There is a lot more to building a golf course than just sinking a few holes in the ground - particularly when the course replicates holes from some of the most famous golf courses in the country.

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The $100 million Northern Bay Golf Resort & Marina, a development on more than 300 acres near Castle Rock Lake in the Wisconsin Dells, promises, "Augusta in the morning, Pinehurst at noon and Pebble Beach before dinner."

Nine of the 18 holes on the course, which is set to open in late summer, are replicas of legendary holes. Nine were selected because they fit in the site.

Matt Mootz, partner and managing member of owner Northern Bay LLC of Arkdale, Wis., said celebrated holes were duplicated so that golf enthusiasts can experience the vicarious thrill of playing them.

In addition to the golf course, the resort will include a marina, condominiums, clubhouse, driving range, walking trails, indoor and outdoor pools and tennis courts and lots for single-family homes. Future plans include an indoor water park, resort hotel and convention center.

Precision Replicas

Creating replica holes means matching the topography to within inches of the original holes. The first step was creating a site design or roadmap of how the holes would be placed and how players will flow from one to another.

Design consultations started with Tour 18, a Texas company that designs golf courses.

"Tour 18 has a library of more than 500 holes, mapped in detailed aerial photographs," Mootz said.

"[Tour 18] came in and worked with our existing location, topography and site layout and placed the replica holes in strategic locations on our course," he said. "Getting the holes as close to the grade of the original product has meant constantly checking and regarding."

The replica holes are scattered through the course, located in spots that best matched the demands of each hole.

According to Tom Shapland, president of Plainfield, Ill.-based Wadsworth Golf Construction Co. of the Midwest, the golf course general contractor, the cuts into the land were made on the course itself. Dirt from those cuts was used to build up topographical features and fill elsewhere on the site.

Before the final grading could be done, all underground drainage and irrigation was put in place, as well as utilities to run the pumping station.

Shapland said that the main lines were dug, but the sandy conditions allowed Leibold Irrigation of East Dubuque, Ill., to vibraplow the lateral lines in place.

The process uses vibration to sink the lines, leaving minimal ground disturbance in the wake of the work, which in this case bought some precious time for the Wadsworth crews.

"Our biggest challenge was the time frame," Shapland said. "The owner was trying to hit the market at the right time." That meant that the course had to be completed and seeded by fall in order to take advantage of the better part of the following growing season before play could begin.

A Six-Month Window

He said that, normally, a course of this size would take nine months to a year to construct, but Northern Bay had a construction window of just six months.

Construction began in May 2004, and the course was seeded in October.

Shapland said heavy staffing and careful planning got the team through the tight schedule.

"A major critical path item was the bulkhead around the 10th hole," he said. A wood retaining wall went in while the adjacent retention pond was at a low water level near the hole that is not a replica.

Mootz said that in addition to the "miles of piping" laid underground, miles of road base and asphalt had to be installed on and around the course for cart paths and roads.

Shapland said, "In one sense the replica holes are easier to do than the original holes in that you a definite plan and you have to execute it with very little deviation. It's a very exacting piece of work, but everyone has a feel for what it is going to look like."

He said the process requires a great deal of staking and attention to detail.

Stream locations and bridge contours are part of the replica package.

"Our company brings something unique to the table in that we have worked on some of the holes on the original courses," he said.

Workers at the site needed to protect several Indian burial mounds during construction.

Mootz said a handwritten sketch from 1914 was the only source available for locating the mounds, which follow the Oneida or effigy mound tradition and date from about 600 to 800 A.D.

"We put up orange protective fencing and designated those areas 'no-fly zones,'" Shapland said. "We treated them the same way we would treat an important tree we want to preserve."

Mootz said split-rail fencing and signage will help identify and protect the mounds once the resort is in full swing.

The topographical alternations that created the golf course required close work with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to create a stormwater management plan. Mootz said it took 24 months to secure all the requisite permits for the project.

Housing and Amenities

Once the golf course was completed and seeded, work began on the condominiums planned for the course's edge.

"Our biggest problem has been trying to access the buildings," said Ryan Alvin, project manager for Verona, Wis.-based Horizon Construction Group, general contractor of the condominiums and clubhouse. "Some are built right next to holes."

He said that using bigger equipment than the job required allowed operators to reach around the condo buildings from one side or the other without having to move equipment to the golf course side of the structures. But the course was still an issue.

"We had a forklift dump into one of the sand traps over the winter," Alvin added.

There will be 312 dwellings in the 39 eight-unit buildings and will range in price from $309,000 to $489,000. Forty units are occupied at present.

Staggering building starts keep crews moving smoothly from one building to the next, which also expedites the work.

Construction is slated to begin Sept. 15 on the clubhouse. The building will have a 48,000-sq.-ft. footprint and house a pro shop, restaurant, bar, locker rooms, offices, meeting facility and underground golf cart storage. Alvin said the structure will be open for the 2006 golf season.