Renovation Project
Recently Fry/Straka reached out to the county and city to find suitable base mapping in order to get started on the schematic design phase. At that time Ron was working on locating base mapping, through various avenues, with limited success. The county and city however were able to send us digital aerial mapping with two-foot topography and parcel boundaries. However, Ron was still searching for additional base mapping to include potentially updated aerial photography, property/parcel lines, rights-of-way, easements, utilities, and environmentally designated areas such as floodplains, floodways and wetlands.
The week prior to him leaving Sun City Ron put us in contact with Peter Verdicchio, RLA who has been the lead landscape architect for Sun City Texas since day one. Peter sent us additional base mapping material to include flood lines, utility locations, easements, property/parcel lines and detailed topography. Upon inspection we learned that the mapping had a different coordinate system than the county, and the topography, while more detailed than the county's, was actually preconstruction of both White Wing and Legacy Hills Golf Courses. So as you can imagine, we had a variety of questions.
With Ron leaving two Mondays ago Jason Straka took the initiative of reaching out to Peter directly for talks regarding the base mapping and other engineering and permitting questions. He works closely, hand-in-hand with a particular engineering firm on Sun City. He also found out the county has one coordinate system and Sun City has its own, so they moved the base information over to the system he provided. They also talked in depth about the topography and flood lines. While the topo he provided is more detailed they agreed that the county topo should be utilized since it is reflective of the actual golf course grading but that the flood lines must be transferred over per his information. He also learned that the county and/or city has enacted strict floodway regulations which may affect our schematic plans, and will certainly effect permitting, construction and construction timing. Peter suggested, and F/S concur, that he and the engineer should be contacted and brought into the fold immediately for effective planning. We are on a tight timeline as can be viewed in the attached schedule. Without their knowledge and work however, it is not possible to project out if the permitting timeline, and hence the construction timeline, are even feasible as shown.
Before we finalize schematic design and prepare cost estimates it is imperative that the engineering team review the designs and have the opportunity to discuss them with the Improvement Committee, and even perhaps with city and county permitting officials.
An engineer is crucial to the success of a project such as this one, to handle the following tasks:
q Surveying & Mapping
§ Locating, marking, and maintaining markers of the site property
§ Identifying, locating, marking, and maintaining markers of any restrictive easements
§ Establishing benchmarks for construction
§ Preparation of base map including:
3D high resolution orthorectified aerial photograph or LIDAR
Property lines
Topographic lines (max two foot interval)
Rights-of-way, easements, utilities
Restricted areas, such as wetlands, flood areas, etc.
Tree lines and vegetation cover
Structures
Any other significant site feature(s)
q permitting (with the assistance of the other design team members)
§ Preparation and submittal of environmental review documents
§ Soil and erosion control plans
§ Total site storm water management plan and hydrology study
§ Design of outlet control device (including dams) for all ponds
§ Any other documents required by local, state or federal permitting
q Soils Engineering
§ Soil survey and borings as needed
§ Monitor soil compaction during construction, if necessary
q Structural Engineering
§ Design and inspect construction of any structural walls
§ Design (or review design) and inspect construction of any bridges
q Site Engineering
§ Design and inspect construction of all roads, parking lots, and golf cart paths
§ Design and inspect installation of all utilities to the golf course, the clubhouse, drives and parking areas, etc.
We are currently in touch with an engineering firm that is familiar with Sun City and will keep all those involved up to date with our progress.
Financials
We will finish 2015 with a deficit to budget of approximately $408K. I will provide more detailed information on the 2015 financials at the February meeting, after Finance Committee approval, as well as preliminary January numbers.
2016 golf pass and punch card sales through January 17 trailed 2015 sales during the same period by $108K.
Revenue
In an effort to generate additional revenue and increase golfer satisfaction we have come up with the following plan that we will implement in Feb. The golf course closures on Mondays will be reduced to one Monday a month for each course rather than a continuing rotation of closures. This opens up an additional 14 Mondays a year which gives us almost a half month of revenue while still allowing the Superintendents a closed day for maint. With the assumption that we could possibly lose four of those Mondays to weather we calculate that this could bring in an additional $30K (conservatively) in revenue.
Pace of Play
Have we ever given any thought of letting the waiting groups on Par 3’s hit up before the group playing that hole starts to putt out? I’ve spoken with a few golfers from the northern United States and they say that this is a normal practice where they are from. Thoughts?
Golf Pro Report
2015 Golfnow
Overall rounds and revenue finished down year over year. This is not surprising given the wet weather and the water line issue at Cowan Creek. The last quarter was trending better heading into December and with a solid December, which was up nearly $4,000, the overall year was down approximately $13,000.
January is off to good start given the better weather we’ve seen as compared to January 2015. One trend we hope will continue into this year, that we saw towards the end of last year, is the growth of our revenue per round.
Merchandise Sales
One of the strong areas in 2015 was merchandise sales. While the weather did not cooperate as much as we would have liked, we were still able to stay on track to make our budget number in merchandise sales. This is thanks in large part to the outstanding support from the MGA, WGA, and CGA!
Non-Resident Tournaments
We’re starting off well this year with a current expected revenue just under $84,370. This is far better than previous years including 2013 when times were fantastic. We retained all of our major tournaments such as Dell MAW, GT Chamber of Comm. and CASA of Wilco. We also retained the 2016 UIL State Championship and now have the State Preview in February. So we are off to a great start.
