Setting the Pace

Back to the pace of play issue, here is a clock that has been placed on the first tee box. This is the "pace setter". Sending golfers exactly at their allotted tee times has proven that a near 4 hour round is achievable.

The best example of this I can give to you is driving your car onto a highway. Now when you learn to drive in the city of Boston, it's pretty much every vehicle for themselves. Some people even call it a game, but it is a cluster trying to get onto the highway during peak traffic hours. There is a lot of congestion and frankly you really don't get anywhere quickly.

Then we go to the Mile High City where there are traffic lights at the on-ramp prior to entering the high way. To make this possible you need a longer on-ramp to put the traffic somewhere and that is why it would never work in Boston. Anyway, every 20 seconds or so another car or two is allowed to merge into the steady stream of traffic, thus preventing a large pile up at each entrance to the high way.

In our case at the golf course the snack bar and driving range is our "on-ramp", the clock is the "stop light" and the first tee is the "beginning of the road".

According to Bill Yates (see post on August 22nd), if the golfers are spaced out appropriately, then you can begin to research other areas of the course that slow down play.

Since instituting this new process, for the most part play has been flowing smooth through the course. There remain a few holes out there that need attention with design and maintenance, but we are evaluating that at this point and will address them appropriately.

Tee Aerification

This week we are aerifying tee boxes around the golf course. Pictured here is Justin operating the new John Deere tractor with the new Toro, 3 point hitch aerifier. The large floating tires on the tractor prevent rutting and this method has been proven to be much more productive, compared to walk-behind units. Most of all we are getting the best results. 

The versatility of the tractor allows us to achieve accurate spacing. Following Justin, one of our crew members will drag the cores to break up the soil from the thatch and turf plants. Most of the soil will fall back into the holes. 

Following the dragging, a blower cleans the remaining debris. Over the next few days we will be over seeding with Kentucky Bluegrass seed and lightly topdressing with sand.

The latest on #7

What you are looking at here is a view from the newly proposed tee box on #7. This will help with our safety issues regarding the failing retaining walls currently near this location. This tee box will quickly become a favorite for golfers.
Obviously this is not an areas where we can just sod and let you play, there is much to do. For the past year, I have been working with architect Kevin Atkinson to develop this concept. We have been in very close contact with the TOV and AMEC environmental engineers of Boulder to develop this teeing ground. Don't expect to be playing from this location until 2011. Mostly black and blue tees will be in this location. What if you don't play those tees? No worries, the tee box on the hill as well as the front tee box will be renovated. Much like the third hole, there is a strong need to increase the size of the teeing grounds. The variety of tee boxes will continue to provide the golfer with a new experience.

An Open Mind

This week we welcomed Bill Yates of Grey Town Golf, LLC to the golf course. He studies pace management on golf courses and has worked with over 100 golf courses around the country. I had the opportunity to spend most of Friday afternoon with him and we discussed many topics under the wide world of golf. My favorite discussion was the "lost game" of match play. Of course the game of golf was intended to be played against one another, not the golf course.
Pace of play is a wide spread problem in golf and the staff here is keeping an open mind on how to improve the experience for the golfer.
Initially I thought I would be given a long list of areas to cut, mow and trim. Making the course easier, it should play faster, right? Not so much, the goal is not to dummy down the course, there still needs to be some skill to play the game. I really had to open my mind in speaking with him about various management techniques, but it was worth it. He talked about not tricking the golfer, but creating challenges. There have been many ideas that were expressed for Alice and I to better manage the golf course. A few have them are being implemented now and we have already seen some positive results.
Sure there is work to be done, but that is always the case. Vail Golf Club is in a great spot right now. In the coming seasons working with a master plan, we can address many design and playability issues to make this golf course a fun challenge for guests to return to year after year.

It's Just Grass

You may have noticed some different mow lines around the course. Many of the lines on the course were determined by the irrigation system. Some areas due to lack of coverage would suffer at fairway height so they were turned into rough areas to have a better chance of surviving. Now that our coverage is at its best and stress periods are starting to subside, we are exploring different mow patterns around the course. Some may stay, some may go.

Kevin Atkinson will visit next week and we will go through many of these areas. There are many factors that need to be looked at when changing mow patterns throughout the course. Plant health and playability are the most important, followed by labor and equipment needs.

Final Walkthrough

I know this picture is not the clearest, but here is Larry's iphone with an application to ensure this irrigation head is level. The red dot indicates that digging this head up again is unnecessary. Larry and I will finish the day checking the system and making sure everything is working properly for the substantial completion tomorrow.
We will be meeting with Gregg and members of Grand Junction pipe to go over all warranty items.

Pace of Play

This issue might be bigger than you think. Two of the driving forces in the game of golf today are price and pace of play. Price is a good indication on why Vail Golf Club has been busy with golfers this year, we have the best price around. Pace of play, in my mind, we are still one of the quicker golf courses to play in the valley, due to the flat terrain, open tee shots and shorter distance. When you consider the amount of play and the caliber of players that visit the course, anything is possible. Vail Golf Club is a public facility and we are open to all golfers of any skill level.
With that said, there are still areas for improvement. It certainly does not help when Tiger Woods complains to PGA officials about how is rushed around the course. Examples such as this does not help the average golfer when they venture out to their public golf course. Also, the golf course struggles when compared to newer public facilities such as an Eagle Ranch or the new Commonground in Denver. Design features in Vail, such as small greens, tight fairways, many water hazards and poor cart path layout all relate to slow play for the new guest or high handicapper. As teachers of the game, we look to continually educate not only ourselves, but our guests as well for a more enjoyable experience.
This week the staff at Vail Golf Club is taking another look at how to make this golf course player-friendly, by focusing on pace of play.
There have been many suggestions and ideas in the past, some great and some not. Many of them have been implemented already, such as rope and signage steering golfers around the course, alternative mowing heights in areas and having a well-rounded staff that educates each golfer prior and during their round.
Can these ways be improved? Of course they can, we continue to look for ways to improve all areas of this golf course, some take a little more research than others.