People seem surprised we would take this on. How could we not? It is a great program and a worthwhile cause on multiple levels, not just golf. And two of my associates [Bruce Hepner and Brian Slawnik] grew up within 20 miles of the site. All of which makes it a no-brainer to participate.
The design is mostly Brian Slawnik's. It's a small site at the edge of Marygrove College, at the edge of the city. It's not 60 acres, it's less than ten ... Mike N. is right that the scale is in feet. The program uses a special ball ["Almost Golf"] that only flies 1/3 to 1/2 as far as normal, which reduces the liability AND allows us to fit much more into this space.
Busy street to the east, entrance to the college along the north side, so we put the back of the practice tee to the street. They like to practice in groups of 8-12, so we'll have one or two groups on the range tee, one group on the short-game course, and one on the putting green, then rotate them around.
The heroes in this deal are all the golf pros and assistants who donate their time to give lessons on a rotating basis.
I don't know exactly what it will cost as we have been working with them to figure out how to get interested parties to donate everything they need. Our firm will do the shaping as well as the design. We intend to build everything out of native soils, but if we have to, we may import some materials from the Country Club of Detroit project; they have a lot of extra fill material being created from coring out the greens and lowering the tees, which they were just planning to stockpile on-site.
Steve S:
No heated winter hitting bays, unless you want to make a donation.
I can't imagine the looks on their faces if we had proposed that. They actually use a big auditorium / classroom to hit balls in right now; Brian says it's hilarious to watch the "Almost Golf" balls ricochet off the walls.