Golf Renovation
Why Renovation is Essential in the Life Cycle of Every Golf Course
The renovation of a golf course is absolutely necessary, and like “death and taxes”, inevitable. Even the most famous golf courses in the world including the world’s top ranked courses such as Augusta National, St. Andrews and Pebble Beach routinely undergo upgrades, and usually unknown to those outside of each club’s membership. When the time comes at your golf club, the question will be: Why do we need to do all this work?
There is a potentially long list of problems facing every course’s golfers and Superintendant. For some golf clubs, it may only be one primary issue, while other clubs may have numerous problems which when combined, create serious concerns. We have identified here a list of the most common issues facing golf courses of all ages.
Drainage
This is the most common and frequent maintenance issue that arises on golf courses. Often the golf course does not drain well even after light to moderate rain, let alone some of the heavy downpours that occur in Asia during the rainy season each year. Owner’s today want what is now called “all weather golf courses”, meaning that shortly after heavy rains, play can continue.
Some golf courses 10-15 years old did not have adequate drainage installed to handle this type of rainfall, and/or it has failed over the years. Golf carts are also more frequently becoming “requirements”, and if your club allows carts to drive on fairways, it is crucial that the fairways and roughs drain well so as to not result in carts and maintenance equipment driving through wet spots creating ruts and tire imprints.
Most typically, the first drainage to fail on any golf course tends to be the bunker drainage. We can all remember seeing a bunker on your own course half full of water immediately after a rainfall. Properly sized and functioning bunker drainage should drain as quickly as the tees, greens and fairways on your golf course, meaning that you don’t have to fish the ball out of the water with the bunker rake.
Irrigation
Some older clubs may not have an irrigation system at all, while others may be 20+ years old, not automated, or just in need of major repairs and upgrades. If the turf does not receive the proper amount of water in the right areas, then even the best Superintendant will struggle to grow and maintain healthy turf.
The newest, modern pump stations will typically all run in conjunction with a Weather Station, and this in turn results in only applying exactly the amount of water which is required each application, but it will also pick and choose which sprinkler heads to run at the same time, resulting in a perfectly level output of water. This means that the pump station is running more efficiently, thus consuming less power, and utilizing the bare minimum amount of water each irrigation cycle.
In this day and age when water usage and conservation are very important, the use of a computer run automated control system, with Weather Station and ground sensors can quickly result in enough savings in water use and power consumption that the cost of these additional tools are quickly recouped. Undetected irrigation leaks, or even continual seepage can result in pump stations running longer, wasting power and water, plus the damage the leaks create to the turf. Sensors on the pump station can quickly shut down the pump station when it realizes that water should not be being applied. The last area that has changed over the years is the overall coverage. Years ago, most golf course watered wall to wall, or property line to property line.
Nowadays, most golf course architects and Superintendants tend to have many areas classified as Out of Play, usually planted with a grass variety that requires little or no water once established. This can sometimes reduce the number of sprinkler heads per hole by 6-10 heads, x 18 holes, which results in some rather large water savings each month.
Available Turf Varieties
Each year, new and improved varieties of both cool and warm season grasses are developed that are being genetically adapted to handle salts, cooler or hotter temperatures, arid conditions, etc. Older clubs often did not have many options when the grasses were chosen and may well benefit greatly just by selecting one of the new turfgrass varieties, best suited for their own specific growing conditions. For example, seaside courses built 20 years ago did not have access to the new paspalums, a grass that can thrive in salty soils, or brackish/salty water conditions. The new turf varieties are much hardier and can easily handle the Asian climates and amount of play that most clubs receive.
Overgrown Vegetation
Many golf courses that are 10-20 years old tend to become badly overgrown, meaning that the trees planted during construction, or later by well-meaning green committees, are now fully grown, and are most likely too thick and dense to allow for the proper sunlight and air circulation that is critical for good turf grass quality.
An overgrown golf course will typically have many areas with too much shade and/or little air circulation, and these conditions combine to create weak turf conditions. A tree removal or thinning program is sometimes all that is required to allow for ideal turf conditions. Thankfully, there is better knowledge of and acceptance of this important issue than ever before.
Technology
Each year golf equipment technology allows the golf ball to go further, and, in theory, straighter. This “improvement” in the game’s equipment has steadily eroded the original design intent of most golf holes, and has made some older courses nearly obsolete in terms of hole length, bunker placement, and overall shot value. A remodel can allow the architect to re-locate hazards and bunkers so that they are now in play for the best golfers, and not nearly as penal for the average and beginner golfer.
Safety
Equipment changes have also affected safety setbacks between golf holes, greens and tees, and between golf and adjacent housing. Today, the internationally recognized safety setbacks have increased by at least 10% from those of 15-20 years ago. What used to be a relatively safe golf course may now find itself facing more complaints, and maybe even lawsuits, from golfers and nearby homeowners as a result of errant golf balls. The influx of new golfers, sometimes unfamiliar with good golf etiquette, can make safety issues worse. While no golf hole or golf course can be completely safe, current setbacks should be addressed.
Marketing
Last, but not always the most obvious is that some older clubs which once dominated a particular market in terms of membership fees and rounds per year, may now find themselves competing against new clubs in the immediate area that have been built with the newest and latest trends, signature designers and bigger, better clubhouses. In response, some clubs may feel it necessary to re-establish their identity by upgrading their facilities or perhaps by completely re-branding themselves, maybe even with a new club name and logo. A drastic remodeling of the golf course may be an important step in the re-branding effort.
Maintenance
Over time, and despite the best efforts of the Superintendant and his staff, the golf course features change ever so slightly. Edging of the bunkers a few times a year never seems to get back to the original bunker edge, so over the course of 5 years, if each edging has missed the original line by 2cm, that means that each bunker would be reduced in size by about 30cm on all 4 sides. Mowing the greens, whether by walk or riding mowers, will change the overall size of a green. If the original green edge is missed by 1mm each day, this means that the average green loses 35cm on all sides each year. When combined with the bunkers shrinking, you may now find that a green/bunker complex that originally was 1.0m apart, soon is 3-4m apart and golfers realize and feel that “something” doesn’t look right when they get like that. A remodel or upgrade can get golf course features back out to their original sizes.
Boundaries
There are times when a remodel or renovation becomes necessary due to boundary or road changes either within or around an existing property. Sometimes the local municipality will need to expand a road or highway, resulting in a golf course losing some land that only a remodel can help the Club to accommodate. There have even been a few occasions when a new road will be diverted right through the golf property. Again, a full scale remodel can sometimes allow this to work for both the golf club and the municipality. Other times, if a golf club has additional, unused land, sometimes a remodel can allow the Club to find parcels of land that can be developed for housing, increasing the overall value of the facility and reducing members dues and assessments when repairs are needed.
Aging
Golf courses, like humans, get old and things wear out and break down. In a study completed by the USGA, PGA of America, GCSAA, National Golf Foundation and others, the following is the expected lifespan of the various components of a golf course: