Marsh grasses and large sand traps test golfers on the 16th green.

Charlotte EntersRenaissance InMunicipal Golf

14 sports TURF

Golf may have been born in Scotland,but the United States has becomeits foster parent. Americans have

the world'sqreatest access to golf courseswith more than one course for every 20,000citizens. The National Golf Foundation esti-mates that 17 million Americans play golfregularly and that the number will increaseto 22 million by the year 2000.

Golf is a major part of American sports,yet you can count the number of minorityprofessional golfers on one hand. Profes-sional sports, such as football, baseball,and basketball, have been an important lad-der for minorities with exceptional athleticability. An abundance of facilities for thesesports has provided opportunity for athletesof all means to achieve wealth and recogni-tion. The same cannot be said for golf.

A shortage of municipal or daily-feecourses with championship layouts hasbeen blamed for preventing the develop-ment of more golf professionals. To honeand test their skills, those aspiring to acareer in golf must have access to challeng-ing courses. Too often these courses areunavailable to people either because oflocation (resort courses), financial means,or membership restrictions.

Nine years ago, the people of Charlotte,NC, decided to change this. They were tiredof driving more than an hour to the closestpublic championship course, TanglewoodPark Golf Club in Winston-Salem, NC.

Revolution Park Golf Course, the onlymunicipal course in Charlotte, has a simplenine-hole layout. It is fine for casual golfers,but it lacks the degree of difficulty neededto develop the type of game played instrong amateur competition.

In 1981, Charlotte City Council,encouraged by Mayor Eddie Knox, commis-sioned Woolpert Consultants based in Day-ton, OH, to develop a Master Plan for thecity's parks. The city and state ownedhundreds of acres near the airport on thesouthwest side. The largest section was a260-acre landfill predicted to reach itscapacity in 1986. Woolpert was asked todesign a multi-sport park to occupy thelandfill site plus another 200 acres of virginforest off the Billy Graham Parkway.

Knox, a golfer, believed the growing cityneeded to provide more municipal golfcourses for its residents. During publichearings about the Master Plan, the stron-gest voices were those of the golfers. Sen-timent was strong not just for an 18-hole golfcourse, but for a championship layout simi-lar to Tanglewood. They felt excluded fromprivate courses in the area. Even if they hadthe money for membership, most of thesecourses had long waiting lists.

Charlotte Park Superintendent TomMcDermott recalls the hearings, "Residentsmade it clear that they wanted a toughcourse, one that would challenge scratchgolfers as well as recreational golfers. Thecourse had to be available to those ofmoderate means. Race was not the issue,public access to a championship golfcourse was:'

Knox's support for the project was carriedon by his successor, Harvey Gantt, the firstblack to become mayor of the city. Ganttwas proud of Charlotte's commitment torecreation, especially to golf. He wanted toopen up the sport to athletes of all meansand backgrounds. He played a pivotal rolein getting Charlotte voters to pass a bondissue for the project.

Wool pert developed a phased plan toinclude 24 tennis courts, eight softballfields, six soccer fields, an exercise trail,bikeways, recreation center with an indoorpool, children's creative play area, an 18-hole disc golf course, and the 18-holechampionship golf course. The total esti-mated cost for the complex was $15 million.Completion was scheduled for 1989. Thename given to the project reflected itsintended impact on the area, RenaissancePark.

In 1985, Kidwell and Hurdzan, a golfco u rse arch itectu ral fi rm based inColumbus, OH, was assigned the task ofdesigning the golf course. "It was adynamic project from the start," states MikeHurdzan. "We had to lay the course into theterrain because we could not disturb anyportion of the landfill. The landfill portion ofthe site was a series of ridges and valleyswhen construction began. To reflect the roil-ing hilltops of the Piedmont, Hurdzan fol-lowed the ridges as much as possible.Lakes, bunkers, tees, and greens either had

continued on page 16

"Residents made it clear that they wanteda tough course, one that would challenge

scratch golfers as well as recreationalgolfers. The main issue was public access

to a championship golf course."

18th green during construction. More than 30,000 spectators can sit on slope surrounding thegreen.

Same green one week after Hurricane Hugo. Note mature trees down in background.

November, 1989 15

Charlotte Enters Renaissancecontinued from page 15

to be located off the landfill or built above it:'The city wanted a championship course.

That meant long, mounded, heavily-bunkered, and challenging holes for thescratch golfer. Yet, Hurdzan had to allow forthe casual golfer with multiple tees. In theend, he delivered a 7,480-yard layout with atremendous finishing hole capable of hold-ing 30,000 spectators. "It's definintely achampionship course worthy of any tourna-ment," boasts Hurdzan today.

