Moving mountains, filling valleys all par for the course

Few can imagine that miles upon miles of hilly terrain, mountains and valleys and dense forest can, in the span of 14 months, be transformed into a series of five golf courses.

But such a vision was clear in the minds of American architects Brian Curley and Lee Schmidt, who had the job of creating the group of Mission Hills courses, including the Olazabal course which will host this weekend's World Cup.

Originally, the land was not lush nor was it gentle or instinctively conducive to building a golf course.

'Basically, you had 45-degree slopes everywhere and all this rock which is not conducive to growing turf,' said Curley, whose company has designed 10 of the 12 courses at Mission Hills.

It was one thing to completely overhaul and transform a piece of land, it was another to simultaneously carry out this task for five courses. To further complicate the matter, there was the expectation of expediency without sacrificing any of the quality.

Curley started with a topographic map that detailed contours, undulations and identified locations where he could place a fairway that would not end up on the side of a hill.