Spring 2004

LESCONEWS

Vol. 42 No. 2

A family's passion for their land brings Birdsfoot Golf Club to life

What began as one family's passion for doing something special with 185 acres of farmland is now one of the best new public courses in Pennsylvania. They call it Birdsfoot Golf Club. And the name is as unique and intriguing as the place itself.

Named for birdsfoot trefoil, a flowering groundcover that flourishes on the property, this all-bentgrass course is located about 35 miles north of Pittsburgh near Freeport. Birdsfoot opened nine holes in July 2002 and the second nine in May 2003. Primarily links-style, but with a few treed holes, the par 72 layout ranges from 4,932 to 7,047 yards. There are five sets of tees on each hole.

Surrounded by nothing, Birdsfoot is draped over rolling fields and dotted with woodlands and water. It dishes out equal portions of super scenery and excellent golf. Large greens - they average 6,500 sq. ft. - with subtle undulations, great bunkering, a split fairway on the 18th hole, a farmhouse that functions as a clubhouse and fascinating tree carvings (see boxed area, page 8) are just a few of the features that make Birdsfoot so appealing.

The course was developed and is owned by the Lindsay Golf Group, a family partnership made up of four brothers and one sister. The family had been farming the ridge-top property overlooking Buffalo Creek Valley for years, but decided to investigate other options as the agricultural economy slumped in the late 1990s. Andy Lindsay, who was directly involved in farming the land at the time and is now a Birdsfoot assistant superintendent, was key to getting the golf course project started.

In the words of Travis Lindsay, who is now director of operations at Birdsfoot, "It wasn't a passion for golf, but a passion for doing something special with the land."

Mission accomplished . . . because Birdsfoot is indeed a special place. It is proof of what can be achieved when an inspired landowner, visionary golf course architect, talented construction group, knowledgeable superintendent and LESCO come together to create an upscale daily fee golf course in rural Pennsylvania.

A talented team
After interviewing five architects - all of who undoubtedly drooled when they saw the land - the Lindsay Golf Group selected Ault, Clark & Associates of Kensington, Maryland to design Birdsfoot Golf Club. The Willard Group, led by Elwood Willard, Jr. and based in Klingerstown, Pennsylvania, built the course and Tom Bettle, a Penn State grad with a career that includes 10 years at Quicksilver Golf Club in Midway, Pennsylvania, was hired as superintendent. LESCO Sales Representatives Chad Lamantia and Ken Painter worked closely with the Birdsfoot team from the beginning. They supplied the seed and fertilizer for the grassing and grow-in and continue to provide products and services now that the course is open.

Designed by Ault, Clark and Associates, Birdsfoot is primarily a links-style course, but also features several treed holes.

On site at Birdsfoot since August 2001, Bettle had the advantage of managing the entire grassing and grow-in process. He and the others involved in developing the specs knew they wanted to use the newer bentgrass varieties and selected PENN G-2 for greens and Princeville for fairways. Tees were seeded with a 50/50 Princeville/Penncross blend and are gradually being converted to 100% Princeville through overseeding. The intermediate rough is primarily Kentucky bluegrass and the remaining rough areas are a bluegrass/ryegrass/fescue mix.

Bettle worked closely with Lamantia during the bentgrass selection process and the decision to use PENN G-2 for the greens was made first. After considering various options for the fairways, Lamantia and Bettle visited Lindenwood Golf Club in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania to assess the Princeville fairways on that course. Bettle liked what he saw and what he heard from the superintendent there and went on to select Princeville for Birdsfoot.

"After looking at other bentgrasses for the fairways, I felt Princeville was the best available," Bettle said. "We wanted to choose a variety that would hold up well and be disease tolerant. We're a public golf course so we did not want to be tied to an intensive spray program."

The grass has lived up to Bettle's expectations. He sprays fairways just once a month and tank mixes his fungicide of choice with Primo® MAXX® to strengthen and regulate topgrowth while promoting healthy root development.

"I think the Primo helps the plant," he said. "We use it on greens, tees and fairways. It's been in our program all year and you can tell the difference."

In addition to grass variety selection, Bettle played a key role in implementing maintenance-friendly design features on the course. He and Elwood Willard spent hours discussing how best to preserve quality and aesthetics, while keeping an eye on economics and efficiency. Some of the results of their efforts include a minimal need for hover mowing and weed-eating and the decision to use triplex riding mowers on the greens.

"We can mow all 18 greens using two guys in the same amount of time it would take five guys if we were using walk-behinds," Bettle said.

Assistant Superintendents Nathan Olczak (left) and Andy Lindsay, along with a 15-person crew, are key to maintaining quality playing conditions at Birdsfoot Golf Club.

Hot, dry, cool, wet
Any golf course construction project presents challenges along the way - many courtesy of Mother Nature. And Birdsfoot was no exception.

Nine holes on the course were seeded in October 2001 and opened the following July - in the midst of a very hot, dry summer. The second nine holes were seeded during the spring and early summer of 2002 and opened in mid-May of 2003 - on the eve of what would become one of the coolest, wettest summers on record.

As Bettle pointed out, growing-in a golf course during a drought isn't all that tough because irrigation is available. Excess water, on the other hand, can be tricky. There is the obvious problem of washouts - and Birdsfoot had some of those - but the challenges can go deeper than that. With last season's above-average rainfall, keeping nutrients in the root zone and developing a deep root system proved somewhat difficult at times.

"I can count on one hand the number of times I was able to control my own moisture on this course last summer," Bettle said. "The roots never had to work to get at the moisture. It was just there from May on."

Because Birdsfoot opened in two phases approximately 10 months apart, Bettle also faced the challenge of making the more mature nine and the newer nine as similar as possible from a playability standpoint.

"Our goal when we opened the second nine was to be as close to the existing nine as possible," Bettle explained. "I feel we were very close. I wouldn't open until we were as consistent as we could be because I believe that once you start bringing people in you don't want to give them any reason not to come back. It was a little hard to sell, but I convinced them that the day you open is judgment day."

Even though the weather was not ideal and the course opened in two phases, Bettle and his crew have produced outstanding conditions at Birdsfoot. With greens mowed at .011" and maintained at a daily speed of between nine and ten, golfers will notice even the slightest undulations. And in spite of a year when too much rain made consistency difficult, the comment Bettle most often heard from golfers was, "These greens are as good as any established greens in western Pennsylvania."

Ask Bettle what he likes best about Birdsfoot and he'll talk about the uniqueness of the design.

"This golf course changes hole to hole. Each has a different character," he explained. "Probably one of the plainest holes on the golf course is the first hole and I kind of chuckle when people stand on that first tee and I know they're thinking, 'This isn't much.' Then you get to the second hole, which is a 600-yard par 5, and from that point on it can get you.

"People who come here for the first time say, 'We've got to come back.' I've never heard that as much as I have on this course," Bettle continued. "It presents a lot of challenges and I don't think the golfers are going to get it the second time they play here or the third time. And I think that's what you need in today's market. You can't be a plain Jane because there's just too much out there, but yet we're not gimmicky."

Bettle maintains Birdsfoot with a crew of 15 and two assistants. One of his assistants is Nathan Olczak and the other is Andy Lindsay, the family member who previously farmed the land and took the lead on the golf course project. Bettle has only good things to say about how easy the Lindsays have been to work with and believes having Andy as an assistant has been a bonus. As Bettle pointed out, "He knows first-hand the good, the bad and the ugly."

There may have been a little bit of "the bad and the ugly" along the way, but go to Birdsfoot Golf Club today and all you'll see is plenty of "the good."

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