You ll Have A Ball In Bellingham

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1 GO You ll Have A GO Ball In Bellingham

2 Number 53 September 2013 OLF CONTEST Win A foursome TO EnteR-to-Win OLF Guess the Northwest Course Contest How To Groove Your Swing! Golf Nerves: Tips for Controlling the Jitters And Much More! inside this issue

3 14 Golf Today Northwest Sudden Valley Golf Course Hole #5 - photo credit: Smithson

You ll Have a Ball in Bellingham By Tony Dear Sudden Valley GC s Superintendent Jacob Close is on his way to HD Fowler Company in Bellingham to purchase a saddle for a main line.

4 You ll Have a Ball in Bellingham By Tony Dear Sudden Valley GC s Superintendent Jacob Close is on his way to HD Fowler Company in Bellingham to purchase a saddle for a main line. That might not mean anything to you or me, but for Close, getting the part for the irrigation system is just another small step on the road to making Sudden Valley GC one of the best-conditioned golf courses in the whole of the Pacific Northwest. Close has made dramatic improvements to the course that had long suffered drainage issues, but now boasts playing surfaces comparable to those elsewhere in town. The job, says Close, is far from complete, however. I want Sudden Valley to compete with the best, he says. I want the greens to be as good as Bellingham Golf and Country Clubs. I d like the fairways to be as dry as North Bellingham s. Ultimately, Close says, he d like to see it be as good as the always immaculate Seattle Golf Club where he worked for four years as an assistant superintendent before leaving for Bellingham. READ MORE September

continued from page 15 If you ve been lucky enough to play Seattle GC and haven t played Sudden Valley for a few years, chances are you just burst out laughing, knowing the two courses were pretty

5 continued from page 15 If you ve been lucky enough to play Seattle GC and haven t played Sudden Valley for a few years, chances are you just burst out laughing, knowing the two courses were pretty much at either end of the course maintenance scale Seattle seeing far less traffic than Sudden Valley,enjoying a much larger maintenance budget. Close s first order of business after arriving in March 2011 was obvious dry out the fairways and greens and try to create the firmer, faster conditions that says. But now we use a spray rig that is so much more cost effective. Because we can now apply the fertilizer directly to the plant, we use much less of it, and there is much less waste. So not only does Close save a lot of money, he also puts far fewer chemicals into the soil. And, because growth of the turf has consequently slowed down, he and his crew of ten (six in the winter) need to mow it less frequently, meaning further savings in the gasoline and vehicle maintenance bills. The turf has also been aerified more regularly than had been the case, and half a dozen of the course s Sudden Valley hole #11 - photo credit: Smithson make the game so much more enjoyable. To do that, the Oregon State grad who once interned at Cypress Point GC on the Monterey Peninsula, started by sanding the mown areas, throwing down roughly 800 tons on the fairways and 150 tons on the greens during his first year a process he expects to have to repeat for the next five seasons at least. Amazingly, Close did not seek extra funding from the Sudden Valley community s Board of Directors to pay for all the sand, finding the money instead by cutting back considerably on the course s fertilizer demands. Granular fertilizer had been used previously, he 16 Golf Today Northwest biggest trees were removed in Close s first year (plus a few more since then) increasing the amount of sunlight that reaches the ground as well as allowing for a more sustained flow of air. Though the benefits of cutting trees down have been significant, the move wasn t universally popular and Close wasn t altogether surprised he received a few complaints. We have some big and beautiful trees here, so I expected a little resistance, he says. But taking out a few of the biggest specimens increased the rate of evaporation and has had some noticeably READ MORE

continued from page 16 for the last four years, thinks the course has done a full 180. We still have some fixes, he says. But member complaints have more or less ceased.

6 continued from page 16 for the last four years, thinks the course has done a full 180. We still have some fixes, he says. But member complaints have more or less ceased. The last grumble I heard, in fact, was that the greens may be too fast now. Our new practice green is awesome and the course is in the best shape I ve ever seen it. Bailey adds that, for the first time he can remember, he s actually proud to say he s a member of Sudden Loomis Trails Clubhouse positive effects. Plus, I think Fircrest near Tacoma took out about 400 trees, and Seattle removed about 50. I estimate we have something like 2,000 trees here, so it was a tiny percentage that we lost. Like any good progressive turf professional, Close also reprogrammed the old irrigation system software in the Central Control System, enabling him to monitor, activate and manage any of the course s 900 irrigation heads. That, along with giving seven acres of the course back to nature, has led to a drastic reduction in water usage 12million gallons a year when Close arrived down to what he estimates is about five million now. What all of Close and his dedicated team s expertise and hard work means is that the Ted Robinsondesigned course (that opened in 1971 and hosted the Washington Open 10 years later)is in as fine a state now as it possibly ever has been,. While the soggy fairways and slowish greens may once have put you off, Sudden Valley has now earned back much of its must-play status. Bill Bailey, a member since 2003 and the Greens Chair 18 Golf Today Northwest Valley. Jake has been an absolute gem, he says. He s bringing the course back to its original design. It s tough, fun and beautiful. Another local golfer who recognizes the impact Close has had on the course is Chris Hilleary, founder and President of Aerotech Golf, a shaft manufacturer whose SteelFiber model is used by Matt Kuchar, Brandt Snedeker, Fred Couples, and numerous other players on both the PGA and Champions Tours. It s like night and day, he says. I was out at Sudden Valley for the member-guest last weekend and was hugely impressed with the overall condition of the course. Hilleary took the game up in the mid-80s hitting his READ MORE

