Nothing to Hide

As demands for course conditions climb, superintendents are getting bolder about pushing harder for maintenance facilities that meet the same standards.

by Kyle Darbyson (editor@clubandresortbusiness.com)
May 2006
 

Summing It Up Know what you want, what you need, and the difference between the two before upgrading or building a new maintenance facility Equipment wash areas that use recycled water can reduce harmful runoff and simultaneously conserve water. Even if your budget doesn’t allow for a state-of-the-art building, do-it yourself upgrades—like a refurbished break room—can help boost employee morale. Permanent tents and lean-tos are a workable alternative when a new building is cost-prohibitive.

Every golf course seeks to have immaculately maintained bunkers, lush fairways and impeccable greens. But many course builders and managers aren’t nearly as concerned about how the facilities that serve as the center of these maintenance efforts look, or function—and then wonder why there’s a disconnect between what they want, and what they actually have.

Too often, course maintenance “sheds” are just that—temporary-looking structures plopped onto a back end of the property, with little thought about their design, organization or operation. The lack of planning leads to poor upkeep of equipment and supplies, low staff morale, and overall inefficiencies that work against the best course-maintenance intentions. In addition, with these maintenance facilities “out of sight,” they are also too often “out of mind” when it comes to safe and environmentally sound practices.

The gap has only become wider as the standards for course quality have increased. But the good news is that, in more and more cases, it’s grown big enough that clubs and resorts, as part of overall property upgrades, are now recognizing the need for better maintenance compounds.

In some cases, this is because members and management have seen on their own that their course maintenance buildings and storage areas are too old or too small to meet current and future needs. In other cases, superintendents— like chefs and other department heads—have been more forceful about insisting that they be given what’s needed to do their jobs right.

Whatever the driving force, there’s now a clear trend to moving course-maintenance facilities out of the shadows and into the spotlight, with an eye to making them more visible, more practical, and more in tune with the increased environmental responsibilities of the property. Getting Every Wish

Like any dutiful superintendent, Fred Dickman focused most of his attention on improving the golf courses at the five-star Broadmoor Resort & Spa in Colorado Springs, Colo., when he came on board in 1997. But after completing “a bunch of capital projects” that added 18 holes to the resort, he reports, “I turned my attention to the maintenance building.” It was becoming abundantly clear that the existing facility couldn’t support the staff and equipment that was now needed to properly maintain both courses. “Logistically, the building was in a terrible spot, which just compounded all its other shortcomings,” Dickman says.

With his eye on a location near a service road between the two courses, he approached the Broadmoor’s President, who was immediately receptive to Dickman’s vision. “From there, it was an easy sell to the owners,” he says.

The Broadmoor’s storage space is by no means a shed. There are even designated parking spaces for equipment, to help keep everything neat and orderly.

But before the architect commissioned for the project even sharpened a pencil, he, Dickman and the resort’s Director of Engineering all toured the maintenance facilities of other clubs and resorts that had recently been built or remodeled. “It was a chance to see what they had come up with—and an opportunity to avoid some of the mistakes they had made,” Dickman explains.

What really struck him while on this tour was how all of these new facilities shared as much of a focus on the employee as on the equipment. “I knew I had a lot of space to play with—three acres—so I, too, could afford to have this ‘separation’ of employees and machinery,” he says.

Having worked in and toured many facilities in his 20- plus years in the industry, Dickman had a lot of ideas and suggestions of his own to add to those garnered from the tour. With a fairly comprehensive wish list to accommodate, the designers went to work on the new facility—and as they did, Dickman’s input was solicited on everything from paint colors to the storage facilities for bunker sand.

“I put a lot of thought into routing employees so they would have the least [detrimental] impact,” he notes. “Let’s face it, my crew is out there digging and mowing—it’s all dirty work. I tried to figure how to control traffic so all that mess didn’t end up getting tracked through the shop.”

For example, instead of having everyone wash up in the regular restrooms, Dickman envisioned a large washbasin just inside the front door that employees could use before venturing deeper into the building. “My office is always open—but you have to walk past that sink before you can come in,” he jokes.

The Broadmoor’s storage space is by no means a shed. There are even designated parking spaces for equipment, to help keep everything neat and orderly.

Blessed with a budget that didn’t force him to skimp, the veteran superintendent also splurged on high-quality flooring for the course and grounds offices, as well as a well-lit, comfortable break room for the crew. “There’s no value you can put on what it does for morale,” he explains.

The exterior of the building, though, was designed to blend in with, rather than stand out from, the Broadmoor’s beautiful natural surroundings. “We made sure the building didn’t detract from the golf experience,” Dickman says. With its proximity to the course, the building also needed to be able to withstand the onslaught of wayward golf balls, so durable concrete siding was used for exterior sheeting.

Another component of the new design that Dickman is particularly fond of is the facility’s state-of-the-art equipment wash-off area. “Even five years ago, this didn’t even register on most superintendents’ radar,” he notes. “Now, it is one of the most important considerations.”

