Guys, here's another recent article on the project:
Sacramento Bee/Kevin German
Del Paso course taking shape
The country club has grass once again, just six months from targeted reopening.
By Steve Pajak -- Bee Staff Writer
Thinking green at Del Paso Country Club is about more than money again.
It's about grass. Lush rye in the fairways and shiny bent on the greens.
Almost a year after the private golf club closed its 158 acres to undertake a massive renovation, it looks like a course again.
It's still six months away from its targeted July reopening, but tee pads are defined, greens look puttable, bunkers are filled with sand and gorgeous green grass is waving in the late fall breezes.
"Eight weeks ago, there wasn't a single blade of green grass," head pro Mike Green told 30 members touring the property Saturday.
An unseasonably warm October and November helped make up for a seeding schedule that was two weeks behind.
"It's nice that I don't have to ask people to rely on their imagination anymore," said Green, who has hosted tours since the project's start. "Now that they can see a light at the end of tunnel, morale has been lifted."
It wasn't pretty in the beginning. The felling of nearly 1,000 trees and the removal of the top 8 to 10 inches of soil that was replaced with 4,800 truckloads of sand left Del Paso looking as if it had been hit by a hurricane.
Factor in the dirt moved to add contour and reconfigure 14 holes, and those members who voted 277-128 to change the face of the 90-year-old course might have been feeling a little queasy.
General manager Cliff Hutchinson said the renovation sparked renewed outside interest in the club.
"It's probably the biggest year for new memberships in the past 20 years," said Hutchinson, who said 40 new members have signed on since January. Five members left the club because of the project, Hutchinson estimated.
The cost of membership went from $60,000 to $67,500 in the span. Hutchinson said he expects that figure to increase to between $75,000 and $80,000 as reopening anticipation increases.
"Virtually all of the new members are serious golfers," Hutchinson said. "They're living a lifestyle, not just looking for a social club. We've attracted a new demographic."
Del Paso's decision to renovate was twofold: the course's greens and Bermuda fairways were deteriorating and a muddy mess in wet weather, and its existing layout and maximum yardage of 6,300 yards rendered it obsolete and no longer able to attract serious players or the type of United States Golf Association events it had in the past.
A redesign by local golf-course architect Kyle Phillips incorporated 15 previously undeveloped acres and more yardage options, ranging from 5,300 to 7,000.
It was the decision to remove so many trees that he heard about most. Players will now be able to see the clubhouse from the far corners of the property, something unheard of before.
"We're basically bringing post-World War II tree coverage back," Phillips said. The original site had only about a dozen trees, he said, a planting binge in the 1950s responsible for trees such as walnut and crab apple that added little and were counterproductive to the course's overall health and hid some elegant cork oaks and the creek that meanders through the property.
"What I'm finding is that the people who've never been out there think it's pretty neat, but the people who've played it before, especially the members, they're over the moon," Phillips said. "And that includes several who came out with every intention of not liking it."
An estimated 700 new trees will be planted before the project's completion, Phillips said, many along the new sound walls that moved the property line in 18 feet parallel to Watt and Marconi avenues.
The $9.45 million budgeted for the project will be within a percent or two, Hutchinson said. No assessments were made to members, the repayment stream for the money borrowed to come through new initiations.
It's money well spent on the first Sacramento-area course to feature planted grass - in 1922.
"Every older club in the country is going to face, at some point in time, the issues that we did. All golf courses have a life cycle. It was time."