Friday, April 28, 2017

Golf Course Renovation Project - Finished and Thank You

August 14, 2013 seems like a long time ago, actually it was 1,353 days ago. That is when we started Phase 1 of our golf course renovation project. We have accomplished a lot since that start date. It seems like eons ago and it seems just like it was yesterday.

Under golf course architect Tim Liddy’s guidance we have built 94 new tees, 162 bunkers, 12 new greens and facelifted 3 others. We have installed 9 miles of new drainage and we have 502 surface inlets to feed that drainage system. We have removed a few trees to give us long views and we have new mainline irrigation in place to feed precious water to all ends of our golf courses properly. We have installed over 67 acres of sod and we have seeded almost 5 acres of fescue no mow areas. We have rebuilt some water hazards and installed some beautiful walls to enhance a couple of golf holes. Most of all we are done and that is a great thing to have in our rearview mirror.


I would be remiss if I didn’t take some space on my blog to say thank you to some fine people. First is to our two golf course superintendents Nate Tegtmeier and Tim Sims and their assistant superintendents Mitchell Meyers and Craig Connell. These gentlemen are the ones that made it all happen. They maintained the open 27 holes everyday to keep our golfers happy. They have worked a tremendous amount of hours to make sure the construction went well and they helped me to keep from going insane. Nate and Tim were really the ones that kept a level head and helped me problem solve and work through our issues to get this work completed. My hats off to them, I owe them a huge debt of gratitude. The same goes out to our staff of full time and seasonal employees, without them and their hard work this would never have happened. Thank you all!


To General Manager, Jim Cutter and Director of Golf, Scott Howe I really appreciate the many hours and the countless amount of visits you two made out to the golf courses to look at items, help make decisions and give me your expertise. Most of all I appreciate your support throughout this project. I am sure there were times you thought I was nuts but you trusted me and I do appreciate it.

To golf course architect, Tim Liddy you and I may have not seen eye to eye on a few things, however at the end of this project I have to say we have a great product thanks to your keen eye and your ability to fit and match Dye’s ideas back into this property. A job well done! To be able to make it all work and how beautiful it looks is truly amazing. Thank you Tim. I do appreciate all of the time on phone calls, emails and visits you made to Des Moines Golf. I really appreciate you letting me participate in helping shape and mold your ideas into golf course features. I have learned a lot from you over the past 4.5 years. I will not forget it.


To Erik Christenson at EC Design., you and Lisa were great to work with and the fact that you retrofitted a new mainline system into this property was nothing short of amazing. You are the best and the fact that you were 10 miles down the road made it even better for us. Thank you for letting me call at all hours of the day and pick your brain. I do appreciate the trips you made out here to our property to give us you expertise.

To Eric Ludewig at Pro Angle. Thanks for making a great product and for keeping those trucks running to Iowa.


To the folks at Landscapes Unlimited a very special thank you to committing to Des Moines Golf and Country Club and your ability as a construction and irrigation company to perform and achieve what we all wanted. A special thank you to Jeff Ricketts, Mike “Squeak” Ufken, Lucas Schroeder, Daniel Zumudia, Mitch Hock, Victor Ramirez, Tom Works, Denise Haake and Project Manager Ty Arndt. You folks made it all happen for the last 4.5 years. There has been a lot of work on the grounds here and behind the scenes making sure that we got what we paid for. Your work speaks for itself and we have a great finished product thanks to your great company and your professional abilities. A special shout out to Bill Kubly, Kurt Huseman and Roy Wilson for your leadership and great guidance of the staff you have at LUI.

Lastly to my wife Sherry, you have sacrificed a lot for me and kept our family going while I have been gone. I love you and thank you for letting me do what I love to do.

On to the Solheim Cup 2017!