Even though about 14 golf courses in the Myrtle Beach area have faded into nonexistence recently, one golf course owner decided to turn his golf course around and rebuild it with the hope that a fresh new look will increase rounds and improve business.

Sea Gull Golf Club, built in 1966 by E.W. Jerdon and his partners on an old rice plantation, was one of the first golf courses on the south end of Myrtle Beach. The course, which has some natural elevation changes, sits in between the intercoastal waterway and the ocean. The Gene Hamm-designed course was considered to be cutting edge during the 1960s. At that time, it was a top-notch course with a good variety of holes, according to Ben Steen, the course’s golf course superintendent.

Sea Gull Golf Club turned out to be profitable for Jerdon and his business partners. Eventually, Jerdon leased the golf course to various management companies throughout the years. In the 1980s, Jerdon went on to build Indian Wells Golf Club and Burning Ridge Golf Club – both Gene Hamm designs – in the Myrtle Beach area.

Time for a change
Three years ago, the last management company that ran Sea Gull, The Links Group, went bankrupt, according to Steen, and Jerdon stepped back in, and, with partner Rowland Thomas, created a management company called Classic Golf Group. Because they didn’t know much about operating golf courses, they hired Skip Corn from the TPC of Myrtle Beach to become the general manager of their courses.

“He was brought in to restructure and eliminate the bad debt and re-establish credit with vendors,” Steen says.

Jerdon and his partners spent $1.5 million renovating Indian Hills and completed a bunker renovation project at Burning Ridge. But the big project Corn envisioned was to rebuild Sea Gull. The tired course needed a makeover because it had never been renovated before. During the last few years, before the course closed for the reconstruction, it wasn’t making as much money as it had in the past, according to Steen.

In the fall of 2004, Corn hired Steen as the superintendent of Sea Gull – it was Steen’s first head superintendent job.

“I worked at True Blue Golf Club and Caledonia Golf and Fish Club, and Skip met me when I was there,” Steen says. “I was involved with renovations prior to Sea Gull. From the time I arrived to the time we decided to renovate, my staff and I turned Sea Gull into the best shape it had been in a long while.”

Steen’s experience had been at courses with large maintenance budgets, and now he was working to turn Sea Gull around with a budget of less than $500,000.

Jerdon and his stockholders gave the OK to renovate Sea Gull in the spring of 2005, and the name was to change to Pawleys Island Golf Club because people are familiar with Pawleys Island and it’s a good name to market, Steen says.

In the summer of 2005, Corn and Steen talked about what kind of look they wanted for the renovated course. They both liked the work of golf course architect Mike Stantz, who recently passed away from cancer.

“We wanted a natural looking course that blended into its surroundings, which includes long-leaf pines,” Steen says. “We didn’t wanted a course with a hard-edge look. We wanted minimal rough and generous fairways.

“Skip and I went on a road trip to look at other courses in the area,” he adds. “We didn’t want to copy other courses, we wanted to gain ideas. We played the courses and did research. We compiled a binder full of pictures and ideas.”
After that research, Corn and Steen chose an architect. They were interested in having Mike Strantz design the course, but he was completing another project and was sick with cancer. Corn and Steen then looked at Tom Walker, Davis Love, John Fought, Paul Albanese and Chris Lutzke.

“After we contacted them all, we brought each one to the site an interviewed them,” Steen says. “Each one was excited to do the project. We wanted Tom Walker because Tom came back and said he wanted to come meet with us and show us some conceptual drawings along with his own ideas. That did it for us. That move made the decision. We spent three hours doing that. Walker went above and beyond and his willingness to do what we wanted.”

Walker says his presentation blended with Corn’s and Steen’s ideas.

“I committed 400 hours to the presentation,” he says. “I knew this was a contest. I presented my drawings and design philosophies, making the course look difficult but play fair. It’s a real opportunity for me.”
After a few months into the Sea Gull project, Corn left for another job.
To date a golf course builder hasn’t been confirmed yet, but Steen says a verbal agreement has been made with Peak Golf Construction.

The course, which competes with five courses in the Pawleys Island area, has been closed since November of 2005.

Approval process
Getting approval to start the reconstruction project appeared to be easy, but Corn and Steen quickly discovered it had its challenges. At one point, Corn and Steen were told by an environmental consultant permitting for the renovation wouldn’t be a problem. But after he checked out the site further he said they had to hire another land consultant.