Events
The Superintendent Revenge in early December was another great success. We had perfect weather and a full field turnout!
The 2016 Chili Bowl was another nice event although turnout was significantly less than year’s past. Hopefully that was an anomaly and future events will be as popular, or more so, going forward.
New Forward Tees – Legacy Hills
The new tees have been in use for a couple months now and seem to be receiving positive feedback. The WGA groups have indicated they plan to use these tees more often this year and going forward.
Superintendent Report
White Wing
White Wing has switched to a three cup per green rotation. We have placed three cups on each green and put a plastic “plug” over two holes and will rotate thru these three locations for a short period and then relocate all three for another period of time watching for sloppy edges and wear patterns. We continue to monitor greens moisture and tracking results to maintain soil moisture thru the winter months when moisture levels are critical and tougher to predict without visual turf growth and color. White Wing Superintendent, Jonathan Ayers has reviewed construction schematic revision “B” with Dir. of Golf and team for possible course changes during course renovation occurring summer of 2016. We have made fourth application of herbicide Bensumec to help control Poa annua outbreak in the spring on the greens. We have hired and Assistant Super for White Wing to tentatively begin the last week of January.
Legacy Hills
We recently went to the 3 cup rotation and capped the cups that aren’t being used for play. We’re 2 weeks in and I am very pleased with how it is going. We will pay very close attention to wear patterns and determine when we will need to cut new holes. We are in the process of re-seeding overseeded tees that are weak and should be done with it the week of 1/18/16. We’ve toured the course on 1/12/15 with 2 members of the wildlife committee and we found spots to put out bird feeders for the Eastern Bluebird as part of our Audubon Certification.
Cowan Creek
This month we have applied our third and final herbicide application for the pre-emergent control of Poa annua. Our focus this month has been on cart traffic control, and we have added stakes and yellow bungee back on the course. We have also begun topdressing areas near entries and exits with topdressing sand to create a buffer for wear areas. Other focuses will be on winter weed control, overseed fertilization, and re-seeding weak areas on fairways, green surrounds, and tees. We are now on the three hole system along with the other two courses.
All three courses are monitoring moisture the same way and we will alternate including their reports in the future golf staff reports. Below is a copy of White Wing’s report for week two of January.
Winter Soil Moisture Readings | |||||||||||
Course: WW | |||||||||||
Month: Jan 2016 | |||||||||||
Date: | Soil | Date: | Soil | Date: | 1/14/2016 | Soil | |||||
Hole | High Area | Low Area | Temp | Hole | High Area | Low Area | Temp | Hole | High Area | Low Area | Temp |
#1 | 22.8% | 20.3% | | #1 | 30.6% | 25.2% | | #1 | 28.2% | 25.2% | |
#2 | 24.3% | 21.3% | | #2 | 29.2% | 26.2% | | #2 | 25.7% | 24.3% | 46.2 |
#3 | 16.9% | 28.2% | | #3 | 19.3% | 30.6% | | #3 | 21.8% | 25.2% | |
#4 | 18.4% | 22.3% | | #4 | 16.9% | 24.7% | | #4 | 17.4% | 25.6% | 46.6 |
#5 | 16.4% | 22.3% | | #5 | 19.3% | 29.2% | | #5 | 15.4% | 23.8% | |
#6 | 23.8% | 27.2% | | #6 | 30.1% | 27.7% | | #6 | 27.2% | 28.2% | 45.9 |
#7 | 24.3% | 19.3% | | #7 | 28.2% | 18.9% | | #7 | 23.8% | 17.4% | |
#8 | 20.3% | 19.8% | | #8 | 23.8% | 25.2% | | #8 | 24.3% | 24.7% | 46.4 |
#9 | 17.9% | 22.3% | | #9 | 23.8% | 25.7% | | #9 | 17.9% | 26.7% | |
#10 | 27.2% | 27.7% | | #10 | 27.7% | 26.2% | | #10 | 26.7% | 24.3% | |
#11 | 22.3% | 26.2% | | #11 | 17.4% | 30.6% | | #11 | 17.9% | 31.6% | 46.2 |
#12 | 22.6% | 21.3% | | #12 | 12.9% | 17.0% | | #12 | 25.5% | 20.5% | |
#13 | 22.8% | 24.7% | | #13 | 15.2% | 19.6% | | #13 | 17.9% | 23.8% | |
#14 | 19.8% | 23.8% | | #14 | 19.6% | 18.5% | | #14 | 16.5% | 29.5% | 46.9 |
#15 | 27.7% | 27.2% | | #15 | 20.3% | 23.8% | | #15 | 28.2% | 31.8% | |
#16 | 24.3% | 20.3% | | #16 | 19.9% | 19.2% | | #16 | 25.7% | 25.2% | 49.2 |
#17 | 27.7% | 23.8% | | #17 | 21.4% | 21.0% | | #17 | 22.3% | 21.3% | |
#18 | 19.3% | 23.7% | | #18 | 20.8% | 30.6% | | #18 | 19.8% | 21.3% | 47.6 |
PG | 23.3% | 15.9% | | PG | 22.3% | 16.8% | | PG | 21.8% | 13.5% | |
CG | 20.3% | 24.7% | | CG | 21.8% | 24.7% | | CG | 27.7% | 25.7% | |
N | 24.7% | 20.8% | | N | 17.8% | 19.3% | | N | 19.8 | 16.2 | |
Gary Wilson II
Director of Golf
Sun City Texas
