 |
|
Watching grass grow
A computer-savvy club president and a
superintendent with a talent for talking bring members along for a renovation via video on the Web.
 |
Photos courtesy of Willow Oaks CC |
In any golf course renovation project, communication with club members is essential, but often leaves members essentially dissatisfied. However, at Willow Oaks Country Club in Richmond, Va., club president Paul Sinclair and superintendent Craig Fuller, CGCS, have taken communication to a whole new level.
Their efforts in video-streaming the construction and making it available on Willow Oaks’ Web site leave newsletters and photo displays in the rear-view mirror.
 |
’Net flicks
Filmed by Sinclair, the videos are complete with soundtracks and
captioning.
In one taping session, Fuller’s assistant superintendent, Jordan Booth, explains the ins and outs of installing a new pump in the irrigation quarry. In another, course architect Lester George explains refinements to his design of the new 17th hole. In another, Fuller and project manager Bill Humphrey of Landscapes Unlimited describe the new rock-walled tee at the fourth hole and explain the process of tee construction.
“We’ve had an overwhelming response from members,” says Chris Welles, general manager. “People look forward to the next video, asking when it’s coming out, like it’s a weekly show.”
Welles, in his seventh year at Willow Oaks, says members are e-mailing the Web links to friends, and in turn, they’ve been getting responses from around the country.
Besides keeping members up to date on the project, Fuller says the videos also ward off a lot of questions.
“We had many nay-sayers who thought we only needed to put in a couple of drain pipes to handle our flooding problems and we’d be fine,” says Fuller, a 12-year member of GCSAA. “But now that they’ve seen the extent of the work, it makes sense to them, especially through explanations on the Web site. We’re no longer getting inundated with questions as to why this, why that. We’ve warded off 95 percent of them. It sure beats showing people a topo map.”
Fuller and Sinclair do include construction updates in traditional fashion:
• Through the club newsletter, even if the news is three weeks old when it reaches members’ hands.
• Posting weekly updated photos in a kiosk in the clubhouse, even though not all the members are going there because there’s no golf.
• Giving tours — lots of tours — because “some people won’t believe what’s on the Web site, so they have to see it with their own eyes,” Fuller says.
“I’ve been averaging three or four tours a day, and that doesn’t include the general manager and golf pro shop staff taking people out,” he adds.
 |
From left: Chris Welles, general manager; Paul Sinclair, club president; Craig Fuller, CGCS; Ed Simpson, construction committee chair; and Richard White, head golf professional, take time for a group photo while the course undergoes renovation. Willow Oaks CC is scheduled to reopen in May 2008. |
A star is born
But all else pales when measured against the video-streaming.
“Once we did the first video about staging and what to expect, people were so in love with it, they asked if we could shoot more — about tree removal, the soils and Lester’s thoughts on the stream network we’ve created to control flooding. It just ballooned,” Fuller says.
Sinclair’s expertise is obvious. A former green committee chairman and president for three of the past four years, he owns a computer-related business. Web hosting and development and digital videotaping are his hobbies.
The videos are more like movie vignettes, complete with soundtrack and subtitles identifying people and presenting captioned information.
“Paul’s his own one-man production company,” Welles says. “He films, edits, adds the soundtrack and commentary — and it’s all up on the site the next day.”
In turn, Sinclair gives credit to Fuller, a 1997 graduate of Penn State’s two-year turfgrass management program who has 23 years of experience in the golf business and who, as he says, is “very good at this sort of thing.”
In fact, the idea came to Sinclair when he was on site with Fuller and had his video camera with him to take some shots of the course. Fuller was explaining something when Sinclair asked if he could repeat that with the camera on.
“Craig is very good at that sort of thing, and it occurred to me right then that it would be a great way to let people know what is happening as well as educate them as to what goes into building a golf course.”
|
Tune in: For an eye-opening introduction to this new realm of communications, surf the Internet to www.willowoakscc.org, click on the “Members” button and scroll through the “Video Archives.” |
Excitement in the grass
Fuller says sometimes there will be two or three tapings in a week, while at other times, two or three weeks may pass between sessions because crews are still on the same project.
“We don’t want to be repetitive. But when we enter a new phase — say, seeding the greens — I’ll explain that process,” he says.
When it’s time, Fuller calls Sinclair, who comes to the course, videotapes for five or 10 minutes and, “before I know it,” Fuller says, “it’s up on our Web site.”
Fuller defers all the credit to Sinclair, declaring, “He’s one of the most informed, inquisitive people I’ve ever met. This would not fly without him at the helm. He has done a spectacular job in communications. Members know what’s coming. He leaves no room for Monday-morning quarterbacking.”