After talking to the other land consultant, he said the possibility to start moving dirt was good, but then the permitting process became more entangled with red tape. Eventually, they were given the approval.

“Currently, we have a permit, and the dirt moving is tentatively scheduled to start in August, and the course is scheduled to be grassed in May 2007 and opened by September 2007,” says Steen, who is working on his sixth construction project. “Right now, the place looks like a prairie because I sprayed the course with Roundup, except the greens, to kill the
Bermudagrass while the course was open.”

The course is flat on one side, so it needs to be reshaped so it can drain better, according to Steen. Wanting to remove earth from the ponds on the course caused alarm during the permitting process because the Clean Water Act was changed in 2005.

“We are allowed to excavate the ponds, but not fill them, which is what we were hoping to do from the beginning,” Steen says. “We’re digging out all golf course ponds to get dirt for reshaping the course and to deepen the ponds because they were only a few feet deep.”

Walker says the corridors aren’t great but are better than average.

“What excited me about this project was the sand profile,” he says. “We dug holes and found nothing but sand, which give it a Pine Valley flair with expansive waste areas in the periphery. Rarely do I get to work on such as nice property.

“We decided to make the slopes dramatic,” he adds. “Back nine enjoys more topographic change than anywhere on the grand strand. There are 40 to 50 feet of elevation changes.

The turfgrass on the newly renovated course will have Diamond zoysiagrass on the shaded tees, 419 Bermudagrass on the rest of the tees, roughs and fairways, and TifEagle Bermudagrass on the greens. GCN

I took the kids to the Cleveland Indians game the other night. It was the usual $300 Major League Baseball misadventure that has less to do with baseball than with overpriced junk food, arguments about who got the binoculars and the dreaded trip to the gift shop. But, we had to go to this particular game because it was “Grady Sizemore Bobblehead Night.” Each attendee received a “free” plastic statue of the Indians’ popular, young center fielder. Almost 38,000 Clevelanders showed up to collect their toys. It’s a truly mystifying craze.

But, it got me thinking about the idea of bobbleheads for our business. This could be just the kind of collectible item that gets our profession noticed! The question is which industry figures we should pick to enshrine in our bobblehead hall of fame. Not surprisingly, I have a few suggestions:

GCSAA president bobblehead: Dressed in a nice blazer, but the head doesn’t actually bobble. Instead, the head retracts down inside the figurine’s neck to keep a low profile during the risky final couple of years on the board. Each one comes with the “Really Talented Assistant Superintendent” and “Extremely Patient Green Chairman” bobbleheads.

Steve Mona bobblehead: Looks a lot like a “Howdy Doody” figure but has cellphone permanently attached to ear. The head can bobble, but always swivels to the right and left to check the mood of the board before doing so.

Local chapter leader bobblehead: The head simply spins constantly. It comes with a prerecorded message that says, “Why the hell did I volunteer for this?”

Turf consultant bobblehead: Costs a minimum of $15,000 (plus expenses). It has a big grin on its face and constantly nods when asked by the superintendent, “You’re going to support my program, right?” It also nods when asked by the club president if the superintendent should be fired.

University researcher bobblehead: Comes with nice white lab coat and little plastic test tubes. Will bobble, but only for large funding grants. Also has a prerecorded message: “The results are intriguing, but this idea will need many more years of study.”

Head golf pro bobblehead: Has no body, just a huge head.

Pat Jones bobblehead: Comes with laptop and media credentials, but can’t bobble because head has been knocked off by all the nice people he just offended. GCN

Pat Jones is the president of Flagstick LLC. He can be reached at psjhawk@cox.net.

Site dumpers, while broadly-accepted in Europe, are pretty much a rarity in this country.  Somewhat of a hybrid between a wheel-loader and an articulated dump truck, they’ve proven valuable “across the pond” for moving material in limited-access areas — smaller construction sites, for example. 

Raising the visibility and awareness of this valuable tool here in the U.S. has proven a challenge, but as more and more contractors see the role site dumpers can play in small- to mid-size operations, it is likely the vehicles will have an increased presence in fleets across the country.  

One company playing a major role in promoting this proven — yet unsung — technology is Duval-Pilot Equipment Outfitters, a Jacksonville, Fla.-based dealer handling the TEREX line of site dumpers (as well as other equipment) for that region.  The company reports that it has made some nice inroads into getting several units into the field and is confident that the technology is what many other customers in the area need.

