The Spinal Tap Effect … and more

Whether observing a course renovation or participating in one as a consultant or co-designer, there are a lot of small things you learn about what it takes to help a project along. Here are a few takeaways about seemingly minor stuff I’ve gleaned over the years that could help guide a project.

More red flags

You never have enough construction flags. Before the start of any project of any scale, buy 1,000, then get another 1,000. And don’t try to tell me you can reuse old ones. Once a flag gets used, it gets bent and rusty. If you have to save on flags, then you have seriously under-budgeted the project.

Flags need to go deep in the ground, and they must endure all sorts of weather, vehicle traffic and foot stomping. Take the trouble to insert them carefully and deeply by hand.

Scale up the tree work

Normally, you want to be doing some annual tree work. It’s probably best to keep it at a modest, steady rate of 30 to 50 a winter so no one will realize how much you are actually getting done in the long run.

But if you are doing a major course renovation project that involves the partial closure of (some) holes or even the entire golf course, that’s the time to get everything done at once. It’s also not the time to hold back out of caution because you will likely only get this one big chance in your career — or at least this phase of it — to get tree work done on a massive scale without anyone standing over your shoulder.

Things expand in the field

Maybe it’s ego during any construction process. More likely, it’s a matter of appropriate scale as a two-dimensional plan on paper gets converted into three dimensions outdoors. Rarely do features — whether greens, tees, bunkers or fairways — get smaller as they are getting built. Most of the time they expand to fill the space available and achieve a more viable shape without seeming small. For those who know their rockumentary films from 1984, we’ll call it “The Spinal Tap Effect.”

As things get bigger, they absorb more materials — whether sand, gravel, pipe, seed or sod. That should not be covered by contingency. Instead, that should be planned for ahead of time into the working budget. A good rule of thumb is to design on paper, calculate volumes and add 10 to 15 percent into the capital budget to cover the likely expansion of features. If that growth in the field doesn’t materialize, you will look like a genius to your managers at having come under budget. And when “The Spinal Tap Effect” takes hold, you’ll have properly filled the acreage of your golf course while looking efficient in the process.

Never enough sod

You will never have enough sod no matter how carefully you budget or harvest what you already have. Plan accordingly. If you cut a green to rebuild or resurface it, take the sod and use it for green expansions elsewhere. The same goes for areas of disturbance when you build bunkers or forward tees; any sod you got should be rolled up, transported elsewhere and reused for tees, fairway expansion or green surrounds. Don’t waste a square inch of the stuff.

Allow for flex in the field

Not only do things get bigger in the field; their shape and depth will also change. That’s not a matter of changing one’s mind. Rather it is — or should be — allowing one’s thinking to evolve while still adhering to a recognizable process.

The key is to allow flex in the shaping of a green or bunker without having to change your mind and undo what has already been built. You achieve that by rough shaping something, looking at it, taking a step back and then honing in on the details only after you have thought through issues of perspective, scale, playing strategy and aesthetics.

If you build exclusively what you have designed on paper, you’ll end up with one of those cookie-cutter courses from the 1990s that were built by contractors rather than designed by architects. If you approach everything more from the standpoint of design/build in the field — even in collaboration with a contractor for building basic elements of the project — you can take a position that allows features to develop and assume proper form in the field.

We’ll discuss in a follow-up column the proper role of the superintendent in any renovation project. For now, prepare yourself for what is involved overall. And remember to plan for “The Spinal Tap Effect.”