Every superintendent’s hands tell a story. Tough as worn boot leather, marked with the scars of the trade, a superintendent’s hands are testament to long days and honest work that never seems to end. Their hands groom and maintain the course and grounds that are an owner’s most valuable asset while holding the employment and income stability for their crews.

By all accounts, a superintendent’s hands shape the future. That’s as true with the things that are visible — tee boxes, fairways and greens — as those that are not, namely the meticulous plans that support every aspect of an agronomic program. How do the best superintendents plan for the future? They start with three basics:

1. An overall plan for their work. The overall plan for the care and upkeep of your course establishes the standards of excellence by which you should be measured. The agronomic plan describes your cultural practices for the basics and should include detailed descriptions of fertility, irrigation, labor, arboreal and the sub-plans that support each of those major pillars.

Plan so that you can make your agronomic plan an educational and informational guide that uses photographs and narrated video to keep your owner, board and greens committee well-informed. In addition to setting standards, your agronomic plan is a great opportunity for you to teach key stakeholders what they should expect of you and your team.

2. A comprehensive communications plan. Once your agronomic plan — together with its supporting details and sub-plans — is established and approved, it’s time to implement your communications plan. Target all stakeholders — your team, the rest of the management staff and your golfers — to help everyone understand your plan of action. This is not a time to seek permission. This is the time to demonstrate your knowledge, experience and expertise.

Set a schedule for your messaging and meet it. Use multiple media to deliver the message — video, brief written descriptions and small-group field days, when you take members onto the course to demonstrate how your programs are being executed.

Some superintendents become victim to overpromising details and conditions that cannot be delivered. Be alert and carefully describe what you will accomplish. By the same token, do not understate the value of your efforts. This is no game for sandbaggers. Demonstrate your professionalism and capabilities with clear-cut descriptions of who you are, what your team goals are and how the goals will be successfully achieved. Show what features you will emphasize on the course and explain the benefits of each element of your strategy.

3. A self-improvement plan. GCSAA provides countless opportunities for superintendents to stay current on science and technology and to learn about new trends. The most respected and rewarded superintendents also seek out opportunities — and a regimen — for self-improvement. Here are a handful of keys for improving your own capabilities:

• Read more. Leaders in every field are readers who continually gather more information that bolsters insight and wisdom.
• Get fit. The pressures that come with the job and the common inclination to treat oneself well when one feels overlooked or unappreciated combine to add weight, cholesterol and risk to your well-being. Get in shape and stay there.
• Identify and address blind spots. What do you overlook or consider to be inconsequential? Which people or circumstances trigger frustrations during your day? The better you identify threats to your overall view of your world, the better you will navigate unexpected events.
• Live with BHAGS. Set big, hairy, audacious goals for yourself and your crew. The bigger your dreams, the more fun it is when you make them real.
• Avoid negative people. Their attitudes can be contagious and poison morale. Build your network around positive people who inspire you and bring out innovative thinking and your best work.

Superintendents hold in their hands the franchise value of their course. Describe your plan to make it even better. Communicate your plans clearly and honestly. And never stop making yourself an even more valuable professional.

Something special is happening at Concord Country Club. At the start of 2021, a renovation effort will resume. When it is finished, ideally by the beginning of April, the golf course will feature two completely new holes and three others will have been significantly revised to reflect the design philosophy of William Flynn, Concord’s original architect.

The effort marks the final phase of a master plan approved in 2017.

What is particularly noteworthy is that Concord superintendent and facilities manager Greg D’Antonio and his team are doing virtually all the work themselves.

“We sold the master plan (with the assurance) it would be done with no assessment to the membership,” D’Antonio says, “and we would not interrupt the golf season. So we’re doing all this work with (scheduled) completion by April 1 when the handicap posting season begins. We had to spread the money out over three fiscal years as well and not reduce any revenue in season.”

Concord is a club that out of necessity keeps a close eye on its bottom line. Located in West Chester, Pennsylvania, just north of the Delaware state line in suburban Philadelphia, it was founded in 1918 as the Brinton Lake Club; the present name was adopted in 1927. The club was purchased by Wilmington Country Club in 1945 and sold to Lammot du Pont Copeland in 1961. Following his death in 1983, the club passed to his son Gerret van Sweringen Copeland, who, in turn, sold it to the members in 1997.

