By Design - Winter 2019

architect,” says Liddy. “Any changes would have been an issue but fortunately all have remained—and they have all stayed focused on the guidance of the master plan.” “The membership is happy with the strategy,” says O’Brien. “The ease of budgeting allows for our team to engage on annual basis in changes to the course.” Staying efficient The financial trade-off for spreading the work over multiple years is typically a higher total cost—clubs that can afford to close their doors can reap economies of scale. But doing work in smaller chunks can bring its own efficiencies. At The Club at Ravenna in Littleton, Colorado, Kevin Atkinson, ASGCA, has worked with an in-house team on almost all of the golf course renovation work. He estimates that by having club staff undertake renovation work alongside their existing maintenance duties, the work is 40 percent cheaper than bringing in a contractor. When the club opened in 2006, it had 160,000 square feet of bunkers, and greens that were severely contoured, resulting in tough conditions for players. “One of the primary goals of our ongoing project, which began in 2014, has been to make the course more playable for members, so they could actually enjoy playing golf time and time again,” says Atkinson. Reducing the maintenance burden has also been a priority. “We have reduced the sand bunkers to 80,000 square feet and rebuilt, or softened, greens,” says Atkinson. “By utilizing the latest research findings from Michigan State University, we saved nearly $100,000 in material costs, just in the greens. “Because of the method of how we build things, it gives the owner and PHASED PROJECTS Kevin Atkinson, ASGCA, has worked with an in-house team at The Club at Ravenna in Colorado on recent golf course renovation work. He has reduced the square footage of bunkers by 50 percent Photos: Kevin Atkinson, ASGCA 14 | By Design