»RELATED: Area high school player turning heads
Heavy usage can bring in the revenue but it can also weigh heavily on the turf grass.
That’s why Centerville has extended the teeing area of its range at the back end with a strip of artificial turf 15 feet deep and approximately 300 feet wide. It will enable golfers to have a better experience than hitting off rubber mats at times when the turf is not available.
Since last season Taylor’s staff has put new wooden decks over the steel I-beams on three bridges and is continuing a long range plan to eliminate the unnecessary bunkers on the course.
“We had four acres of bunkers when they built the course,” Taylor said.
“There was a period when sand bunkers were really popular,” Yankee Trace golf professional Steve Marino said. “A lot of them were big. But they’re very difficult to main.”
Gene Bates, the architect who designed the three nines at Yankee Trace, met with city officials several years ago and identified several bunkers that could be eliminated without affecting the course’s integrity. The process of filling them with soil began a few years ago when a handful were eliminated.
Because the course is 24 years old, many of the bunkers have drainage issues which require removing the sand and installing new tile.
Taylor said his crew is able to do that work faster now that city has a purchased a Bobcat excavator, a track vehicle that can get in and out of bunkers without doing much damage to the exteriors.
Madden tees in use
Last fall the City of Dayton rebuilt 20 tee boxes at Madden Golf Course, adding irrigation to many that had never been watered. They were re-shaped, leveled with a laser and seeded.
I took a cart ride around the course last week with Willa Brewer, a volunteer and one of the women who plays regularly at Madden.
Most of the rebuilt tees are those from which the women play and Brewer is pleased that they are level and full of grass.
“They used to be so crooked,” she said. “You couldn’t find a place to put your tee, and the ground was hard.”
Some tees have been moved into better positions than they were in the past. The teeing ground on the par 3 No. 2 hole was elevated enough that golfers have a pretty good look at the green, which was not the case in the past.
Brewer offered a personal golf story as we stood on the No. 2 tee and looked at the No. 1 green many feet below and to the right. “That’s where I had my hole-in-one,” she said.
While playing No. 2 last year, she shanked a shot that went high in the air and landed down on the No. 1 green, hit the flagstick and dropped into the cup.
Golf camp in Xenia
WGC Golf Course in Xenia will hold its 32nd annual Miami Valley Junior Golf Camp June 18-21. It’s for boys and girls 8-17 years old. Daily sessions are from 8:30 a.m.-1 p.m.
Campers will get daily instruction on stroke technique, golf etiquette and the rules of golf. The participants will play on the WGC course each day.
Instructors include director Jim Beaver and PGA pros Garay Goecke, Matt Stotler, Jerry Curtis and Nate Combs plus high school coaches Abby Merkle (Carroll girls), Betsy Beaver Gegick (Westerville girls), Chris Nartker (Beavercreek boys) and Rick Pagniano (Stebbins boys).
Entries are available at WGC or or on line at wgcgolfcourse.com under the MVJGA tab.
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