Being located on a landfill presents manyproblems. Strict guidelines have to be fol-lowed regarding settling, methane gas,leaching, and drainage. Every move had tobe approved by the U.S, Corps ofEngineers. In 18 years, more than six mil-lion tons of trash had been deposited at thesite. The result was a layer ranging in depthfrom 35 to 80 feet deep. All refuse had beencompacted like a roadbed.

To produce Hurdzan's design, MooreGolf of Culpepper, VA, had to truck in morethan 300,000 cubic yards of dirt. A foot oftopsoil was deposited over the landfill in thelocation of the fairways, roughs, and drivingrange. Hurdzan placed tees and greens offthe edge of the landfill wherever possible. Insome cases, this was impractical, so heselected sites with the least amount of trashunderneath.

To protect greens and tees in these loca-tions from settling, geotextile was laid overthe refuse and covered with six inches ofclean fill dirt. Then a heavy plastic mem-brane was installed over the dirt to prevent

damage by methane gas escaping from thedecomposing refuse. Drain tile was placedon top of the membrane before theappropriate soil mix was brought in.

In the fairways and rough, a series ofpipes vent the methane generated by thematerial below to the surface. Two lakesbuilt over the landfill were lined with thickpolyethylene. As a precaution water fromthese lakes is not used for irrigation.Instead, an irrigation reservoir was con-structed off the landfill site.

"When construction started (in 1986),"explained Hurdzan, "trucks were still haul-ing garbage to the site." The CharlotteAmateur Tournament had been scheduledfor the course for September 1988. Hurdzanand Moore had less than two years to getthe course to grow in.

The first ten holes are located over thelandfill. Moore started by carving out thelast eight holes from the hilly forest. Oak,pine, hickory, maple, poplar, and dogwoodtrees were carefully selected before cutting.Hurdzan wanted to save as many trees aspossible and to preserve the dramaticnatural changes in elevation.

An example is the 65 foot drop in eleva-tion between the tees and the green on the13th hole. The par-3 hole becomes tougherdue to the fact that it's 200 yards from theblue tee to the green. Even the red tee is120 yards from the flag. Trees threaten onthe right while two bunkers await errantshots on the left side of the green.

"You feel like you're playing from onehilltop to another," adds Hurdzan. Landingareas were graded to between two and sixpercent slope. More than 80 bunkers were

included in the design. A creek running thelength of the course on one side added toits appearance and challenge. The coursewould clearly require study for golfers tomaster. Word of the difficulty of Renais-sance Park began to spread before it wascompleted.

The topography of the ten holes built overthe landfill resembled links-type courses. Tofurther strengthen the links appearance,Hurdzan specified ornamental grasses forthe mounds and grassy hollows. Zebragrass, plumegrass, Miscanthus (Maidengrass) and lovegrass wave in the wind toalert golfers to hazards. Wind is a commonfactor in the coastal city.

There are 21 greens plus a nursery atRenaissance Park, including one practicegreen and two teaching greens. All arePenncross creeping bentgrass. The root-zone consists of 12 inches of sand above anetwork of perforated drainpipe. Two inchesof peat were tilled into the top eight inchesof sand. There is a total of 210,000 squarefeet of bentgrass putting surface on thecourse. Many of the greens have undulatingsurfaces as you would expect from a cham--pionship course.

Green banks were sprigged with Tifgreen328 for two reasons. The first was to reduceencroachment of bermudagrass into thebentgrass, a serious problem in courseswith bentgrass greens in the South. Themore aggressive Tifway is often blamed forthis maintenance headache. The Tifgreenalso has a lower growing habit and slowergrowth rate.

The tees and fairways are constructed ofnative topsoil. Tifway's aggressiveness was

16 sports TURF

Aerial view of golf course, park and coliseum. The area on the bottom left used to be the landfill.

put to use in this instance. Fast establish-ment was essential in opening the courseon time. The tee on the driving range alonecovers more than two acres. Many of thetees are large to accomodate different teepositions and the amount of play expectedfor the municipal course. Overall, there areseven acres of tees.

Hurdzan selected two different turf-grasses for the roughs. Turf-type tall fescuewas sown in the roughs on the tree-coveredback nine due to its improved shade toler-ance. Over the landfill, he switched to com-mon bermudagrass. He wanted an aggres-sive turf that would spread quickly andstabilize the imported soil. It also wouldstand up well to the full sun in these areas.

During his career, Hurdzan has deve-loped a knack for providing the most golfcourse for municipal budgets. In the case ofCharlotte, he economized by allowing theroughs to rely on natural rainfall instead ofirrigation. The plan called for thousands ofadditional trees to be planted over the land-fill in the roughs. In fact, if the plan is fol-lowed, the number of trees will increasemore than six-fold.

