Earthly Treasures

As some of the last parcels of unspoiled American soil, clubs and resorts are gaining new favor as “natural” choices.

by C&RB Staff (editor@clubandresortbusiness.com)
December 2006
 

STAT BOX 5 kilometers the distance beyond a test area that a planting of genetically modified creeping bentgrass grew into the Oregon wilderness this summer, prompting a Department of Agriculture audit to determine potential threats to wildlife

In a year that saw construction begin on the world’s first completely synthetic 18-hole golf course (in a drought-ravaged corner of Australia), major strides continued towards transforming the industry’s image from one that threatens the preservation of natural beauty to one that champions it.

In addition to new examples like The Club at Olde Stone that demonstrate how properties can be built in concert with their surroundings (see case study, pg. 45), superintendents at courses in all stages of development—and with all types of environmental profiles—continue to demonstrate determination and innovation in their quest to find ways for the game and nature to more peacefully co-exist. The continued crowding of America only stands to help golf’s soothing expanses of green be seen in an even more favorable light in the future. As some of the developments reported here attest, there’s still persistent ignorance among the general public that must be dealt with, too.    

Everything But the Crumpets
“Tea time” has new meaning at courses that are experimenting with the application of “compost teas.” In an article on composting techniques in BioCycle magazine, Dean Piller, Superintendent of Cordova Bay Golf Course in Vancouver, B.C., told how he uses a 300-gallon tank (with an air filter to supply oxygen) to brew a mix of kelp extract, humic acid, fish fertilizer, oatmeal and compost that bubbles and steeps for 48 hours before it’s sprayed on 15 acres of turf.

The applications, made every two to three weeks during the growing season, help reduce thatch and “encourage the natural cycling of nutrients in clippings,” Piller said. He also sees disease reduction as a long-term benefit.

At the Country Club at Castle Pines (Colo.), Superintendent Sean McCue is using a 500-gallon tank, with multiple air filters, to make batches that are sprayed in the spring and fall.

Expensive Drinks
Because it thought it had a deal with the local government for free water until 2019, The West Orange Country Club, which had put in a $50,000 irrigation system six years ago and shut its course down this year for an extensive renovation, was shocked when it started getting billed 42 cents for every 1,000 gallons. 

The 40-year-old Orlando-area club thought it was entitled to the free water because it had joined with five area citrus growers in 1986 to support the city of Orlando and Orange County in a proposal to get $100 million in federal and state funds to build the Conserv II water-reuse project.

In 1999, the club signed a contract for free water for the next 20 years. But this year, current administrators, claiming they had found evidence that the contract was never properly executed, abruptly began to bill the club, which uses 130,000 gallons a day (47.45 million gallons a year) to water its 80-acre course.

The club, now looking at a $35,000 annual watering bill, has sued to have the contract upheld.

“I know most people aren’t sympathetic to golf courses, but we have an older membership and we’re trying to keep the doors open here,” West Orange’s former manager, Mike Beaver, told the Orlando Sentinel. “This is just not right.”

Righting the Wrongs
Two private clubs were wrongly put on the defensive this year in separate instances where politicians made misinformed statements implying the clubs had illegal immigrants among their course and grounds workforces.

In April, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was discussing the issue of immigration on a radio show when the host asked Bloomberg to give an example of the kind of jobs illegal immigrants are doing.

“You and I are beneficiaries of these jobs,” Bloomberg replied. “[We] both golf—who takes care of the greens and fairways at your course?”

The New York Daily News then contacted Robert Heaney, General Manager of Deepdale Golf Club on Long Island where Bloomberg often plays. Heaney assured the paper the club has always been in compliance with all immigration laws, and had no illegal immigrants working at the club.

Then in July, a Pennsylvania state representative issued a letter through the state’s House Democratic Communications Office that denounced Fox Chapel (Pa.) Golf Club for hiring six Hispanic immigrants as groundskeepers, thereby “robbing our college students and residents of jobs.” And the legislator, Tony DeLuca, didn’t stop there. The letter went on to express concern that “the immigrants, who are supposedly legal, are being provided with adequate housing, and they only have to provide a small portion of their salaries to pay for lodging…the country club has certainly devised a sweet deal for non-American workers.”

But when the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette checked out DeLuca’s claims, Fox Chapel’s Club Manager, David Cecil, attested that the six workers (part of a 28-member grounds crew) were legally hired through the H2-B program and were not being “provided” with any form of subsidized housing. Fox Chapel merely located a potential landlord for affordable housing, as it is required to do for H2-B workers, and the workers were paying all rent and utilities. “I’m baffled that this is of interest,” Cecil told the Post-Gazette. “We’re doing it the right way.”