The ongoing renovation effort began in 2017. The first two-thirds of the project saw the construction of two completely new holes, Nos. 14 and 15. The final phase will see the addition of a massive bunker at the 16, along with the removal of numerous trees from the 17th and 18th holes, trees that will be replaced by 21 fairway bunkers.

D’Antonio, a Penn State graduate who has been at Concord for a decade, is particularly excited about the changes on 16, including the restoration of a bunker designed to resemble Pine Valley’s Hell’s Half Acre.

“It was taken out during the Great Depression.” D’Antonio says. “We will be reintroducing that this winter with some modifications. We’ll be shifting it off to the side a little bit to allow the high handicappers and the ladies to navigate around it. Something that will be really unique to Concord.”

D’Antonio oversees a full-time crew of 18. The crew has done virtually all the nuts-and-bolts work of the renovation including laying sod, installing bunker sand, overhauling the irrigation system and removing trees.

Some 2,000 trees have been taken out over the course of the project. D’Antonio’s crew has removed over 90 percent of them; the exceptions were trees larger than the crew was equipped to handle or those that were encroaching on putting greens or property lines.

D’Antonio sees keeping virtually the entire renovation effort in house as the wave of the future for most clubs. “Certainly at the mid-level private clubs,” he says. “I think (an in-house renovation) is an opportunity to continually improve the members’ experience, the playability of the golf course, keep up with maintenance and changes in technology, and change the course to adjust to technology on a budget without tackling more debt for the club and not shutting the club down in season.”

Doing the renovation in house is saving D’Antonio’s employers a considerable amount of money. It’s estimated the project will cost the club approximately $400,000. Had the work been contracted out, the sum would have been an estimated $650,000.

D’Antonio says the renovation effort gives his team members a break from their regular routine and lets them recharge their batteries. “When you look to attract and retain labor, cutting cups, spraying and mowing gets monotonous,” he said, “and I think people really enjoy seeing their hard work in a finished product. So (the renovation) has allowed us to attract talented people and keep them on. They’re able to see the fruits of their labor and the improvements that we continually make to the club.”

D’Antonio points out that working on the renovation has allowed members of his team to broaden their base of professional knowledge, experience and skills, thereby enhancing their value to a potential future employer.

“They can get a lot of experience they may not have had at other courses, working with machinery, working close with the architect” — Jim Nagle of Forse Design — “working closely with the shaping company (Mottin Golf), as well as involvement at the committee level with the greens chairman from a budgeting perspective,” D’Antonio says. “So really, it’s just trying to use what we have going on to attract and retain great talent and people that are hungry to learn. My philosophy has always been to help people achieve their goals. We bring them in, they get this experience and hopefully they move on to their own course or on to their next challenge in their career. They’re having the experience of doing a renovation and being able to sell that to their next employer.”

D’Antonio gives much of the credit for the success of the project to Nagle, who has worked for Forse Design for more than two decades and is a William Flynn devotee. In fact, his detective work some years ago helped confirm that Flynn did indeed design Conord’s golf course. Nagle and D’Antonio have a professional relationship dating back to the latter’s days as an assistant superintendent at Chester Valley Golf Club outside Philadelphia.

“He works on a number of Flynn courses,” D’Antonio says, “so essentially he designed these golf holes almost from scratch, using characteristics from what Flynn would have done. He’s kind of the creative mind. Where I try and come in is from a playability perspective, from an agronomic perspective, from being a player myself understanding what the members here will and will not like.

“We try and bring both our visions and both our ideas together and come up with a vision for not only the restoration, the renovation, but also the total golf course and how it presents itself. I can’t say enough good things about him in terms of his knowledge in Flynn and his famous designs, but also his willingness to listen to others, and how it will play every day and how it will be received with the members.”

Nagle believes that while some clubs, specifically those with vast financial sources, may be in a position to shut down for a season to do a major renovation or restoration, the vast majority will follow the Concord model — now and going forward.

“They’re going to do stuff over time,” he says. “And that’s the way a lot of our clients are. At Forse Design, we actually call our master plans long-range improvement plans because most clubs aren’t looking at two to five years, they’re looking at two to five, five to seven, or seven to 10, or even further. Because for them to take a master plan and just bite off on that from the get-go is too much.

“I think (in-house renovations) are the wave of the future. I think superintendents are becoming more hands on. Not that they were not in the past. But I think they have the ability to take on more of this work. I think you’re going to see more of that, going to see more of that team effort, where smaller contractors come in and do portions of the work and do it well and then the superintendent has the ability to come in and do the things that they can do in house.”