Staying on the Path
Because of its geographic location, on Florida’s east coast, one of the key markets Duval-Pilot sees for the site dumper is companies actively involved in golf course construction and/or renovation. According to Fred Jordan, the company’s equipment sales representative, golf course work differs from most other construction projects in that special care has to be taken to protect areas adjacent to the site in need of work.

“Golf course-related work virtually never stops in this area,” he says. “As growth continues, the demand for new courses continues to rise, as does the need to maintain and upgrade existing courses. We are fortunate that two of the most prominent golf course construction firms for this part of the country are headquartered right here in Jacksonville and we have already sold two units to one of them, MacCurrach Golf Construction (MGC).”

Jordan feels the site dumper has a number of features particularly well-suited to use in golf course renovation work, but none more critical than its ideal working width.

“In renovation projects there is so much in place now — landscaping, shrubbery, trees, and so on — that wasn’t there when the course was originally built," he says. "At the time, a larger piece of equipment probably worked well, now it doesn’t. In addition, equipment has to be kept off the well-groomed grasses, so access is often only available via the cart paths.  The site dumpers offer a width of just under seven feet, ideal for use on the eight-foot wide cart paths.”

Necessity Drives Innovation
One of the most popular uses for site dumpers in overseas applications is as an economical means to deliver ready-mix concrete to different areas on a jobsite. Much of that demand is driven, perhaps, by the generally smaller size of European jobsites when compared to those here in the U.S., prompting contractors to find alternative approaches to material movement and delivery. However, even here, contractors are finding that site dumpers can improve onsite efficiencies by quickly and easily moving loads of concrete (eliminating the need for more expensive concrete pumps), aggregate, sand and so on, into and out of areas inaccessible to even the smallest trucks in use today.
 
“Site dumpers — specifically the 9,000 lb. Model PT6000 — can handle nearly four cubic yards of material at a time when heaped; larger models like the PT 9000 can handle as much as six cubic yards,” Jordan says.  “In the past, MGC was using agricultural-style tractors pulling small trailers to haul material to and from areas being renovated on the course — effective but not very efficient.  They were looking for a way to reduce the cycle time for that material movement and the use of site dumpers has definitely done that for them.”

MGC president Allan MacCurrach concurs, saying that the site dumpers are easily 40 percent faster at moving material than their previous method.  “And given the fact that on an average golf course, more than 15,000 tons of sand alone is moved at one time or another, efficiency is everything, so we see these units as playing a key role in our projects.”

Feature Driven
Operators running the site dumpers for MGC cite two very basic but valuable features that improve production to that degree: ease of use and reliability.  Because the units dump from a forward position, material placement is faster and, to a certain degree, more accurate.  Several models available also feature a Power Swivel function which allows the material to be dumped sideways — again, a valuable feature in close quarters.  And because of their straightforward, yet hearty design, MGC also sees the site dumpers as being far less maintenance-intensive than other components in the fleet, a big plus in maintaining the tight schedules often confronting the firm.

“All those factors: the bigger payload, the ease of operation, the ability to stay within the confines of the cart path, have made a big difference for MGC,” Jordan says.  “And because he is such a high-profile company both here and elsewhere, we are confident that others in the area — contractors of all types — will see these unique pieces of equipment and appreciate what they could do for their own operations.”

MGC Does TPC
Jordan adds that MGC is preparing for one of the biggest challenges it has ever undertaken: the total renovation of the famed Stadium Course at the TPC at Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.  One of the PGA’s premier courses, the upgrade will entail movement of more than 65,000 tons of dirt to create a venue designed to improve spectators’ views during tournament play.  The $25 million project is expected to begin immediately after the 2006 Players Championship in March, 2006 and be completed before the year is out — a very aggressive schedule.

“This is an ideal situation for equipment like the site dumper,” Jordan says, “And Allan MacCurrach is confident that they will rise to the challenge.  As dealers, we realize there’s a certain amount of education that goes into introducing any kind of different technology — and we are prepared for that.  But we know the payback for new customers will definitely be there.”

Can a golf-pro teach a c.e.o. something about running a company successfully? The answer may surprise you.

Successful PGA golf professionals not only play well but also relate maturely with many different people, maintaining commitments to the highest principles of golf. They perform excellently, while simultaneously managing others productively. They teach students of all ages constructively and communicate effectively; while simultaneously mastering their own emotional reactions, intellectual and strategic challenges and performance demands. Playing consistently at or below par defines the scratch golfer, but not necessarily a golf professional. Those at the top of the game can teach more than driving, chipping and putting. They are master leaders as well.