Hurdzan hired Smith Turf and Irrigation todesign the irrigation system. All 350 sprin-kler heads were confined to greens, tees,and fairways. Thirty-seven Toro field satel-lites, a VT-2 central controller, and raingauges were installed to regulate theheads. The capacity of the controllersexceeds the present needs of the irrigationsystem to allow for future expansion.

More than 80 bunkers dot the course.Most are located around greens, but a fairshare are placed to challenge the longdriver. There are grassy hollows, sod-facedbunkers and sand traps. A marsh along thecreek was preserved during constructionand comes into play on four holes.

As construction proceeded, two thingsbecame evident. The size and complexityof the project was putting a strain on thebudget. The Park and Recreation Depart-ment had its hands full completing the newsoftball, tennis, and soccer complexes andmanaging 40 other parks in the city.

Overall, Renaissance Park was a majorsuccess. The Charlotte Hornets, an expan-sion National Basketball Association fran-chise, was launched. A new coliseum wasbuilt for the team across from the golfcourse. The park area was the focal point ofthe city's growth.

To meet the budget, Hurdzan amendedcertain aspects of the golf course's con-struction. Wooden walls along the creekwere eliminated. The amount of earth mov-ing for the driving range was reduced. Fur-ther construction of the cart paths andshelter houses was halted.

Despite these problems, twelve differentgolf course management companieswanted to take the course to its full poten-tial. The city had been impressed with thejob American Golf Corporation had per-formed at Revolution Park. The companyhad developed a system for bring new life to

continued on page 18

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Charlotte Enters Renaissancecontinued from page 17

municipal golf courses across the country,.including those in Metropolitan New York.An agreement was signed in 1987 to leaseRenaissance Park Golf Course to AmericanGolf.

Without delay the company sent a teamto Charlotte to finish the course and plan itsopening. Another 12,000 feet of cart pathwere built. Additional drain lines wereinstalled in the valleys. Truckloads of main-tenance equipment were shipped in fromcourses as far south as Atlanta.

Renaissance Park was placed under thesupervision of the Atlanta Region of Ameri-can Golf headquartered at North FultonGolf Course in Atlanta. Soon Jack Duncan,general manager at North Fulton, wastransferred to Renaissance Park. Thesearch began for a superintendent whileregional superintendent Jerry Owens andMike Heacock, vice president of main-tenance, put together a set of guidelines forthe new course.

The company felt the position called forsomeone with a background in soils. Itneeded a person capable of solving thespecial problems associated with buildingover a landfill. Experience with new courseconstruction would also be beneficial.

Greg Bozak had recently moved fromAmerican Golf's operation in New York Cityto Hidden Hills Country Club, a privatecourse the company manages in StoneMountain, GA. Bozak has a degree in soilsand crops from Michigan State University inE. Lansing, MI. He also completed MSU'stwo-year course in turf management.Before joining the company four yearsbefore, he had been the assistant at exclu-

sive Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo, FL.When American Golf took over manage-

ment of the municipal courses in metropoli-tan New York, there was a severe problem

'with soils. They sent Bozak to Pelham/SplitRock Golf Course in the Bronx to correctthe situation with soil conditions. After justsix weeks at Hidden Hills, Bozak got the callto go the Charlotte.

"Unless you've been on a landfill before,you wouldn't know how to deal with all theproblems that come up," Bozak remarks."You learn to recognize problems such assettling and turf stress caused by gas." Forexample, Bozak points out that methanedamage occurs most often on higher eleva-tions rather than low spots as you mightexpect. There is also good reason to bealert for fires on a golf course or park builtabove a landfi II.

To meet the September 1988 deadline,Bozak pushed the bermudagrass and bent-grass. The greens were placed on a pro-gram of preventative fungicides with appli-cations every ten days. Three members ofthe crew spent six hours each day handwatering the greens. Treatments with Forewere made to guard against algaeproblems. Wetting agents were also usedgenerously to correct any localized dryspots.

Sand topdressing proved extremely help-ful in solving minor settling problems on thegreens. "We took the grooming units off ourGreensmaster because they would scalpwhere settling had occured," Bozak stated."When you're cutting at two tenths of aninch, it doesn't take much settling to causea problem."

The 419 bermudagrass responded to onepound of nitrogen per month. Five fairways,

however, were thinner than Bozak wouldhave liked for the opening. Bozak alsonoticed a few large areas of bermuda onone fairway that didn't respond as well towetting agents and fertilization. He sus-pected methane was the cause and wasable to correct the problem with aerificationand additional fertilization.

