Divots

Frequently Asked Questions Regarding the Golf Course Improvement Project Why are we doing a Golf Course Improvement Project? Two reasons are at the heart of this project: 1. Turf grass used on greens has a projected life and because green conditions are so central to course playability, we monitor our putting surfaces closely, looking for signs of mutations, contamination, and overall weakness so we can properly plan timely replacement of aging surfaces. 2. Central to turf health is irrigation and our infrastructure on the original 18 holes needs replacement. We are fortunate the re-grassing of greens is coming due at the same time as irrigation replacement so we can coordinate and integrate the design and construction of both projects concurrently. And while we’re digging things up, it makes sense to see if any adjustments to course design are appropriate to include in the work already scheduled, utilizing the same construction and design professionals. When will all this work take place? Preliminary design and costing will take place the first six months of 2023. The architect has been selected and will go to work in January 2023. Because good golf course construction firms are in high demand, we need to schedule them and place orders for materials a year out and that process should be complete by this summer. Construction documents and costing will be completed by the end of 2023 and construction will start in April 2024, with completion and grow-in complete by November 2024. How is all this being paid for? The Club actively maintains long range plans and reserves funds to pay for major repair and replacement projects like this one. Money for the project has already been earmarked for this work and an assessment will not be necessary to fund it. What value can the membership anticipate because of this project? There are two significant, positive outcomes for members. 1. First, increased membership satisfaction with the golf courses. We are confident at the end of the day, members will feel the work was well worth doing and that will translate to maintaining our historically high, number of golf memberships. 2. Second, we can avoid significant disruptions to play that would occur should we lose a green to disease because of weakened turf or must close a hole because our aging irrigation infrastructure has a failure. Will there be any disruption for summer residents during construction in 2024? Yes. For one summer we will only have 9 holes open, the south parcel including what we now refer to as South 1-6 and East 7, 8 and 9. We will also arrange for reciprocal member play at other Valley courses.

What is the makeup of the Select Committee? The Committee has a total of 12 members. Five management staff members, three members from the Board and four at-large members, two representing LLGA and LMGA and two from the Golf Committee. When will the full 27 holes be back in play? We can’t predict what Mother Nature might cook up to disrupt our schedule, but the plan is to compete the project during the summer months of 2024 and be good-to-go when our normal opening date arrives in November. Will the newly rebuilt greens play like the greens on the South parcel (S1-S6 + E7-9)? Yes and no. The new greens will have a dwarf bermudagrass installed. This varietal is named MiniVerde and is the same turf grass used at Ironwood CC when they recently rebuilt their greens. It has proven to be more disease resistant and hardier than older varieties during the winter season. But the first year following the rebuild, we will not be overseeding, instead letting the MiniVerde go dormant and using a product that will pigment the greens so they will remain looking natural, at the same time raising the turf temperature at the surface to promote earlier growth as winter season temperatures moderate. What that means is the greens will be less receptive to approach shots and will have faster green speeds until they develop some thatch. If you want a preview of how a dormant MiniVerde green looks and plays, visit the putting green at the family area adjacent to 6 South. It was re-grassed last summer and has been pigmented to provide color during the cool weather months. When is the actual work in the course going to be done? The project is currently in planning and design and will move to the bid and permit phase this Summer. Construction will start near the end of April 2024, with completion projected when all three nines reopen for the season in November 2024. The greens play so well this year, and they look great, so why are we replacing them? The condition of the underlying turfgrass on the greens is not apparent during the cool weather season, because we are managing and playing on an overseeded surface. In the Desert, clubs generally use a hybrid dwarf Bermuda, in our case a varietal called TifDwarf. The TifDwarf greens on the original 18 holes are an early hybrid with a projected life of 15-20 years before they begin to mutate and lose the unique qualities that make them a good base grass for putting greens. Our greens are already over the twenty-year mark and are now beginning to show some signs of weakness. How do we know when it’s time to replace the turf on greens? Every winter season, we check the dormant plant for retained carbohydrates, the critical element for a healthy seasonal transition and have seen a decline in them over the last few years, a sure sign that it’s time for replacement. The risk associated with not acting promptly as the varietal ages out, comes when the winter overseed, transitions to the underlying Bermudagrass. A weakened recovery could create unacceptable summer playing conditions and the following Fall, the cool weather overseed

grasses wouldn’t have a strong underlying Bermuda plant to seed and grow into, creating a less than optimal putting surface for the cool weather season as well. Our plan is to go one more year on the aging TifDwarf greens and replace them during the summer of 2024. The new varietal we will be using is MiniVerde, the latest in ultra-dwarfs, with finer textured leaves and superior growing characteristics to provide excellent playing conditions year ‘round. Why are we replacing the irrigation, the courses look perfect? The simple answer is the system has long passed its useful life. Irrigation systems installed on golf courses 40 years ago had an average projected life of less than 20 years and we have more than doubled that. But the parts are wearing out and we are now spending too much to repair the original lines. Newer irrigation systems are more reliable, last longer and are considerably more efficient with water usage than our current system. How was the architect selected? The initial search was done by the Staff. They sought out candidates who had worked in the Valley and were currently continuing to advise the clubs they had done work for. Staff reviewed credentials, checked references, looked at work they had done and talked with them about the anticipated scope of the project. Key issues were playability and practicality. Did their designs offer good playabilities for all and was their work sensitive to maintenance requirements, given our staffing, maintenance standards and high course utilization. Staff selected 3 finalists who then gave capability presentations using Zoom, to the Select Committee. The Committee reviewed presentation materials and unanimously selected Casey O’Callaghan as our preferred architect. The selection was reviewed and approved by The Lakes Board.