Nagle adds that members should be aware that while a renovation or restoration is ongoing, their superintendent will be juggling added responsibilities.

“The membership always has to remember that the superintendent and his crew are there first and foremost to maintain the golf course,” he says. “That’s why Greg has done such a good job because he’s been able to juggle maintaining the golf course along with also doing these projects.”

Nagle cites D’Antonio’s interest in golf course architecture and his inquisitiveness as keys to the success of the project at Concord.

“Greg has a really good eye as a superintendent,” Nagle says. “He plays golf, he loves architecture, he loves his job as a superintendent, he’s very good at it, and he loves history. For Ron Forse and I, what better to ask for out of a superintendent?”

Nagle notes that D’Antonio wants the best out of everyone involved in the project.

“He’s not afraid to ask questions that need to be asked,” Nagle adds. “And he has made me rethink things and kind of keeps me in check, in a good way. And I think that’s why he and I have developed such a good relationship.

“He’s going to get the most out of himself. He’s going to get the most out of us. He’s going to get the most out of his crew. Because when you’re doing stuff in house like he does, he’s going to get the best product for his membership.”

Rick Woelfel is a Philadelphia-based writer and frequent Golf Course Industry contributor.

The Titans, born of Sky and Earth, ruled the world until they were overthrown by the Olympian deities, led by Zeus with his powerful master thunderbolt. Technician titans still exist and, using all their talent, make the seemingly impossible possible. A worthy technician will save the day with exceptional ability and by contributing to a culture that is respectful and productive. Often caught in a stormy gray area between superintendents and assistants, the transformative powers of a leading technician are something every crew needs.

Talent and teams

At Medinah Country Club in suburban Chicago, there are three courses (Nos. 1, 2 and 3). Course 3 has hosted three U.S. Opens, two PGA Championships and the 2012 Ryder Cup. Across the entire property they roll out $1 million to $2 million of inventory every day. “We have few if any breakdowns,” says Steve Cook, director of grounds operations. “We have a very good mechanic staff. They’re tuned into play and what the expectations are on the golf course. They know how preparing for play is important and how they’re a key part of that. They are the key part of it, actually.”

Brian Bressler, Medinah’s equipment/shop manager, leads a team of three fulltime technicians (one recently hired) and four seasonal staff, which includes two additional technicians and two shop stewards. One shop steward is responsible for everything inside and the other takes care of the yard. Seasonal employees are recruited in the same manner as turf interns and they come from mechanical schools across the country. Medinah employees are developing a good relationship with a nearby school and are actively working to establish a mechanical recruiting pipeline.

Cook spent more than 20 years at Oakland Hills Country Club in suburban Detroit before moving to Medinah in April 2018. He says there has been some turnover in the past 18 months, but things are going well. Cook is especially pleased with the progress in the shop. “Hopefully, it is something we can manage like the turf side,” he says. “We bring new people in, train them and help place them in their next role.” Working at this highly regarded venue is a key benefit of the job and they have already placed one mechanic in the Chicago area.

Robert Nichols, equipment manager and assistant superintendent at Willow Brook Country Club in Tyler, Texas, would agree that training is important, as is being appreciated. “One big issue with techs is that they get caught between assistant superintendent and superintendent,” he says. “Assistants come and go, but techs can be long-term. I would encourage supers to keep their techs happy. Give your tech the raise and praise they deserve. Training is a big factor.”

Both Medinah and Willow Brook have a prestigious membership with high expectations, were established in the early 1920s and have a rich golf history. Willow Brook has a newly-renovated 18 holes, two putting greens, a practice hole, two driving range tees and a four-hole short course designed to teach children the game of golf.

There is plenty to care for and Nichols spends a “typical” week working Monday through Saturday from 5:30 a.m. until about 4 p.m. He stages equipment, checks the cut quality on turf and checks green speeds for consistency. He helps with verticut and aerification setup and operation, grinds reels as necessary, services and repairs equipment, and checks the course for damage. Saturdays are for picking up sticks, blowing pine needles and servicing greens mowers plus many, many other responsibilities.

Being a technician is busy and Cook and Nichols both note that low pay is problem. “What is affecting how many people are interested in the job is money,” Cook says. “We require techs and if you are recruiting from the construction industry, heavy equipment, auto, trucking or wherever, you have to be competitive if you want a good one.”

