A life lesson

A handful of Lehigh University graduates now have something on their resumes that not many others can claim – they designed a golf course with a business plan that could make it possible for such a project to be built and sustain itself. What’s more, they could see their plans become a reality.

Construction is now beginning on a practice complex on the Bethlehem, Pa., campus that will house driving, putting and chipping ranges as well as a clubhouse. The project is a brainchild of a previous class.

Students from multiple disciplines joined together for the class, which isn’t the only one of its type at the school. These classes, designed to give students real-life experience, began in the athletic department in 1998 and have been offered in several departments since before then. Students even had a hand in designing the school’s $2.4-million Ulrich Sports Complex.

Joe Sterrett, Goodman dean of athletics, says if the golf practice complex is well-received, a nine-hole executive golf course could be the next big project the athletic department undertakes. Because the department doesn’t have the funding or personnel to conduct a study on the possibility of a course, Goodman had students create a plan.

In fall 2005, Goodman teamed up with Vincent Munley, Iacocca professor of economics, to recruit eager students of different majors for the Athletic Complex Design class to plan and propose a new golf course for the school.

“At beginning of their senior year, the students have very technical skills,” Munley says. “Lehigh is small enough that we have good communication across campus so we know professors in different programs.”

So Munley and Sterrett brought together a team of students that included students majoring in civil and environmental engineering, architecture, business and journalism. The students mapped out everything from the location and size of an irrigation pond to how to raise the funds to build the course.

“It requires a lot of hours of work,” Munley says. “It’s not something everyone is able to do or interested in pursuing.”

The students were each graded on how well they performed in their own disciplines. For instance, the journalism student was graded on the detailed business plan – more than 100 pages – that was written at the end of the course, Munley says.

Now that a plan for a course has been created, Sterrett will use it to try to raise the capital funds to build it.

“It’s much more compelling because it was actually designed by students on campus,” he says. “It’s a much easier product to sell and talk about with great enthusiasm.”

One of the students in the group was on the golf team, so he already had an understanding of how courses are laid out. The fact that he knew a lot about golf was very helpful at times, Munley says.

But on the other hand, there was a student who didn’t know what a green or a par 3 was, Sterrett says, adding they all toured local courses and put hours of research into the project.

When they made their final presentation, which was open to the public, the students really had to prove to the audience that they learned something about golf courses.

“There was a lot of exchange at final presentation with people asking things like, ‘did you include enough long holes?’” Sterrett says. “The kids had to tell them, this is a practice facility; we’re not going to have any pro tournaments here.”

If built, course would be used by the university’s men’s and women’s NCAA Division 1 golf teams, as well as other students, for practice.

“That’s important to the people in the class,” Munley says. “The course will be used by future Lehigh students.”