[David Davis]

During the last couple years I've been learning what architects, course builders, supers and course committees have to deal with the hard way. I'm curious if similar situations are being ran into in different countries. Here are just some examples:

1. Goal: moving the 1st hole of our links course, about 100 meters (110 yds) to the left into the dunes (but still on our property)

Roadblock: Dune preservation organization doesn't believe dunes are a place for golf and while we can prove that we improve the environment and bring back the natural dune landscape (as it's now overgrown with bushes etc). They pointed out the endangered snail species that invisible to the naked eye and something called gray dune area that's protected. We had the permits in place and agreed and they kept appealing. In the supreme court they finally put enough doubt along with heavy newspaper related PR that the court ruled we needed to wait for a case they are considering similar which involves the rerouting of a major highway by a couple hundred meters that happens to go through a nature reserve. Not sure I see the similarity but it does delay our progress indefinitely.

2. Goal: renovation of 5 greens (eventually all of them) that do not allow for ideal drainage, have a layer of spoiled soil containing among other things battery remnants and are not conducive to growing of healthy root systems for the grass to create healthy strong turf.

Roadblock: these greens have trees around them creating a moist environment and lack of light and oxygen, trees may not be easily removed due to the Forest Preservation Group. Now The Netherlands has made the decision that in the future no pesticides or grass improvement chemicals at all will be allowed on sport fields. Nothing! Naturally this will leave golf courses as well as football fields at natures beck and call in terms of disease and destruction.

3. Goal: renovation of hole 11 and 12, including removing and replacing greens, also one tee box. This includes a permit to remove many trees.

Roadblock: again Forest Preservation Group and Dune Preservation Group.

Every move you make there is an organization red flagging you.

Anyone experience these things in other areas or are these unique? Don't get me wrong I know there are all kinds of rules and restriction that are faced when building but these all seem overboard as far as I can tell.

[Frank Pont]

David, welcome to my world   .

The thing to do is hire the best ecologist you can find and afford, I have had very good experiences with Ronald Buiting, he is both someone the ecological groups respect, and he can get deals done. He was instrumental in getting the 6 new holes built at De Dommel after 18 years of wrangling with preservation groups....

[David Davis]

Frank, I guess I don't have much love for your world ;-)

What kind of challenges/delays/roadblocks did you encounter at Swinkelsche? That you can share of course. I know the usage of the lake was one of them.

[Patrick_Mucci]

David Davis,

I think it was Newt Gingrich who stated that it took the Allies just 3 1/2 years to defeat the combined powers of Germany, Japan and Italy and 26 years just to add an additional runway to the Atlanta Airport.

There seems to be special interest groups everywhere that use the legal system snail like pace to bring almost any project to a grinding halt.

Although, I did observe one exception not long ago.
A county highway was realigned and they blew right through a wetlands without the slightest hint of any impediments.

It's gotten so ridiculous that homeowners, on the property they bought, can't cut down trees without getting permits, which are very difficult to obtain, irrespective of the damage the roots of those trees are doing to the foundation of their house.

[jeffwarne]

In the words of a wise sage on my wedding night
often easier to ask for forgiveness......than permission

[Dónal Ó Ceallaigh]

David,

At my old club Gweedore (Co. Donegal, Ireland) they stopped the club from redeveloping a few holes for a number of months. They somehow didn't care about the overgrazing of sheep by one particular famer that has resulted in the loss of several acres of marram grass. This overgrazing has gone on for at least 30 years. We used have a lovely par three that played to a green located in an amphitheatre (a bit like the 17th a Noordwijk, but the green was sunken and partially blind from the tee). The club was forced off these new holes and a sheep farmer located his sheep pens on the site of the green. The green disappeared; then the amphitheatre was blown away. What's left are several acres of desert that now dump tonnes of sand onto the course (6th hole) during the winter storms. Take a look at the horrible mess:

http://binged.it/1fXiivc

There are old tyres, bits of wood, barbed wire, condoms, tampons, etc . to be seen all over this exposed sandy area and nobody does anything about it.

When the course extemsion was restarted, the club built a green a little to the west of that desert. After seeding the green, the environmentalists came along again and told the club to move the green as there were some rare ferns on the hillside. Rare ferns my eye!!

[David Davis]

Although, I did observe one exception not long ago.
A county highway was realigned and they blew right through a wetlands without the slightest hint of any impediments.

It's gotten so ridiculous that homeowners, on the property they bought, can't cut down trees without getting permits, which are very difficult to obtain, irrespective of the damage the roots of those trees are doing to the foundation of their house.

Pat, interestingly enough the freeway being moved just went ahead and did the work as well and moved it. That is being done by the government. They are being taken to European court and win or lose the freeway has been moved and I doubt they would change it back. However the case is a big one and how they compare our golf course to that is beyond me.

The homeowners issues are very familiar and clearly made by policy makers with Dutch ancestry. When I bought my current home in The Netherlands the front yard had a tree stump in it that had been cut off at the ground level and left for someone else (me) to deal with. I hired a company to take care of it. While removing the tree stump with a crane they found out the hard way that the roots had grown around the main gas line for about 200 households coincidentally running through my front yard. They broke it open and the neighborhood had to be evacuated up to 300 yds from my home. Fire trucks, police etc. I received the blame for this and spent 2.5 years protesting in court with the power company who deemed me negligent rather than the contractor I hired to do the job BECAUSE I was supposed to (little did I know) run something called a "click report" (which is a visual map of all cables and piping set up by the local community before digging down more than 5 inches) in my own property. I won the court case in the end because I hired someone just because I knew The Netherlands had more rules and regulation than I could deal with. I mean back in Oregon if there was tree, we just pulled out the chainsaw, dropped it, cut up the firewood and stacked it in the barn. Then grabbed the tractor and some shovels and pulled out the stump. In The Netherlands you need a permit to break wind on your own property.


Jeff, that might also answer your question about whether or not it's easier to offer your excused than it is to get permission, a rule that I often agree with. If we did that at the golf course the likely end result would be a court case to shut us down completely or at least access excessive fines.

[Ian Andrew]

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