Techs can start with salaries in the low $20,000s, but that will grow to six figures for the best. That’s a huge range and one recruiting tool is to show candidates a clear path to better pay, a promotion or both. Get recruits engaged and interested from the start whether you plan to retain them at your property or help them move up the ladder to receive a promotion elsewhere.

“The first thing I stress to young techs is that simple service is your best friend,” Nichols says. “Changing oil and greasing is paramount. Pull out and put away all equipment to make sure it starts, runs and is safe for use. Machines and buildings have issues from time to time, that is a fact. Getting upset doesn’t help and if it bothers you when things break, you’re in the wrong profession. Be organized with your maintenance routines.”

There must be a component of continuing education. “Tech, superintendent, turf and equipment sites all help do the job,” says Nichols, and he also stays current with Environmental Protection Agency regulation changes. Learning about on-board diagnostics 1 & 2 are a must and emission controls are “here to stay.” Nichols shares that the Willow Brook staff is fantastic and one of the best parts of his job is helping the staff exceed all expectations.

Cultivating the culture

At work, exceeding the expectations of the members — and each other — is possible when employees understand those expectations and hold each other accountable. At Medinah, one expectation is for the equipment to be in great shape. If something needs to be fixed, it gets fixed. “The equipment and people in the shop are the most important part of any golf course operation,” Cook says. “I can do what the assistant does, but I can’t do what the technician does. It’s the same for training.”

With a little more than a year between starting in his new role and hosting the BMW Championship in August 2019, Cook says he “slowed everything down. We governed the equipment down, some of it to 1 mph, so the staff could understand the importance of respecting it. Staff get frustrated when the equipment isn’t working and that can start a downward spiral of apathy. So we slowed down and started washing equipment routinely. People had to adjust to a culture of caring for an inventory of $5 million of equipment that somebody else paid for. We are still driving tractors in first gear. After three seasons, we’re ready to loosen up for greater productivity.”

Medinah also put about $300,000 into renovating the maintenance facility “to show respect to the technicians who occupy that space and to show the staff and members that equipment maintenance is important,” Cook says. The staff are now more cognizant of the equipment and why it is important to get the culture right. The budget for fixing equipment isn’t unlimited, but it’s fluid. Equipment is required for the job.

Bressler notes that it’s important to have good service from your distributor and the best way to keep staff up to speed is “training, training, training, everything from how to use it to what it is used for and how to keep it clean and maintained properly.”

Of utmost importance is the quality of cut and the team is “pretty dialed in on that,” Cook says. “One mechanic will go out on each golf course, each morning, and check all the mowers for quality of cut. They also check soil temperatures and surface temperatures. They are part of the mowing team to make sure that everything goes smoothly.”

Alongside the morning mowing routine, Bressler has developed a maintenance system that works for Medinah. He has set up the shop to be as digital as possible. All the technicians have a 10-inch tablet and the operating manuals are on a Google Drive in a shared folder. The agronomy team can access these manuals from the course, and for everyone, being able to access manuals without traipsing to a central location saves a lot of time.

Google Drive also houses logs for repairs and servicing. Bressler has created Google forms and every piece of equipment has a QR Code. “When we’re working on a piece of equipment, it has an ID tag on it that has the make, model, serial number, year and its QR Code,” he says. “We scan the code and it takes us to the manual(s) for that machine. We can troubleshoot quickly.” Another benefit to this system is that it’s free and there is plenty of storage space. Finding a reliable, easy-to-use system that works for your tech crew is paramount to implementing a respectful culture where everyone consistently knows what to expect.

Bressler participates in meetings and the maintenance staff is part of manufacturer demonstrations. The technicians will care for the equipment so they need to be part of the process from the start. Medinah hasn’t found any autonomous solutions that fit its needs, but they are open to anything new.

As you evaluate the efficiency of your program, what kinds of techs are ideal for your organization? There are many different types: irrigation, cart, spray, equipment, repair and the list of titles continues. Concentrate on the mix of techs who will work for you. Are language barriers causing a problem? Different terminology used among generations needs to be worked through, but if multiple languages are spoken in the shop, is it possible to have manuals accessible in multiple languages? Also, is all the equipment suitable for people of different sizes? For instance, can all of your machines be adjusted for the tall and the small? If not, is there a safe way to fix this, or a way to assign equipment in a way that everyone can work in the most ergonomic way possible? Considerate details make a difference.

