Sometimes you see things in this business that blow your mind. While we often look for inspiration or ideas that we can apply to our own work when visiting other courses, sometimes an experience leaves you more with a feeling of wonderment than anything that you plan to use in the future.
For example, on a recent trip to The Apogee Club in Hobe Sound, Florida, our team of East Region agronomists was fortunate enough to get a behind-the-scenes look at the construction of the South Course. The Gil Hanse-designed West Course is already open for play and work is well underway on the South Course, designed by Mike Davis and Tom Fazio II. The North Course, being designed by Kyle Phillips, will round out the trio later. There is a lot of earth being moved for the project, including construction of some impressive man-made lakes.
I’d never seen how a lake is made. Frankly, I don’t know what I expected, but the scale of the work exceeded anything I had in mind. I was blown away by the number and size of machinery moving rocks and sand nearly 24/7. According to Mike Davis, there is a full-time construction superintendent whose sole responsibility is overseeing the creation of these lakes. That might put the size of this project into perspective.
There may never be an occasion where I need this information to help a golf course build lakes, but it will go down in my book of experiences and I’m happy I got to see it. You may never need this level of equipment for any project on your course, but this experience does remind us about the value of understanding exactly what is necessary to complete any kind of work efficiently. If you’re planning a change to your maintenance practices or a course renovation of any scale, visit a course that is already doing something similar so you can see what is involved, what’s working and what isn’t. Even if it’s more modest than building a 3-acre lake, make sure you or your contractors have the right equipment and process planned for the job so you don’t get in over your head.
Northeast Region Agronomists:
Darin Bevard, senior director, Championship Agronomy – dbevard@usga.org
Elliott L. Dowling, regional director, East Region – edowling@usga.org
Brian Gietka, agronomist – bgietka@usga.org