What can you do yourself?

It wasn’t too long ago that when deciding to renovate or upgrade something on the golf course, we immediately turned to sourcing the work out. An irrigation system revamp, or a renovation of a green, or building a new tee, it was fairly common practice for superintendents to farm this work out, allowing for the maintenance staff to continue on with the general upkeep of the golf course.

Although this is still done, it seems more and more of these projects are now being accomplished in-house.

Several factors have influenced our decisions to try to tackle many of these tasks in-house in recent years. Equipment advancements have definitely made it easier to do many of these projects. Another major factor is monetary. Skyrocketing prices across the board for almost everything have made us take a long look at seeing if a particular project can be DIY. I think another factor would be the education of the superintendent over the years. We have more knowledge along with the confidence and ability to accomplish things that in the past we could not or were afraid to try.

When considering, planning, and ultimately deciding to go ahead and tackle a project on the golf course, the overall final cost of doing it in-house or sourcing it out has to be weighed. But it can’t be just a monetary decision. Sure, something may ultimately be cheaper to do in-house, but if it comes at the cost of sacrificing quality and playability of the daily maintenance of the golf course, it probably isn’t worth it.

Over the years we’ve been in-house-project heavy at Avalon Golf Club here in western Washington. If we’ve been able to do it inhouse, we’ve usually taken that route. But this isn’t always feasible. As I mentioned, if you are adding something new, or making something better, that is great. But in the end, if you can’t do it without sacrificing conditions on the golf course, or if you simply don’t have the means to do it, then it might be better to pay a bit more and keep your maintenance staff focused on, well, maintenance.

In the 20 years I’ve been at Avalon, we’ve made these project decisions over and over, identifying the need for the project and then deciding if it’s indeed something we can put our own maintenance resources into.

One benefit for us that has made this decision a little easier than at a lot of golf courses is our geographic location. We are open year-round, but with the benefit of being open in the winter while also having significantly less play November through February. Those four months have allowed us time and space to tackle certain projects in an “off-season” window that a lot of golf courses in different climates simply don’t have.

Here’s a list of a few different projects we have tackled in-house over the years, and a brief description of not only how we accomplished it but what led to our doing it ourselves.

New tee construction

One of the major things we have done at Avalon over the last dozen or so years has been the construction of several new tees. This includes forward tees to shorten the course and actually being able to offer Playing It Forward, or building back tees to lengthen some of the shorter holes, ultimately creating more separation between our five sets of markers.

Right away, we determined this was something we were going to be able to do in-house and out of season in that winter November-February window.

Although we don’t own an excavator, we do trade out golf with one of our members in the winter for the use of his excavator. The use of that excavator at certain periods throughout the year has made many of our DIY decisions much easier.

We usually limit new tee construction to one tee per winter. In the last 15 years, we’ve added 13 new tees. Factors for the location of a new tee include its proximity to our cart paths, existing irrigation coverage and line of play for the golfer. Not having to add or reroute irrigation heads has been critical in keeping the new tee construction project plan as inexpensive and hassle-free as possible.

Most of the new tees are much smaller than the original tees but much better suited for our needs as well as golfer experience. This ongoing project has been a huge success with members.

Bunker shrinkage

Avalon was built in the early 1990s, when everything involving the construction of golf courses was big, bigger and biggest. Many of the bunkers on the course were massively overbuilt. We decided about 15 years ago that shrinking many of these bunkers was in our best interest. The benefits included fairer playability, quicker play, and easier and less expensive maintenance of the hazards.

Like our long-term plan to tackle one new tee addition per year, we also decided to shrink one bunker per year. Again, having the use of the excavator and the ability to tackle the project in the winter has made this annual DIY project pretty straightforward for us.

We have altered or removed 12 massive bunkers over the last dozen or so years, and have a plan for shrinking another eight to 10 in years to come.

Dead or dangerous tree removal

The golf course was built 30-plus years ago among a forest of alder and cottonwood trees. Neither one of these two species of tree is desirable in our location. The alders, especially, have a short life span. Everywhere the trees were left between holes on the course, they have reached — or are at least on their way to reaching — their short life cycle. We had to make the decision of how to annually remove these dead or dying trees.

Again, a pretty easy decision to tackle this project in-house. Like new tee construction and our shrinking bunkers, the dead alder removal has become an annual project for us. Each year we identify about 10 to 20 dead or dying trees that need to be removed.

Having a crew trained on the safe removal of trees and safe chainsaw practices is critical for us. Having the right equipment and knowing which trees we can handle — and which do, indeed, need a professional arborist — is imperative.

We also keep and sell the wood each winter and use the money for fun crew events throughout the season. A win-win.

Drainage

The golf course was built on a pretty massive layer of clay, which has required both a ton of topdressing over the years as well as adding to the original insufficient drainage.

Most of the big drainage additions were identified and addressed over the last 25 years, so we don’t execute a lot of drainage additions annually anymore. But when we did, this too was an annual “identify the worst and tackle it ourselves” project similar to the others listed above. Having the time, space and right equipment made this DIY project pretty straightforward during the winter months.

Tee leveling

One of the design flaws I’ve noticed on golf courses over the years is building tee boxes on par 3s that are too narrow. The divots get condensed in the center of these narrow tees (especially on short par 3s) and, as the divots are filled on a daily basis over and over and over, the tees begin to mound in the center.

In recent years we have taken to leveling some of these tees. Again, a project we were quite comfortable handing in-house, doing one mounded tee per winter.

In addition to those in-house projects, there have been several we made the decision that we could not do ourselves. Weighing each project on its own and realizing that you can’t do everything yourself is also imperative.

A good example of this was a few years ago, when we determined we needed to expand our water retention storage. We needed a 30-acre-foot reservoir to hold our water in the summer when we were not able to draw from our well.

There was no way we could have done this project in-house, although we did end up doing a lot of the prep and the cleanup of this massive project ourselves.

I think that is an important point to make here: the “fusion,” if you will, of doing improvements or renovations in-house and that of sourcing work out. Certain projects will arise on the golf course that may be a good fit for your crew doing a portion of and then sourcing out the rest.

An example of this kind of “fusion” was last winter, when we had a pavement company come in to grind down the cottonwood roots on our cart paths. The company grinded and we came in behind and did the cleanup.

Bigger project examples could be working alongside an irrigation company that is installing your new system, or doing the prep work, cleanup and even sodding or seeding after a construction company renovates one of your greens.

A good rule of thumb when sourcing out a project is to keep in mind that you are never sourcing out all of it. There is always something you and your staff can do to reduce the time and resources the outside company and workers will have to do — and the money it will cost you.

DIY, source it out, or a combination of the two: Figure out what is right for you on your next big project.

Ron Furlong is the golf course superintendent at Avalon Golf Club in Burlington, Washington, and a regular Golf Course Industry contributor.