf layout.” The final product features an abundant number of small teeing grounds, all at fairway height, that blend into the terrain while also allowing golfers to play the various holes in multiple directions, at different lengths. Big, wide fairways enhance this flexibility. According to Davis, one of the biggest challeng- es in designing a hybrid course is how to get the players around, from a traffic perspective. Holes must be designed so that there is no bottleneck- ing or cross-hitting involved. To solve that prob- lem, the course plays certain ways on specific days and can also be modified at various times of the day as well. But even during a round, golfers can set up variations of their own, if it does not infringe on the play of others. “Though a hybrid is a different type of animal in many respects, it does share similarities with traditional layouts,” says Davis. “The key ingre- dient for both is to create as many different shot Davis believes that hybrid courses such as the one at Ocala Preserve will become increasingly accepted. While they will never overtake the traditional courses in popularity, he thinks they clearly serve a purpose. Tom Lehman Continued from page 15