From the West-O

OF THE GAME AND THE LAND
THE HIGHS AND THE WOES OF STONE CREEK GOLF COURSE

Any golfer will tell you, it’s a fickle game. One day everything seems to be working. Then maybe the next day there’s a hitch. The next thing you know, you couldn’t hit the ball into an ocean from the shoreline. Getting over the hump takes a lot of time and a lot of effort, but with commitment ultimately comes success.

The building and shaping of a quality golf course is not much different. It takes time and commitment and there are a lot of obstacles to overcome before you get it right. No one on staff out at Stone Creek will tell you that they haven’t known the humps. Built in 2000, Stone Creek was designed to answer the demand for a high quality yet affordable golf course in the West Metro District. Featuring 27 fair but challenging golf holes, Stone Creek spreads out over two hundred twenty acres from Fort Street north to Ida and from 156th west to 162nd. Even under the most ideal conditions, getting this course up and running was a monumental task.

There was, however, nothing ideal about the conditions surrounding its construction. In 1999 the hot dry winds El Nino offered little chance for new grass seed to take hold. Its sister system La Nina gave little relief in 2000 when Stone Creek opened. Harsh weather, as we all know, is more the rule here in Nebraska than the exception. And the solution is one that is well known around these parts. Irrigate. Stone Creek has a vast network of pump stations, pipes, and sprinkler heads (2163 of them to be exact) covering every square foot of all three nines. But with all the housing development taking place around the course crews were constantly battling ruptures due to utility work and heavy equipment operating over top of the system. It was not a time for any kind of irrigation interruption, and the course showed the scars well into September. By the fall grounds crews had put the course back in to shape, only to find that spring 2001 would bring the worst incidence of winter-kill in 16 years.

And then there were the golf carts. 110 of them, each one outfitted with an integrated global positioning display monitor showing precise yardage to tees, holes, and hazards. These systems represent the leading technological advances in recreational golf. Unfortunately, like any technological advancement, these turned out to be less than rugged. Rough course conditions created enough cart vibration to knock at least half of all of the new units out of service, leaving the clubhouse staff scrambling to keep the working units in circulation. This did not always work.

But now, on the brink of the 2002 season, the staff out at Stone Creek is seeing light at the end of the tunnel. Time and toil have smoothed the course out. Fairways are thick with bluegrass, greens are maturing to where they can be cut to speed, development efforts are mostly complete, and the carts have all new suspension systems to keep the GPS up and running. Even Mother Nature has given the crews a break, allowing them a week in January to reactivate the irrigation system and dump much needed water to help prevent springtime winter-kill. Optimism has since replaced caginess throughout the Stone Creek staff.

The staff would like to invite you out to come see Stone Creek as it was intended to be. It took some time, it took a lot of commitment, and there were no shortage of obstacles to overcome. But just like the game itself, the more you work at it, the more you get out of it.

Brit Ward, Assistant Golf Professional