Re-Route update and Crossover

The results are in and the final vote was 60/40 against the Re-Route. In light of that, we will table the discussion for the time being, if there is any interest from the membership in revisiting it, we can do so at a later date.

I want to dive into a little explanation on the history of the re-route. Upon taking over it was abundantly apparent that there was a maintenance challenge having hole five across paper mill road. The only way maintenance can access five, or any of the holes on the other side, is by crossing paper mill road via a dirt road. The tunnels are not tall enough to allow any equipment with a roll bar to go through them and the tunnel on five is not wide enough to allow any of our mowers without roll bars to cross. The general flow of the course is also a little awkward when you are playing having to cross the tunnels 4 times.

The primary issue is getting the 5th green mowed prior to play, however, we run into significant timing issues getting bunkers raked, spraying the green, fairway, and tees, and mowing the fairways and tees prior to play. Many days the crew is forced to rush through their jobs on the clubhouse side to get to five prior to play. An example would be, not raking the piles at the end of the bunkers, a lot of times this occurred because the staff was trying to get to 5 before play. Spraying was another big issue; proper spray technique requires the chemical to dry prior to employees or golfers entering the area. Proposing a new routing sought to mitigate these problems and allow us to elevate the maintenance of the golf course.

Initially, we proposed a routing of 1, 2, 3, 11, 12, 6, 7, 8, 9 for the front 9 and 10, 4, 5, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 for the back 9. The concept was to move five to the back 9, giving my team more time to focus on doing their jobs well without rushing, and keeping the golfers across the road through the duration of their round. This would be my preferred routing, it give us the most amount of time to complete our jobs before crossing the road, is the most efficient in regards to man hours, and keeps 1, 10, 9, and 18 as the starting and finishing holes. We abandoned this idea during member guest when we realized that any 9-hole matches that are played would have to play 18, 10, and 4 in order, which we felt was not fair. The other negatives was starting the back 9 with 2 par threes and a 37 front 9 and 35 back nine. There were conversations regarding making seven a par 4 and adding forward tees for the ladies and seniors. Making the course a 71-par total, 36/35.

During initial conversations regarding the re-route many members presented the idea of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 13, 14, 15, 16 as the front 9 and 6, 18, 10, 11, 12, 17, 7, 8, 9 as the back 9. Todd brought this route back up to me in January and we decided to pitch it and see what happens. The negatives to this routing from a maintenance standpoint is that 5 is still 5, which doesn’t help our efficiency problem, but it does help with flow, at least on paper. Changing the finishing holes and not having the front 9 back 9 swap at the clubhouse was another deterrent which we knew would be a hard sell to ownership. Based on feedback we won’t be using this routing.

Moving forward, if there is any interest in changing the routing I would recommend going with initial proposed routing of 1, 2, 3, 11, 12, 6, 7, 8, 9- 10, 4, 5, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18. Ownership is on board with this routing, and if the membership were interested, we could move forward with it for next season. Todd, and myself, are happy to offer weekends to test this routing this fall if there is an interest, but we will let the members guide that process.

Now, in regards to the crossover, Todd did an efficiency survey regarding split tees/crossover and found that we lose tee times when we facilitate a crossover. As the club grows there is a need increase tee times, especially during prime times, in order to cater to tee time needs. Our compromise is to start tee times 30 min earlier during peak season to help facilitate the additional rounds. From a maintenance standpoint, in order to facilitate the crossover, and maintain standards, we would need to double the staff and equipment we currently have. This is largely in part to paper mill road being so difficult to cross, but also the time it takes to properly mow and roll the greens.

The goal of the maintenance department is, to bring the club back into full country club level maintenance standards. Previously the standard had been sub-par in order to facilitate the crossover. Greens were not being mowed properly, staff was turning on the collars, as opposed to the rough, to save time, which assisted in the decline of the collars. Greens were not rolled on weekends, and bunkers were not raked. Set-up was not focusing on the details and the whole operation on weekends suffered in an effort to stay ahead of the front and back 9 tee times.

We are committed to providing high quality playing conditions on the weekends. Meaning, greens are mowed and rolled, bunkers are raked and edges are properly addressed, set-up includes changing cups, moving tee markers, filling tee divots, emptying trash, fixing ball marks, making sure signs are straight, and cart paths are clean. Eliminating the crossover is the only way to provide these conditions at this time. We are set to have a phenomenal year in 2022 and I look forward to providing an elevated golf experience this season.