Broadmoor’s system uses an advanced recycling process that collects the water and grass from washed equipment. The grass is then broken down biologically, and the water reused to wash additional equipment—a process that greatly reduces the amount of harmful runoff and waste.

It took a little over a year to build the Broadmoor’s new compound. Now that he’s worked out of the facility for a few years, Dickman can reflect on what it’s meant not only to his department, but to the overall property.

“I can’t believe the improvement we’ve seen in efficiency,” he marvels. “And it’s become so easy to keep everything neat and organized.”What might he would change in hindsight? “Not a thing,” he responds without hesitation.

Making Do Unfortunately, most superintendents can’t hope to have their wishes fulfilled as fully as Dickman’s, and have to be content with whatever improvements they can get.

Consider, for example, the humble shop of Settler’s Hill Golf Course, outside Chicago.When Superintendent Dan Murray started here 13 years ago, he inherited a facility that literally had once been a cattle barn. And the building’s bovine roots were still quite evident, with a leaky roof, wildly uneven floor and a lingering, musty odor no manner of cleaning could eliminate. “We didn’t even have running water,” Murray says matter-of-factly.

Even the fact that the two-level structure provided plenty of “storage room” came with a catch: “Unfortunately, half of it involved lugging everything up a flight of stairs,” Murray reports.Worst of all, the ramshackle facility was located at the club’s main entrance, meaning just about everyone saw it. “It became fairly obvious that if we were going to properly maintain the course, we were going to need some help,” Murray says.

That help came in the form of new ownership—which had to agree up front to provide it. During negotiations to buy the course, Golfvisions Management Inc. promised to address some of the concerns surrounding the maintenance facility. “That was basically the ‘little extra’ that sealed the deal,” Murray says.

After the club was sold, repairs quickly got underway.The exterior got new siding to attend to the aesthetic problems, while the roof was replaced to stop the leaks that were plaguing Murray and his crew, and the modern-day definition of “running water” was provided. “Now our guys could actually wash their hands,” Murray says.

Murray, of course, still considers these upgrades to be only temporary fixes; there are still major problems that must be addressed. “I need the floor to be leveled, and I need drains in it,” he says. The crew’s lunchroom is still a tiny, windowless room up in a loft in the barn’s former feed storage area. “They usually just eat outside, but I’d love to get a proper room built for them,” Murray says.

Unfortunately, that will have to wait until the closing of a working landfill on which the course is built. Long-term, the hope is that an additional nine holes, and an entirely new maintenance facility, will eventually be built. If and when that time comes, Murray has his wish list ready. “Nothing fancy, just a bigger break room or maybe another equipment lift,” he says. “And I’ll make sure this one has running water from the start.”

Starting Over

When Keith Ihms became Superintendent at the Country Club of Little Rock in Arkansas, he didn’t exactly take over a cattle barn. “Fire destroyed the original [maintenance] facility, so I walked into a fairly new building,” he says. But Ihms is certainly familiar with the trials of working in a less-than-adequate facility. “Anyone that has worked in this business long enough has dealt with it,” he says. His previous job in Dallas was based out of a tiny, inadequate building. “There wasn’t nearly enough covered storage for equipment, and we weren’t even close to code for chemical storage,” he remembers. “We used containment storage pallets, not just to make code, but to be responsible.”

Even now, with a modern, spacious facility, Ihms continues his vigilant watch over chemical containment. “Not only are some of these pesticides and other chemicals extremely harmful to the environment, they’re also incredibly expensive,” he notes. To this end, he uses spare buckets to catch and reuse any drips from containers.

Ihms sympathizes with supers who are stuck with unsavory facilities, but adds: “You don’t need to spend a lot of money to make your building more liveable.” For example, his lunchroom was dismal, with no air conditioning or fridge. “Recruiting is a real concern around here, and if I wanted to attract good workers, I knew I needed to improve the break room,” he notes. “But I also knew I wasn’t going to see a ton of money to make it happen.”

So he and other crewmembers rolled up their sleeves during winter downtime and spruced it up themselves. “It only cost me about $1200, and it’s like a whole new room,” he says. Some thrifty supers have even used proceeds from bottles and cans collected on the course to fund similar projects.

Storage, always a concern, can also be improved with a little spring cleaning. “I used to be guilty of keeping junk like old bunker rakes and plastic buckets around, thinking they would eventually be useful,” said Murray of Settler’s Hill. Then it dawned on him that by cleaning out a lot of this detritus, he’d create additional space for storing more useful items. He also noticed an overall improvement in cleanliness around the grounds. “Everything looked so much less cluttered, and a lot more organized,” he says.

Prefab sheds and heavy-duty tents can also be good solutions for space and price-conscious turf managers, as can “lean-to” structures—covered additions that can be affixed to existing buildings.

But this kind of resourcefulness can still only go so far. For the really dire situations, Ihms suggests “inviting Board members to see how bad the conditions are.

“Some [superintendents] are too embarrassed to do this,” he notes. “But I can’t think of a more effective way to plead your case. So often, no action is taken until it’s either legislated into necessity, or something goes wrong.” C&RB

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