I have been following this site for several years now and actually have been a member for sometime but have not really posted anything or given myself an introduction ... so here it goes...
I am currently the head golf course Superintendent at Ridgeway Country Club in Neenah, Wisconsin. I graduated from Rutgers University 2004 with GCA contributor Joey Chase. Before working at Ridgeway I was the Assistant Superintendent at North Shore Golf Club in Menasha and before that I was the Assistant Superintendent at Milwaukee Country Club in River Hills, Wisconsin. I love golf course architecture and golf in general. I obviously like discussing architecture and turfgrass maintenance. I am very fortunate to have worked at some great courses and for two of the best Superintendents in the business Scott Schaller @ NSGC and Pat Sisk @ MCC. I must say I have read most golf course architecture books but do not really get a chance to play as much golf. My goal is that when I do play golf to play some really great places.
My top 10 favorite golf courses in Wisconsin are (and I admit I’m biased):
Milwaukee Country Club
North Shore Golf Club
Bluemond Country Club
Pine Hills Country Club (Sheboygan)
Oneida Country Club
Lawsonia Links
Whistling Straits (Straits)
Blackwolf Run (Composite)
Stevens Point Country Club
Bullseye Country Club
Ridgeway Country Club is a great place to work and a fun course to play. Unfortunately it was not designed by anyone of note but is fairly old, as it was founded in 1929. It is on a small 120 acre piece of property and features some very small undulating Poa greens. Recently we have removed several hundred trees, mostly spruce, from the property. In conjunction with the tree removal, we have added some drainage to golf course not only on some our greens but to other parts of the course to enhance turfgrass quality. We use a company called XGD drainage systems which installs drainage to existing greens and does so without affecting play (but for maybe a day) and the results have been great. Slowly we will be renovating our bunkers and have done a few to a Raynor-esqe style. We have also widened playing corridors particularly in the approaches which became pinched overtime. In the next few years we hope to continue improving our mowing lines, renovating more bunkers, making tees more consistent (right now we have free form, square with 90, square with rounded) and fixing some pesky drainage issues. Because of budgetary constraints we have not utilized a golf course architect but instead have followed an essay written by Tom Doak. In that essay it discusses tree removal, musical bunkers, grassing lines among other small items as a template to rejuvenating your home course. So far we have picked off some items from that list.
In the coming month we will be completely renovating our 13th green. It is a small, undulating, 2,900 square foot green that used to be inundated with large trees. The green has very poor surface drainage and because of the trees: lacked air movement and sunlight. In the past couple of seasons we have cut down several hundred trees in this corner of the golf course. Soon with the help of Mike Nuzzo, Joe Hancock, and XGD drainage systems we will completely have a new complex complete with new grass down bunker(s). If you want to follow along with this or anything Ridgeway related you can see as at:
http://www.ridgewayccturf.blogspot.com/or on twitter at:
@RidgewayCCTurf
I look forward to contributing to the site and if anyone is in the area feel free to contact me.