(Design concepts) Praising course builders

Golf course builders are equal partners in the industry. They, in large part through the Golf Course Builders Association of America, have set new excellence standards. There never has been more qualified and ethical companies building courses. These companies contribute as much to the quality of golf courses as architects and superintendents. There’s a new collaboration between the American Society of Golf Course Architects, the GCBAA and the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America that focuses on environmental platforms and ways to enhance the associations’ professionalism.

Superintendents have much in common with builders – people rarely talk about them unless they’ve made a critical mistake. Both groups’ professional organizations instituted strong continuing education programs to help members become better at their craft and certification programs used to set quality benchmarks.

“The certification program is having a great impact on the industry,” says Lee Hetrick executive director of the GCBAA. “More builders are gaining certified status, underscoring the importance of the certification program, which might undergo changes to make it even stronger.”

One of the most important program elements is that certification requires annual recertification and a recheck of bonding capacity. Many golf course architects require bidders to be certified members of the GCBAA because the financial strength of a contractor is a key element of success. Most horror stories come from incidences in which a contractor ran out of money and couldn’t fulfill its obligations.

The GCBAA and the GCSAA also have used public relations initiatives to improve the image of their members. While superintendents have worked for years to dispel inaccurate professional images, contractors are behind superintendents in this regard, but are starting to catch up.

Old stereotypes tend to persist. In the past, contractors have been portrayed falsely as only interested in change orders and taking advantage of owners by overcharging for shoddy work. But the vast majority of contractors love golf and golf courses, or they wouldn’t be in the business.

Fortunately, negative stereotypes are disappearing. But some club owners still resist using contractors for course improvements because they feel they can do it just as well themselves. However, they wouldn’t consider adding to the clubhouse with an amateur construction crew. Many people don’t understand the effort necessary to build a course because it’s not sticks and bricks.

Others use new companies, local landscape companies or underqualified contractors for small projects.

“Clients use our company to provide a full range of services, from minor golf course renovations to complete golf course developments,” says Kurt Huseman, executive vice president of Project Development for Landscapes Unlimited. “The one strategy that reduces project risks and increases the quality of the final product is to use a certified golf course construction firm, no matter how small.”

If one wants quality, it’s best to use a quality contractor.

“Quality expectations should be the same on every project, regardless of the scope or dollar value,” says Rick Boylan, president of Mid-America Golf and Landscape. “Why not do a small project correctly the first time? It takes longer to do it wrong than it does to do it right, given that you’ll do it again.”

Tension between owners and contractors is often about money. In many cases, professional contractor services are deemed too expensive, and clubs look to reduce the contractor’s cost by using their maintenance staff to do the work. Often during total reconstructions, golf course contractors can use club crew members for labor to reduce costs for all – the contractor avoids housing costs, and the club keeps a trained crew busy. When using this construction method, contractors provide project leadership – without worrying about other maintenance items or club politics – and experience, a need that’s often overlooked.

Despite that the American General Contractors Association once pegged the average contractor’s profits at less than 1 percent, there’s often a notion that contractors profit too much. If one competitively bids a project, that person can assume the low bidder is working with the acceptable overhead and profit margins. The difficulty and risk of golf course construction is much higher than building construction, in which weather delays cease once the roof is finished. This risk must be bid into any price.

I’ve seen the unreasonable profit notion develop when owners realize plastic drain tile, costing about 50 cents per lineal foot, bids at $5.00 per lineal foot by contractors. But they might forget the fittings; gravel and sales tax; and the cost of owning and maintaining the trenchers, dump trucks and other machines and tools that are figured into the price. Owners also forget the work that has to be redone because of weather or the architect’s or owner’s wishes.

More tension arises over change orders. Given the unseen conditions prevalent in golf course construction, change orders occur and are justified. Many owners think contractors should assume all risk or ask for other work to be done to even the deal if they harbor ill feelings about the contractor. In some cases, while owners pay for additional work, they might feel that no schedule extension is warranted, even if those additions are considerable.

It’s also easier to ignore true accounting, including employee benefits, taxes and overtime pay that comes with adding to the work load of a crew when using in-house staff. While doing it oneself might save some of the contractor’s profit margin, one can’t assume his crew can do it as fast as the experienced crew of the contractor. Missing a prime grassing window will cost much more than the construction.

Many clubs see modest construction savings but might spend more if problems occur.

“A good contractor pays for itself when unforeseen conditions arise,” says Tom Shapland, president of Wadsworth Golf. “These are particularly common in renovation projects, where we run across many unknown buried projects of the past.”

Shapland says many superintendents are good at construction and like the challenge and variety that construction provides in breaking up a normal maintenance routine. But he has seen superintendents run into unexpected construction and member-relationships problems. Many superintendents who’ve been through it believe the cost of using architects and contractors is worth it to buffer them from their club.

Perhaps the best justification for using contractors on even the smallest renovation projects is that my clients rarely undertake large construction project the second time without using a contractor.

Ideally, one should use contractors for all projects and work with them as if they’re a professional equal. A project will be better for it. GCN

Jeffrey D. Brauer is a licensed golf course architect and president of Golfscapes, a golf course design firm in Arlington, Texas. Brauer, a past president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects, can be reached at jeff@jeffreydbrauer.com.