Submitted by Susan Hardee Steger
On Monday May 6 at a special meeting, Billy Casper Golf updated the Fernandina Beach City Commission on current conditions at the City golf course and presented a five year capital improvement plan. As previously reported by the Fernandina Observer, playing conditions at the City course are a concern.
Click here for link to Billy Casper Power Point presentation.
Progress update
Buddy Tate, golf superintendent, reported to the commission that 8000 square feet of sod was laid to cover two and a half greens on the south and north courses.
Drill and fill airification will take place May 13 – 15 on all 27 holes. Play will be limited to 18 holes as work begins. Tate invited individuals who are interested to view the machinery and watch the process as airification takes place. According to Tate, drill and fill airification will impact the greens for a longer period of time than the type of airification that took place in previous years. This process will help with drainage, fertility, and playability.
Seventy-five tons of bunker sand have filled 9 bunkers around the club house at a cost of $2500. According to Tate, “playability has increased dramatically. We’ve received a lot of comments from our players.” Average life of a bunker if maintained properly and with adequate drainage is 10 to 12 years maximum. It has been “probably 15 or 20 years since sand has been added to the bunkers at the golf course,” says Tate. “A lot of our bunker faces are starting to collapse.”
Tate informed the commission that the mole cricket population is the biggest problem on the course but progress is being made. “There has been a population [of mole crickets] as bad if not worse than any I’ve seen on any course that I have worked.” Further work will continue, but progress is being made.
Cart traffic control is another problem causing issues with turf conditions. Areas are being roped off to eliminate carts on or near the greens. Players are asked to continue to police one another so carts remain away from the greens in order to improve conditions.
Commissioner Boner asked the first question.
“Do you have enough money to do what you are suppose to do with the course to maintain it?” Tate replied, “We do. We’ve got an adequate budget.” Dan Zimmerman, director of operations for Billy Casper, jumped in and made an attempt to define what is an adequate budget.
Tony Cianci, vice president of operations, joined Zimmerman by explaining;
“You can’t answer that question unless you (commission) answers what is your expectation? Don’t confuse maintain with improve. What we are doing at the golf course is taking what has been abused and neglected and validated through two United States Golf Association (USGA) reports, and we are putting a plan in play to improve conditions. Our plans have not changed as to what we want to do with the golf course. If we want to just maintain Fernandina Beach golf course to what it was and what it has been, the conditions will continue to erode you will have nothing but a golf course full of weeds, and eventually in the summer time you will have no turf. Based on the funds we had available in our operating budget we took the opportunity to improve the golf course that reconciled with the amount of money we had to spend.If you don’t have a lot money to throw in a capital project like rebuilding greens (estimated cost $250,000) , then you only use funds to improve the greens in a phasing process over time, ” says Cianci.
“Last year we didn’t have the crisis we had this year. What happened differently?, ” asked Commissioner Filkoff.
“When you have a golf course where primary areas, greens, tees greens and bunkers are at the age that they are, the stress is more difficult to overcome. We know the golf course looked poor. The truth is that what we were doing is what we had to do in order to get the grass and turf the strongest we could get it to withstand the riggers of heat and everything else without throwing a bunch of money at it through capital projects.” These things have been neglected for so many years and we are feeling the pinch of that now,” says Cianci.
Filkoff asked if players were told the course conditions might deteriorate for a time in order to improve turf conditions.
“Even we didn’t expect to see the deterioration that we did see when this process occurred,” says Cianci. As the USGA reported indicated, “We didn’t get the take of overseed we expected.”
Mayor Sarah Pelican pointed to minutes from a February 23, 2012 golf course advisory board meeting in which Board Member Jim Powers, asked Billy Casper to develop a five year capital plan. Pelican noted the plan did not take place. Casper representatives responded the capital plan takes place through the budget process and they had a plan.
Commissioner Pat Gass joined in the questioning.
“When you responded to the RFP isn’t that when you walked around to see what you were going to be inheriting? Has it turned out the way you anticipated based on the information you gathered?
“Yes,” responded Cianci. “We walked around and made assessments. We obviously can’t see underground so we didn’t know what was going to be seen in the soil below. Almost every situation we walk into we do not get it pegged at 100%. The projects we identified in the RFP are projects we need to address. The USGA has said the same thing before we were there and since we have been here. In the case of Fernandina we hit it pretty good. There were a lot of weeds, there are shade problems creating problems with Bermuda grass. I would categorize the agronomic plan we expected to follow from day one. [That is] maintaining a golf course and showing improvements only in small portion because of not having capital project money to do that all at one time.’
Gass asked her next question.
“Were you aware going in that there would be a limited amount of capital improvement money?”
The city’s hope, says Cianci, “was that the golf course would be able to generate enough funds to fund a capital improvement fund which would in turn fund the projects. We still believe that would happen, but it is at a slower pace than everyone would like it to be.”
Gass ended her questioning with;
, “You were aware going into it that it is an enterprise fund [self supporting] and that we [City] would not be throwing money at it?”
“My [Cianci] response is this, if you have an emergency situation on a golf course let’s say the green were completely destroyed . . . there are provisions for you to go find money to alleviate that situation because it could cost you more money by not being able to address it. Yes I understand it is an enterprise fund. A lot of what is happening on the golf course is that they [bunkers, tees, greens] are way beyond their life span.”
Commissioner Corbett was silent throughout the special meeting.
Capital Improvement Plan
Zimmerman reviewed the capital improvement plan showing the proposed area of focus as greens, tees and bunkers. Green improvement to USGA standards are much more extensive and involve total rebuilding. The cost to rebuild to USGA standards is higher, $967,559, but will last 15 to 20 years. A less expensive option called a No-till process will cost approximately $140,000. With No-Till you are not addressing the underlying issues so there is less of a life expectancy. Life expectancy for No-Till is 5 – 8 years. The cost for bunker improvement is $88,000, and tee improvements are estimated at $76,700. Fernandina’s golf course was not developed using USGA standards. A “push up” option using the existing soils that were on the property was used.
Another portion of the capital improvement plan involved tree removal. Two USGA assessments indicate tree removal is necessary to provide enough sunlight to encourage Bermuda grass growth. Although, trees extending over greens and fairways are aesthetically pleasing, they inhibit Bermuda grass growth, according to Zimmerman.
Up for future discussions are upgrades to the club house such as television upgrades, flooring and carpeting at a cost of $105,250.
Cianci closed the meeting by saying that Billy Casper Golf wants to get the City course in good shape. Casper’s motivation is to have the course improve because there is a financial incentive. Casper is trying to improve the facility. The more revenue the course makes, the more capital improvements can be made, the more revenue can be generated for much needed capital projects.
May 6, 2013 6:17 a.m.