First, they understand and model the behaviors required to play golf at a consistently high level. They are golf professionals because they are able to:

• Control emotions, including anxiety and tension, quieting the mind
• Stay in the moment, concentrating - leaving bad shots behind
• Assess circumstances continuously, both opportunities and risks
• Concentrate, relying on individual routine throughout performance
• Stick with decisions, visualizing and executing without uncertainty or fear
• Maintain confidence and rhythm; sustaining balance and calm
• Remember to see, feel and hit the ball - with confidence and intensity
• Acknowledge that performance at this level has already qualified those who have the talent and discipline to perform, consistently, at the highest levels. At the professional level, it is foremost about attitude - monitoring and controlling emotions; and, of course, keeping score with integrity.

Second, as managers working with and through colleagues, like other executives, golf professionals exhibit these seven "best-in -class" inspiring leadership behaviors. They elect to be the role model for what is expected from others - all the time; establish goals with clear parameters that encourage innovation, risk and experimentation, leveraging original ideas and creativity. Productive professionals clarify accountabilities, measuring frequently and consistently; reward appropriately for high levels of performance and innovation; and, teach constantly. Leaders replace those, in timely ways, who are unwilling or unable to "be" partners and supporters of high-level client-centered service culture. Golf professionals embrace the entrepreneurial approach with optimism, seeing obstacles as opportunities, with a clear focus on providing goods and services that generate legitimate profits.

You are now halfway through this essay about PGA Golf Professionals and Leadership. Have you discovered many differences between effective golf leadership and general management? The answer is probably no. Ancient Wisdom teaches that "Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power." Golf professionals and effective executives master themselves first before presuming to manage others. So what two additional insights might be learned by observing competent golf professionals?

Third, successful golf professionals are also teachers. Like effective executives, they transfer performance excellence to students or colleagues, of all ages, all the time. They know that teaching with impact involves asking the right questions, after having made, and then confirmed, perceptive observations. Golf professionals and other effective leaders make every effort to incorporate these six constructive actions into their daily interactions. They determine the development objectives of the student - assessing physical ability, strength, coordination and capacity; and, evaluate client expectations against current assets - confirming reasonable goals, while setting legitimate improvement milestones that a professional can justify.

Leaders know how to utilize client-specific tools and processes that accelerate learning - always leveraging the uniqueness of each instructor's assets, both intellectual and athletic. These tools may include: video equipment and data to confirm developmental needs, training aids and golf-swing improvement exercises, varied environments - practice facilities versus on-course play and coaching, and always, keeping records to monitor progress.

Golf professionals and executives make sure clients receive what they want as well as what they need; and, they create improvement plan, with milestones, with recovery steps when objectives are not met.

Fourth, and finally, successful golf professionals communicate competencies, capacities and values. They know that communications effectiveness is almost always about congruence between what one says and how one operates. Once again it is about balancing and integrating the demands of the emotional, intellectual and physical. Communicating is about feeling the message, understanding the requirements of the listening audience and then doing the real work of choosing relationship-building words and presenting them in transforming ways. Both the golf professional and the successful executive know their own strengths and weaknesses and are open about them. Since others observe us anyway, and generally have a good sense for where we are, then why not save the stress caused by denial, and simply be more transparent?

Effective communicators ask for assistance, graciously, and are prepared to provide an elevator speech to anyone, at almost any time, which needs to be about 30 seconds in length, that defines the skills and services for which one is paid. Concise introductions are good marketing. They are also excellent methods to lead others toward developing roles and responsibilities that will support the lead function, streamlining and strengthening teamwork, productivity and profitability. In addition, talented professionals recognize that the leader is seldom, if ever, off duty and as a consequence, being the role model is likely to be the most effective way to communicate who one is, what can be provided, and how well those tasks will be performed. As a consequence they continuously refine verbal and non-verbal communication skills, as the demands and expectations continue to rise throughout careers. For the golf professional or corporate leader, the key to success is continuous learning, whether as performer, manager, teacher or communicator. Listening is essential.

In conclusion, leadership requirements are the same for the PGA golf professional, corporate executive, parent, surgeon, teacher, religious leader, farmer, politician, attorney, gardener or technologist. Professionals always do the job with excellence, helping others learn while consistently communicating with sensitivity and graciousness. Leadership, just about everywhere, is about competence, courage and communication. It begins and ends with listening and, always, with integrity.

The author founded the Bracher Center for Integrity in Leadership.