Southern Golf Development Keeps Dakota Under Its 'Roof'

Nov. 1999

Jim Kuykendall of Southern Golf Development in Birmingham, Ala., likes to keep everything under "one roof." When he develops a golf course or a residential golf community, his crews do virtually everything... from the planning to the planting.

And it has gotten to be that way with his peat needs on the golf courses, too. The one roof covers Dakota Peat... but more on that later.

Southern Golf, now in only its seventh year, is currently doing developments in Florence, Ala.; Courtland, Ala., and Tulsa, Okla. All three feature 18-hole, championship golf courses. The project in Florence also includes a 400 home golf community and the development in Tulsa to include 600 homes. Southern Golf will manage the Tulsa golf course and have a majority interest in that golf community development. The Florence development and the Courtland project, which is a municipal golf course, are to be completed in July. The Tulsa project completion date is July 2001.

"We're a relatively young company but we have put together a really good team of professionals... almost everyone has worked within the golf industry for over 20 years. So, even though the name Southern Golf is relatively new, the individuals involved have been in the golf industry for quite some time," Kuykendall, who is the company owner, says.

When Southern Golf does a golf course or a complete golf community residential sub-division, it does everything. "We do all of our own construction. One of the keys things about our operation is that we do a turn-key job, meaning that we'll do the architectural drawings, the construction, the golf course, the homes, the infra-structure, everything. We do it all...the whole nine yards.

"Our strategy and company philosophy is that by keeping everything under one roof, we can maintain a lower cost than if we were to sub all of that work out," he says. "We keep real tight restraints; we're able to centralize our projects and keep them under some very strict cost controls. We've been able to do projects substantially cheaper than others without sacrificing any quality whatsoever."

About how the Southern Golf "roof" also covers Dakota Peat, Kuykendall says: "I've been working with Dakota Peat for the last three to four years. We've had an excellent relationship administratively and product quality-wise. We feel that we get a really good peat and, on the projects that we have completed, the greens have just done magnificently. We've been using the Dakota blending service, too, which has been just outstanding. Jim Corcoran and Dale Vinje have both been just outstanding blenders for us.

"We got to know Dakota from a trade show. I got some information there and called the company. We've formed a relationship. We're real, real happy with them. We're almost on an exclusive basis with Dakota Peat. If we've got a job, we're using Dakota Peat."