Portions of rough outside of the throw ofthe irrigation system were also thinner thanhe would have liked for the opening. But noone seemed to notice these small flaws dur-ing the Charlotte Amateur Open a monthafter Bozak arrived. They were too busy try-ing to beat the tough course. After theOpen, Bozak overseeded the tees withPrelude perennial ryegrass. He also over-seeded the tall fescue roughs with a blendof improved turf-type tall fescue. When theTifway and Tifgreen went dormant, he wasable to remove any patches of grassy orbroadleaf weeds with glyphosate.

This past spring Bozak applied Regalstar,a fertilizer containing Ronstar preemer-gence herbicide, to block chickweed andPoa annua from germinating. He followedup with a late spring treatment of Trimec forbroadleaf weeds and Sencor/MSMA forcrabgrass. A second application wasneeded for the green banks after a heavyrain. A few thin spots in the common ber-muda roughs were reseeded.

"We had very few insect problems so far,"Bozak reports. "We stay on top of cutwormson the greens. Other than that, we don'thave problems with grubs like northerncourses and we don't run into mole cricketsor sod webworms like they have in theSouth. It could be that the course is newand they haven't had a chance to move in:'

This year the greens were aerified six

Renaissance Park Golf Course crew and equipment. Seated on motorcycles (L to R): superintendent Greg Bozak and mechanic Chris McElhattan.Seated on mowers (L to R): Rich Shlnholt, Chris Burris, Jerry Sherrill, and Tony Sherrill. Standing in truck beds (L to R): assistant superintendentAlan McCurry and Irrigation technician Sean Patterson.

18 sports TURF

times, three with hollow tines and three withsolid tines. During the summer the cuttingheight on the greens was raised to 1/4 inch.Bozak drops it to two tenths inch for thewinter.

He raises the cutting height of the 450Dfairway mower in the fall to 3/4 inch from 1/2inch as a precaution for winter dead spot.The fairways are core aerified three timesduring the year. The tees are maintained atfour-tenths of an inch year round and aeri-fied six times a year. They are overseededin the fall along with the greens.

Both the common bermudagrass and tallfescue roughs are cut at 2112inch through-out the year. The tall fescue is reseeded inthe fall to maintain density.

By this fall Renaissance Park was asbeautiful and staggering as any privatecourse in Charlotte. The entire park was ashining example of what city parks can bewith lighted softball and soccer fields busyevery night. Business was also brisk at thegolf course's lighted driving range. The Hor-nets were getting ready to start their seasonat the Coliseum.

This fall as Bozak was preparing the teesfor overseeding, the National Weather Serv-ice issued a hurricane warning for theAtlantic Coast from Miami to Charlotte. Hur-ricane warnings are nothing new forCharlotte residents. They had escapedsevere damage for nearly 30 years.

But on the morning of September 29,

"Unless you've beenon a landfill before,you wouldn't knowhow to deal with allthe problems that

come up."

hurricane Hugo hit Charlotte with all itsfurry, toppling trees like matchsticks anddestroying homes and businesses formiles. Renaissance Park, located six milesinland was not spared. When Duncan andBozak reached the courses that afternoon,they counted more than 300 trees down."They were all old trees on the back nine,"said Bozak. "One big beech tree that fell onthe 13th green had initials carved in it date1930:'

While the loss was .severe, only onegreen had been damaged by falling trees.After trying unsuccessfully to find anarborist who could remove the trees, Dun-can called American Golf in Atlanta for help.The next morning a crew of 11 from Atlantaarrived at Renaissance with chain saws, a

chipper, and a dozer. By that evening all thetrees on the greens and blocking the cartpaths were gone.

On the second day, Bozak and assistantsuperintendent Allen McCurry prepared atemporary green on the fairway next to thedamaged green. The front nine wasopened on the third day. After repairing andresodding the damaged green, the backnine was reopened the following weekend.

"We have months of work ahead of us toclean up from the storm," Bozak adds. "But,some courses were closed for nearly amonth. I still can't believe how much equip-ment the company brought in to get usback open. They also helped out two othercourses in Charlotte:'

"In another year, Renaissance is going tobe one of the best municipal courses in theSoutheast," he boasts. "It's a bargain at $28[for a cart and greens fee] on the weekend.There's no doubt it's a tough course. Youcan't play it once and hope to do well. Youhave to hit straight and learn how to play thebounce. You use every club in your bag."

Perhaps in the future, a number of youngCharlotte golfers will make the tour andwork their way up the money list. If they do,everyone involved with the RenaissancePark project will feel a sense of accomplish-ment and pride. Not only did they reclaim alandfill, they gave golfers of all backgroundsa chance to develop their game to its fullpotential. •

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