That communication, Sinclair says, is the biggest concern during course renovations, when members often don’t know what’s going on. But with the videos, he says,“People are happy and excited. They feel they are in the loop and are part of the process by being kept aware of what’s going on.”
When a new video is released, Welles sends an e-mail blast to 2,700 addresses he has for the club’s 960 member families.
As of mid-August, there were 15,000 hits on the videos, according to Sinclair.
The most popular?
 |
Online videos that documented the redesign of the 17th hole and the start of resodding have attracted the most attention on Willow Oaks’ Web site. |
“It was one of the early ones back in February when Lester (George) came up with a redesign of the 17th hole,” he says. “To present his concept to the board for approval, Lester had a computer-rendered animation done. I had Lester explain it on video, and we put the computer animation on the end. That went crazy. We had 1,500 hits on that one alone.”
Second most-popular was a segment when sod-laying began.
“That got a lot of attention,” says Sinclair, “because you’ve gone from nothing but dirt out on the course and then there is sod on it all of a sudden. People were excited to see the grass.”
Educational programming
Even for people in the golf business, the videography is informative. In one episode, Fuller explains how a fairway is sodded, knitted and grown-in while, behind him, Landscapes Unlimited equipment operators spread gigantic rolls of sod. There, Fuller points out the new bunker misting system and tells how it works.
It’s an education in itself.
“We don’t script anything,” says Fuller, who worked for awhile in course construction. “I speak from what I know. I’ve tried to do my best with meat and potatoes simplicity, explaining why a drainage pipe or topo is what it is. I spent a lot of time on bunker construction because this course was built in 1957 and opened in 1959 and had about 20 different sands in the bunkers. There was no consistency. People wondered about maintaining bunkers. I explained the three facets to a bunker: design, construction and maintenance — and they all fail if the design isn’t correct.
“Lester’s design is very good, and Landscapes Unlimited does an outstanding job in everything they do, including exceptional work on bunker construction.”
 |
The key focus of Willow Oaks’ renovation has been mitigating flooding and drainage problems on the golf course. |
The project
And there is a lot of work to do.
A William and David Gordon design, Willow Oaks CC has nine holes in the James River flood plain. The course has hosted the SunTrust State Open of Virginia 14 times over the last two decades, but it has been nearly rained-out a couple of times because of major drainage problems.
“When the river flooded, the course used to be heel- to ankle-deep water for two to three days,” George says. “Water had nowhere to go.”
While the project is a full-scale reconstruction of all 18 holes, the key engineering focus has been to handle flooding and drainage.
At the lowest point of the golf course, a 30-inch concrete pipe flows into the James River. A flapper gate on this pipe, which is supposed to prevent backflow, was not operating. A new pipe and flapper valve have been installed to fix this problem.
Also, Landscapes Unlimited has built 5,000 linear feet of stream, varying in width from three to 15 feet and in depth from four to 10 feet, as well as greatly enlarging and deepening two existing ponds and creating two more, all of which are now 10 to 12 feet deep.
At the same time, the elevation of the large, flat area that contains holes three through eight, 15, 16 and 17 was pitched to improve surface runoff as well as subsurface drainage.
In the future, when the river swells into the property, the water will back into the ponds and eventually drain off the golf course.
Earthwork and clearing began in January, and George expected the entire 18 holes to be grassed by the end of August. Welles says it will be reopened around the end of May or early June 2008, and the project has generated so much excitement that 160 families have joined in the last 15 months, with 50 more on a waiting list.
“The difference in the course is amazing,” he says. “First, the aesthetics are astounding. Members who have played the golf course for 30 or 40 years are wowed by the overall impact. Second, the initial phases indicate that the change in topography to help drainage is going to be outstanding. We’ve had a couple of short-term heavy rains, and the water seems to go where it should.”
In the meantime, Willow Oaks officials have gone overboard to act as good citizens.
The club also is involving Audubon International and its Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary program personnel in the project.
“We’re trying to show we’re being good stewards of our property,” Fuller says. “It’s a unique and spectacular piece of land.”
Because the golf course is affected by the Chesapeake Bay Act and sits along the James River, the club is dealing with a variety of environmental issues, “and we’re very sensitive about them,” Fuller says. “The city is very involved with us, working hand in hand on everything. City hall is aware. Residents are aware.”
And as time has progressed, Willow Oaks members are very aware — thanks to Fuller and Sinclair’s videography.
RECENT issues
 |
 |
October |
September |