The Fall golf season is nearly upon us. I am truly amazed that we have reached the end of summer so quickly. The golf weather has been ideal and I hope you have enjoyed your summer golf and our beautiful course as much as I have.
Preparations continue for the beginning of the clubhouse renovation. In the latter part of September work will begin in the lower area, especially in the grill room and locker rooms. Please pay careful attention to club communications about the schedule for vacating the locker room. We appreciate your cooperation in removing your locker room gear in advance of the deadline.
I hope you have all been impressed as I have been about the speed and precision of the bunker replacement work on the front 9. By next Spring, the bunkers on that side of the course will be ready for play. You may already be able to see how these bunkers will frame our fairways and green complexes in interesting and new ways and elevate the playing experience to a new level. The Board of Directors has approved the completion of back 9 bunker work for 2023, accelerating the timetable for this work and realizing cost savings at the same time from the original estimate. So, by the beginning of 2024, all 18 holes will have consistent, high-quality and visually appealing bunkers for our enjoyment. Congratulations to Drew, his team and the crews from the contractor who have all made this a reality.
Over the next two months, the Board of Directors will conduct a process to evaluate whether to proceed and how to finance the next projects in the long-range plan, which include the chosen golf course priorities—the upgrade of the chipping facility, the renovations of the 6th and 7th greens—and whether we should continue to plan for the bar and simulator addition as the current plan indicates. New ideas are emerging for which we should give fair consideration. The Golf Course Master Plan Committee has reengaged our course architect and new ideas are percolating about hole renovations and smaller course-wide improvements (cart path work, tee box improvements, tree planting and removal, etc.) that you may find exciting.
We will consider how to address our driving range challenges, our parking issues, our scoreboard deficiencies and determine if we have the best plan currently in place to upgrade our chipping facility. There will be a discussion as well to consider next-level improvements to the clubhouse dining and social experience. In addition, a growing group of members have been working hard to imagine how to create a high-quality pickle-ball center and a funding strategy that would make it feasible to add this great amenity to our membership.
The Board will be scheduling a special member meeting in October to share recommendations for a revised plan emerging from all of these conversations for your review and commentary. The overall goal is to present a revised five-year plan to the membership that is clearly affordable for the club and for you as members and reflective of your feedback throughout this process at the annual meeting in December.
We have made great progress over the past two years—the bunkers, the South patio, the halfway house, #10-hole renovation, cart-corral improvements, the parking lot repaved and other smaller improvements. We have an ambitious clubhouse project about to commence that will elevate member satisfaction with this venue. We should take time to celebrate these improvements and learn the lessons that come from them. But, I have also long held to the belief that we should always be thinking about our future in new and exciting ways. The club can always be better tomorrow than we are today. These conversations are exhilarating, sometimes contentious, but always interesting. They engender pride in the kind of club we are and want to be. They provide a roadmap for sensible investment and answer the questions about when and how we will improve that many of you ask me as we converse at the club. I look forward to this year’s conversation about our future.
My best to you,
Sean Sullivan
“The perfect round of golf would be an 18. I almost dreamed it once. I had seventeen holes in one and lipped out the last. I was mad as hell.”
–Ben Hogan