ORLANDO, Florida — Golf course renovations or restorations now cost on average more than $10 million, so getting it right weighs heavily on ownership, architects, construction crews and superintendents.
Golfers tend to see the finished creation, but most times don’t get to witness all the roadblocks and pitfalls that can accompany these projects.
"You may have noticed that the golf course renovation business is kind of humming these days," says George Waters, the head of USGA Green Section Education.
Waters was a co-presenter on "Balancing Design, Construction and Maintenance for a Successful Course Renovation" earlier this week at the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America Conference and Trade Show.
"There's a lot going on — which is a great thing, which is an exciting thing — but it also brings a bunch of challenges in its own right," Waters says.
For starters, scheduling busy architects, rising labor costs, pricing and securing materials can play havoc on the overall timing of renovations and restorations. And that’s just a fraction of a list of difficult decisions that must be made — all within the framework of a budget.
"It's a high pressure time in golf course renovation and you really want to get things right because chances are you're going to be spending a lot of money, and it’s going to set in motion the future of your club, your course for 25-30 years to come," Waters said.
Waters has a long history in golf course design and has worked for various architects — Tom Doak, Bill Coore, Ben Crenshaw, Kyle Phillips and Jim Urbina — on designs around the world before taking his position at the USGA.
"I’ve gotten to see a pretty wide spectrum of projects with a lot of different goals," Waters says. "Some are trying to restore exactly what was there. Some are trying to take a property and completely rethink it and optimize it all over again. And I’ve had the opportunity to make mistakes myself, and witness some painful processes along the way."
Waters and colleague Jordan Booth, the USGA senior director of course counseling and a certified golf course superintendent, agree that projects are different in scope and size, but all successful restorations or renovations follow a similar path of teamwork, extensive planning and flexibility.
And maybe the most important item is superintendents needing to set realistic expectations and timelines when working with contractors and architects — and the club’s membership — on these projects.
"People may not always want to listen, but it's important to kind of keep repeating it in the nicest way possible. Planning makes perfect, right?" Waters says. "You’re not going be able to avoid every problem that comes up and great plans can come undone by things like weather or cost increases, but it’s about setting yourself up for success as a golf course superintendent so that when things do go wrong you're in a spot where you can deal with it."
Most renovations or restorations involve work on or around the greens.
"It doesn't matter if you're at a Golden Age era golf course or a more modern golf course if your project includes putting greens it’s going to be the most important thing that you do," Booth says. "And as a superintendent you’re going to be responsible for those putting greens when everyone else leaves."
He implored superintendents working on renovations or restorations to team up with experts to avoid pitfalls by planting an on-site sod farm and by working as much as five years ahead on selecting various grasses.
"Understand where you need help. Do you need an irrigation consultant? Do you need a project manager?" Booth says. "Understand your membership, your owner, your stakeholders. Building new greens is really high profile for any project. That's how you as superintendents are defined. There's a reason that this craft is called greens keeping."
There are also special challenges when it comes to adding natural areas or taking down trees to open up potential breathtaking views that have been hidden by decades of neglect or over-planting.
Adding large swatches of native areas can often increase the maintenance budget significantly and take as many as three years to mature, which can test the patience of members looking for a finished project immediately.
"So you have to ask yourself why are you adding these areas?" Waters says. "A lot of the times there's an aesthetic component or a strategic component. You may want to add more texture to a course. A lot of people say that they want to save resources when they add these areas. That can be a double-edged sword. You can save on some resources, but then you might be adding to the demands on others. And our saying of ‘problems per acre’ certainly applies to naturalized areas, too."
As far as tree removal, Waters believes these projects should strike a balance between removing unwanted trees and growing turf a little better.
"It's not about eliminating trees, it's about managing trees," Waters says. "This process can also be very controversial, contentious and become a total distraction from a very reasonable project with a tree management component to it. So start slowly. That’s a great way to kind of avoid some of the political roadblocks."
Waters and Booth both believe a successful renovation or restoration should provide clients with an impact, create value and add a unique golfing experience.
"There are a lot of headaches that come with golf course renovations," Waters says. "It's not easy, but it's a special opportunity in the history of that facility. For most golf courses, you're lucky if you do a significant renovation once every 20 years. For many, it's once in a generation. For a lot of golf course superintendents it’s a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing. It’s a transformative moment. It's a unique opportunity to really take a course and put it on the right foot into the future."
Waters helped work on the Pinehurst No. 2’s acclaimed restoration 15 years ago, pointing out just how important that decision was by resort brass.
"That project was a transformative moment in the history of not only that golf course in terms of raising its level of esteem, setting it up for a bunch of U.S. Open championships, but it was transformative for the resort, it was transformative for the business," Waters says. "That one project set the table for a bunch of business there — not just for the resort but the whole town, the whole community was affected by that one renovation project. So that kind of shows how big some of these projects can really be.”