7 continued from page 18 first ever shots on the first nine holes that opened at Semiahmoo in Blaine, 23 miles north of Bellingham on I-5. He still loves the Arnold Palmer-designed course but, thanks to the location of his office, now plays most of his golf at North Bellingham, eight miles north of downtown. It s a really good challenge, he says. Because there are hardly any trees, the wind Equally splendid looks at the 10,781ft active, glaciated, andesitic, stratovolcano named for British naval officer Joseph Baker who mapped the Pacific Northwest Coast during the Vancouver Expedition of , can be had from the lovely Shuksan GC, nine miles northwest of town. The mountain is best seen from the 5th fairway, but it is the 15th hole that offers the most entertainment. A short and quirky Par 4, it measures only 315 yards from the blue tees and 295 from the white, and possesses all sorts of elevation changes and potential tree trouble that force you to make a crucial decision on the tee do you take on the green with a driver, or hang back safely with a mid-iron leaving yourself an easy pitch up the hill to the large, flat putting surface? You may not get a glimpse of Mt. Baker from Lake Padden GC, the City s municipal course that sits between the lake for which North Bellingham Golf Course is much more of a factor there than it is anywhere else in Bellingham. Laid out on 200 acres of a former cattle ranch, North Bellingham opened in 1995 and was designed by Canadian Ted Locke who found an atypical site with very few trees but really made the most of what movement in the ground there was. As is the case with all of Bellingham s courses, late summer/early Shuksan Golf Course. Courtesy Shuksan fall may be the best time to play here as the weather is usually ideal and the views of Mt. Baker picture perfect. You ll probably it is named and 1,785ft high Galbraith Mountain, but see it at its best in fact if you sign up for the inaugural it matters not. Lake Padden GC is as forested as Whatcom County Open, a 36-hole event that will be North Bellingham is barren, and the cedars, firs, and played at North Bellingham and Sudden Valley on pines give character and beauty to what is surely one of the best munis in the State. Scott McBeath, the Sept 28/29 (contact either club). READ MORE 20 Golf Today Northwest

continued from page 20 superintendent, performs miracles here achieving results that no 50,000-round-a-year, $29.44-for-18 holes, city-owned course has any right to expect.

8 continued from page 20 superintendent, performs miracles here achieving results that no 50,000-round-a-year, $29.44-for-18 holes, city-owned course has any right to expect. The golf so far has been magnificent and is certainly all you need for a fine fall weekend getaway. But if you re coming this far north you probably have Semiahmoo in your sights. When the 198-room hotel closed in December last year, a victim of the bookings slump that accompanied the recession, the two We did have a good summer season with a lot of transient golf, says Eaton. But with the return of the hotel we are expecting to do a lot more business. Likewise Stuart Rolfe, President of Wright Hotels, is confident the hotel s re-birth can only be a good thing for the golf courses. I expect it to have a very positive effect, he says. It s clear the previous owner wasn t able to invest the capital that the courses required, but superintendents Vance Much and Bill Dierdorff managed to keep them Semiahmoo Golf Club hole #12 golf courses that were part of the resort Semiahmoo and Loomis Trail remained open. But because of their association with the shuttered resort, business went noticeably downhill. It was inevitable due to the loss of golf packages and corporate activity, says Director of Golf Operations, Brett Eaton. When conferences and other corporate events were happening at the hotel we really had a captive audience. Now that Seattle-based Wright Hotels, the managing member of a consortium called the Resort Semiahmoo LLC, has re-opened the hotel, the immediate future for the courses looks altogether brighter. looking great while the hotel was closed. Rolfe, whose Resort Semiahmoo partnership bought the hotel for $19.5m in June and then ploughed $6 million more into upgrades before the August reopening, says no key capital projects are planned for the courses at the moment. We don t feel anything major is necessary right now, he says. There are plans to renew the cart fleet fairly soon, but really it will mostly be a case of maintaining the courses in their current excellent shape. Well maintained golf courses seems to be a theme in Bellingham. 22 Golf Today Northwest Click here to learn more about golf in the Bellingham region

SWOT Analysis Golf Course Renovation Combined

SWOT Analysis Golf Course Renovation Combined STRENGTHS: All residents own Golf Course RH Well established Golf Staff RH Resident Members use of personal owned golf carts RH Loyal membership of 60K rounds