Small Town Course Builds Its Own Big Time Greens

You don't have to be a big time golf course to have big time greens.

That's the case at the 9-hole Elgin, N.D., Golf Club where about 20 "do it yourself" volunteer members used materials from the country's top golf course suppliers — along with some accompanying professional guidance — to build seven new grass greens, new tee boxes and make other improvements to the course.

The new greens, which are quickly gaining a reputation as among the region's finest, complete the replacement of sand greens that had been begun five years earlier.

Needed to avoid being the only sand green course in the area, the project was done without the cost of involving a golf course architect, consultant or contractor. Advice instead came from materials suppliers Dakota Peat & Equipment of Grand Forks, N.D., whose peat is sought after by top golf courses worldwide, and from Abrasives, Inc. of Glen Ullin, N.D., which has a source of sand right near Elgin that surpasses the top United States Golf Association (USGA) standards.

"It was just about 20 amateurs. There wasn't anybody in our group with any golf course construction or management experience," Neal P. Dukart, club president, says of the group that performed the work. "The only thing we had was some direction from Dakota Peat and from Abrasives. They told us how they thought we should do it and then stayed in contact."

The project was financed by a $35,000 matching grant awarded to the club by USGA. The local match was accomplished with a few cash donations and by the in-kind labor contributions of the volunteers.

The club's membership became sold on the use of the Dakota Peat in the 90-10 sand-to-peat blend used for the base of the greens and tees following a trip to Elgin by Travis Hoiseth, one of Dakota's account executives.

"I don't remember exactly how we learned that the club was considering constructing new greens. Maybe it was from one of the leads that we get, but I called them and they invited me out for one of their for their men's night events," Hoiseth says of the trip he made to Elgin a community of about 765 people located 80 miles southwest of Bismarck-Mandan.

After golf and dinner, Hoiseth made a presentation to the board of directors. "I just told them what I thought they could and couldn't do. We chatted a lot. It was a big decision for a small golf course and they just needed some guidance," Hoiseth says. "I had met Larry Roth (of Abrasives) a few years earlier and we got together on a proposal. Larry has a really, really good source of sand right there at Elgin. It's a silica sand, which is a harder, more stable sand. It is only Abrasive's location that keeps it from being one of the top golf course sand suppliers in the country. Their main business is with their Black Magic (coal slag) product, which is used as a sandblasting agent."

The decision to accept the Dakota Peat-Abrasives proposal was easy, according to Dukart, an Elgin insurance agent. "Travis sent us a sample of Dakota Peat and we had a sample from another supplier, too, that somebody had brought out here. There was no comparison in the samples. To me, one looked like cardboard and the Dakota sample looked really good. I thought the difference was night and day," Dukart recalls.

"Travis spent a day out here and really helped us a lot. The greens have been in for a year now. The people who come here to golf think they are absolutely beautiful and there sure aren't any complaints from our membership. I don't think anyone could have done a better job building the new greens. If Travis hadn't come out here, it wouldn't have happened. We asked a lot of hard questions and he gave us all the information that he had without knowing if he had a sale or not. Using Dakota Peat has been worth every penny that we put into it. I'll put our greens up against anybody's."

The root growth of the new greens has already far surpassed the growth of the two grass greens constructed five years earlier, according to Quentin Pfutzenreiter, who combines his job as the Elgin city clerk with "a darned near almost fulltime" role as the volunteer course superintendent.

"Quentin does 90 percent of the course maintenance," Dukart relates, "He does the greens. He mows them, fertilizes and takes care of them. So, a while ago, I asked him how the greens were coming? He told me the new greens had 'unbelievable growth.' That the roots on the new greens went down way past the bottom of the cup, while the growth on the established, older greens, which were built with native dirt and cured manure, don't go to the bottom of the hole."

"They're really coming in well," Pfutzenreiter says of the new greens. "They have a great root system and they wintered well. The golfers really seem to like them. We probably keep them a little longer than some other courses, but I have packed the greens now so they are a little faster. The water drains off really well. There isn't any water that stays in the cup on the new greens. We're getting more play from around the area now. You don't have to wait for a tee time here."

Dukart is extremely happy with the improvements. "Not only did we get the greens and the tees built, but we were able to trench in lines for an irrigation system for the entire golf course. We have the capability now to water all of our fairways," Dukart says. The added work became possible when money from the grant remained after the planned work was completed. "We called USGA and told them that we had a little bit of money left over and asked if we could use it toward fairway improvements. They told us to go ahead."

The club then supplemented the remaining grant money with a $10,000 loan to trench in the irrigation lines and dig a new well, which now gives it the ability to put water on all areas of the course. "Some of our tee boxes will need to be reseeded. We tried to do them different from the greens and with the drought he had out here, they did not get the attention that the greens did. Now, with the new well, we can pour water on the entire course without worry about not having enough water for the greens," Dukart says.

"One of the best parts of the project was that the fact that each of the volunteers had say in how the greens were designed. With that many people involved, you would think some heads were going to butt against each other, but that didn't happen. Everyone listened and things worked out well."

Key volunteers in the construction effort, according to Dukart, were Ron Bartz, who operates Our Place Café & Lanes and BG Fire, Inc., and his son, Les. "They headed up the construction crew and when there was no other labor to help, Ron and Les along with Kevin Hertz, the community's plumbing contractor, kept plugging away on their own time. Kevin designed the sprinkler system. Without the three of them pushing us and putting in extra hours on their own, I really don't think we would have gotten this done. I know for sure we wouldn't have the capability to water our fairways. They donated many, many hours of their time."

About the overall success of the project, Hoiseth says, "They just listened to what we had to say and followed our advice and the USGA specifications. They did a fantastic job."