Superior National Grounds Superintendent Mike Davies came before the Cook County-Grand Marais Economic Development Authority (EDA) on Tuesday, July 12 and gave an update about the conditions of the Lutsen golf course.
Challenges at the course
“We feel like the greens are on schedule, but we are struggling with 6-8 fairways. They suffer from winter damage. We seeded them all, but the initial seeding hasn’t taken as well as we would have liked. It was a cold wet spring and the roots don’t go down very deep. It goes from 50 degrees to 90 above and then you can’t put enough water on the fairways. We’re planning on reseeding these [bad] areas in the next 10 days,” said Davies, adding that some areas would be roped off to protect them.
As far as equipment, Davies said so far there have been seven major breakdowns. “Two greens mowers broke down within one hour of each other. We’ve also had the fairway mower break and the fertilizer spreader go down.”
Remembering that Two Harbors had an old fertilizer spreader tucked behind a building, Davies called and asked if he could cull some parts from it so he could get the Lutsen spreader fixed.
“They said yes and I got the parts. According to Jim Zunker, our mechanic, that saved us $600 to $700. Once he saw the parts, he asked me to go down there and bring back the whole machine,” said Davies.
“One man’s junk is another man’s treasure,” said Bob Fenwick, director of Superior National, who attended the meeting with Davies.
From Monday through Friday Davies said that players will be kept off half of the driving range tee, but it will open fully on the weekends for players to practice from. The driving range tee area needs some work, but just how best to do that at the moment is being looked at, said Davies.
Rewards at the course
Davies also said he was very pleased with his staff. “They work hard and seem to be enjoying their work. We’re in a mid summer pattern, and every day is an adventure.”
Fenwick told the board that the golf course was down “almost 1,000 rounds from last summer, but we can attribute that to the weather in April and May.”
He added that the golf course is up in rounds played in June, but the revenue in June is down because the course changed from spring rates to summer rates one week later this year.
One very bright note for the course has been the increase in Stay & Play rounds played by guests at hotels/lodges that take part in the promotion. Last year Stay & Play resulted in 3,400 rounds played. This year there have already been 7,755 rounds played by Stay & Play guests, said Fenwick, adding that the majority of those guests came from either Caribou Highlands or Lutsen Resort.
“This shows that the golf course is a stimulus. It shows how it promotes the area,” said EDA Chair Mike Littfin.
From July 1 to July 10, revenues have been up by about $6,000 over last year for the same time period. EDA Board Member Mark Sandbo said he was impressed by how well the course has been doing in light of the bad weather and stagnant economy. Fenwick said he has been very impressed with the staff. “Even when Mike took a few days off, they worked hard to impress
Mike.”
“They went above and beyond what they have to do,” said Davies.
The future of the course
On July 26, Mike Wait of Sirius Golf Advisors will present a report about the golf course to the Cook County Board of Commissioners, and Fenwick urged the entire board to come out and check out the golf course before that meeting and asked them to please attend the county board meeting. Sirius was retained to conduct an analysis of SNL.
“Please come out so you can relate the course to the evaluation,” said Fenwick, adding that he would personally escort them around the course if they asked him to.
Last, but not least, Fenwick said he and staff were in the process of forming an events committee and a greens committee made up of a cross section of volunteers.
“The staff needs help so it can put on events like the North Shore Health Care Foundation event,” Bob said.
The board told him to go ahead with this plan and Littfin added that he thought the golf course was making good progress.
Leave a Reply