Though the Titans faded out of popularity long ago, the technicians never will. It’s paramount they are respected in the way they should be, given the chance for raises and promotions, and can work their way through a career that is fulfilling. A powerful technician can transform your operation — and that’s not a myth.

“I have always put a big focus on the equipment repairs, on the shop and on the shop yard,” Cook says. “You have to take care of your house first and everything else will fall into line.”

Lee Carr is a Northeast Ohio-based writer and frequent Golf Course Industry contributor.

When your golf season is maxed out at 150 days, every round counts.

As does every detail. From man to beast to blade.

In Big Sky, Montana, elevated expectations are literal, with courses situated amid a setting reaching 7,500 feet above sea level.

As COVID-19 passed from stages of initial alarm to mandated sequesters to measuring risk to pent-up needs for distanced expeditions, the social distancing of the Treasure State saw an unexpected rise in both tourism and home sales.

“Rise” is actually putting it mildly. In the late summer and early autumn, the nation's fourth-largest geographic state — with more than 147,000 square miles of space — experienced a mountain-sized boon in bustle and business.

Echoing the country’s ubiquitous, pandemic-driven ascent in round counts across the summer months, Montana, with just 116 courses inside its borders, is counted among a “Mountain Region” of states that saw a 11.2 percent year-over-year upturn in rounds played through September, according to Golf Datatech. The inflation of play tracks as the third largest for any region in the country.

Traditionally revered for its outdoorsmen’s bounty of skiing, fly fishing, hiking, rafting, hunting and beyond, Big Sky’s mesh of a mere four courses (three private, one public) may be minute in count, but that hasn’t resulted in any abstention from the round rush, with folks coming in from all corners of the country.

Lone Mountain Land Co., owner of Big Sky member community clubs Spanish Peaks and The Reserve at Moonlight Basin, saw summer membership arriving from across the country, with folks seeking enhanced Montana time during the COVID-19 summer. “Most of our members are coming from bigger cities, whether that be Chicago, down South or coming from L.A.,” says Nick Berasi, head golf professional at The Reserve at Moonlight Basin.

And it’s not just the regulars seeking more elbow room amid the times of pandemic.

“Hearing from my real estate colleagues, they anticipated a slow season — now, they’re experiencing record sales,” Berasi says. “It’s booming.”

More sales equaled more stay equaled more play equaled more expectations for Berasi and Moonlight’s grounds team. The Jack Nicklaus-designed beauty of a beast at 8,000 yards from the tips and situated across the elevated grandeur of better than 800 acres of mountain terrain is no task for the timid — whether playing or maintaining the turf.

“Mother Nature and elevation dictate our course practices,” Berasi says. “Getting ready for a long winter at over 7,200 feet, it limits the amount of time for our season. Even though the summers are beautiful, we are working with a compacted time frame.”

Such compact sees around three-and-a-half months of golf. Rare — if ever — is there a play day to spare.

“With a 100-day season, we can’t close for a day of the week. I’ve worked at courses where, say, the course is closed on Mondays for the maintenance staff. Here, we can’t close for that day.” says Berasi, adding that tee times are adjusted to begin at 10 a.m. twice per week, allowing crews opportunity to complete work ahead of play. “We’re a destination, so if a member is out here for just one week, we can’t take that day away from their trip.”

Of course, for Montana mountain enthusiasts, golfer care is paired with a thorough purview of the natural surrounds. To wit: Every player or employee cart at Moonlight is affixed with bear spray.

“There’s a healthy black bear population out here,” Berasi adds. “Operationally, we can’t have any outdoor trash receptacles, so we ask people keep trash in the cart and we’ll handle it when golfers come back in. Bear aware. We have the bear spray in every cart. Nobody has had to use it, but we wouldn’t let our members or guests or staff go out without that spray, just in case.”

Of more enhanced agronomic concern is what moose and elk can do to pristine greens.

“There’s also a high population of deer and elk,” Berasi says, “and a 700-pound elk can do some serious damage to greens. For some reason, they’re really attracted to the flags — either they love or hate those flags. I’m not sure if anybody truly knows. So we pull all the flags at night.”

As early fall marks the transition season, the Moonlight team readies for winter.

