I'm in Augusta, Ga., right now, the guest of E-Z-Go Textron. Tomorrow (Nov. 7th) the company will unveil their first all-new fleet of golf cars since the TXT debuted in 1995. The new cars will be presented to select media, myself included, tomorrow morning.
Look for photos and details of this new golf car as soon as I can get to my laptop tomorrow.
While I'm here, E-Z-Go has done me the favor of getting me a spot on the tee sheet at nearby Sage Valley Golf Club in nearby Graniteville, S.C. It's a Tom Fazio design, and widely regarded as one of the finest private golf courses in America.
I had the honor of playing Sage Valley for the first time back in April during Masters week (click here for that story). That time I was hosted by the fine folks at SubAir, who have their headquarters here (every green, and many of the tees, feature the product).
While I was here last time, I was able to catch up with Chuck Green, superintendent of the course. In honor of my return to Sage Valley tomorrow, a few sound bites from our friend Chuck...
The best thing about being the super at Sage Valley?
"I think here, more than any other course, we're fortunate with our relationships with the Textron Co. and the SubAir Co., that we do get to showcase the golf course to superintendents. Which to me, is an asset. It's really neat for me to have my peers come in and 'chew the fat.' This is a high profile, high maintenance facility, a lot is expected of us daily, even though we have our ups and downs. That's the fun part. To see the superintendents come in. And we see people not just from South Carolina, but we've had guys in from England and Scotland and Ireland... when we go toe the (GIS) we all sit around and talk about 'how was your year?' and everything. We're not a selfish organization, we're not like attorneys, where we need to hide secrets and not share evidence... we're pretty open to each other. So that's the best thing, to have your buddies come in and see what you're doing."
Any new projects coming up?
"With my boss, you never know, a project could be around any corner! We have a couple things, he would like to do hydronics on a green or two in the future. We keep tweaking the golf course... I'm not going to say we're like Augusta National, but, we keep tweaking little things, keep changing sod lines on the golf course... there's always tweaking going on on the golf course."
Can you enjoy playing this course, or are you like many superintendents who have trouble enjoying playing the courses where they work, because all they can see is the details they need to attend to?
"I probably have more fun playing this golf course than any of my past courses. Because we're a caddie oriented walking golf course. My other courses, you'd shoot a round in 2, 3 hours... most superintendents know that if you're out there doing your job, on a day-to-day basis, you may be headed one way and then the radio goes off, and you've got to turn around and go. And you never get back to (what you were doing). It gives me a chance to look at things -- I thoroughly enjoy playing here."
And I'm going to thoroughly enjoy playing here tomorrow as well... I'll let you guys know how it goes. But the big story tomorrow is the new golf car, so you'll definitely see that as soon as possible.
I have photos of Chuck that I can put up once I get back to the office, and I'll also get new photos of the course tomorrow.
It should also be mentioned that the owner of Sage Valley, Weldon Wyatt, is also a friend of GCSAA -- he sits on the Advisory Council of the Environemtal Institute for Golf.
OK, more tomorrow...
hello mr. green I am manny Rosas aarons brother how are you and mark this is my mail manuel_0619@hotmail.es writte me bac when you have a chance
Posted by: Manny Rosas | February 02, 2009 at 03:12 PM