After applying applicant on bentrgrass greens and tees to winterize surfaces and protect from snow mold, Moonlight’s head superintendent Garrett Turner and crew prep for snowfall.

“We put snow fencing all along the greens and tees, so we want to hold as much snow as we can, to keep that surface level from freezing,” Berasi explains of Turner’s tasks. “A good snow year for us — maybe six feet — is actually better for the course. Of course, the grass is dormant beneath that blanket, but it’s still alive and it’s protected from the winds.”

Temps dictate success patterns.

“This past year, we had a lot of early-season snow, followed by super cold weather, then back to 50-degree days,” Berasi says. “So, the snow melted and created ice at night — and that’s a killer. We had a few ice burn patches.”

High elevations are matched with high expectations for premier conditions.

“This season, you could initially see the signs of a hard winter, but come July we had cross-seeded, tilling down into the soil. That worked very well, and those areas grew back nicely,” Berasi adds. “Come spring, we were out there hand-shoveling all the greens and tees and getting some sunshine on those surfaces. By early May, we’re mowing.”

About 20 miles — and also around 1,200 feet — down the mountain, Big Sky Golf Course is part of the eponymous resort and has been operating since 1973. One of the first Arnold Palmer designs when it initially opened as a 9-holer, the public grounds enjoy a season lasting about 140 days.

“We could stay open a bit longer, but because of the necessary cultural practices and managing expenses, we find it better to set a hard date,” says Mark Wehrman, the course’s head golf professional. “Some years you feel real smart for doing it, and other years, well, there’s some hindsight, looking back and thinking maybe we could have stayed open a few more weeks.”

Akin to its private play neighbor up the way, Big Sky seeks to maximize its compact season. As snow arrives and temps fall, Big Sky superintendent Sam Woodger and his staff aerate about two weeks before closing, followed by wall-to-wall course treatment and then blowing-out irrigation.

“The heathier your turfgrass can be heading into winter — considering that this course sits under four feet of snow for five months — the healthier that turf can be going into the cold season and the better it will come out in spring,” Wehrman says. “There’s some juggle to get the greens aerated and picking the right cocktail of season-ending fungicide. We’re always working to protect against the snow mold.”

Ever aiming for ideal conditions amid the short season, Wehrman and Woodger have discussed solid-tining in fall, and then coming back in early May to core, all in an effort to be less invasive. “The thought process being that golfers don’t expect perfect conditions on May 20, but they want ’em on September 15,” Wehrman explains.

And while his public resort track is in a more populated area, the task of being constantly attuned to local wildlife sees no descent.

“The main challenges are with the elk. They move in herds and, come fall, when arrows and bullets start flying by their heads, they start seeking lower elevations,” Wehrman says. “Sometimes, I’ll see herds up to 300 of them. And when they get on the greens and in the bunkers, there can be some real damage. And, apparently, they really hate the flagstick, so they’ll try and knock the pole out of the ground.”

Like Moonlight, being bear aware is crucial on a daily basis.

“We've got to get every piece of trash off the course every night. If you’ve got any bear attractants out there, you’ll show up in the morning and there’s a mess,” Wehrman says. “We’ve got to do our part to make sure they’re good bears.”

For public and private grounds alike, seasonal splits between ski and swing seasons translate to seasonal gigs for employees. At Moonlight, a grounds team of 30 employees in-season goes to about 10 workers come winter.

“Once the course is set, they’ll transition into our snow removal team, plowing residential driveways,” Berasi says. “And a lot of the course equipment is multi-purpose and can be used for the snow removal work.”

Big Sky Resort presents its golf staff with all manner of winter opportunities, while the course brass often trades TaylorMade for Rossignol. Woodger has a snow removal business in winter and the course’s assistant head pro manages ski instructors at a resort. “Most of our staff goes to winter positions, whether it be ski instruction, rentals, patrol, lift, retail,” says Wehrman, who has, on occasion, managed a ski rental shop.

Across a most atypical year, as the landscape turns from green to white, the bounty of Big Sky is a golf canvass graduating with the unlikely times.

“Initially, a lot of those folks came here for the ski attraction, but with COVID over the summer, the natural social distancing found people staying here,” Berasi says. “Typically, we might see members and their families come out here for a few weeks in the summer. This season, it’s been two months.”

Judd Spicer is a Palm Desert, California-based writer and frequent Golf Course Industry contributor.