Skip Fumia
If you’re an avid golfer, social golfer or, as we like to think, a future golfer, you might like to learn a little about our golf world here at Quail Creek and how it operates.
We’ve talked in previous articles about the work of the Green Committee volunteers. Their various subcommittees (Course, Communication, Sales, Pricing, Marketing and Long Range Planning) report to the Green Committee, which then provides recommendations to the POA Board for action when appropriate. Many volunteers comprise the Green Committee and its subcommittees – all working to improve the golf experience here at Quail Creek for our residents. Also affiliated with the Green Committee is the Adopt-a-Hole program. Led by Dave Schutt, this group of volunteers (several per hole for all 27 holes of our courses) helps keep the courses in shape by periodically meeting on their adopted holes to: fix divots, repair ball marks, collect debris and be on the lookout for maintenance issues that are then reported to our Course Superintendent J.R. Kies for action.
Speaking of our Course Superintendent, J.R. manages a crew who take excellent care of our courses. They grow grass (that’s not easy in the desert!) and do their best to keep our courses neat from tee to green. They also maintain our bunkers and other hazards as well as our tee box conveniences (sand for your sand bottles, ball cleaners, trash containers and water containers). Their job requires a variety of equipment (mowers, spreaders, carriers, etc.), products (fertilizers and other chemicals) and water (irrigation system). All the equipment must be maintained, product must be ordered/stored/applied and water (of course) must be delivered regularly. Remember, all this must be done with minimal disruption to play!
Finally, what would we do without our Head Golf Professional Joel Jaress, the Pro Shop and staff? Nothing! That is, we wouldn’t be golfing! The Pro Shop organizes our desire to golf by herding us cats. The inside crew, led by Harvey Trott, does its best to help us play when we’d like while working to maximize play to generate revenue. They help us with the Chelsea tee time system, call us to the tee box, help us with our Pro Shop purchases, answer a myriad of questions and generally keep us in order. With over 71,000 rounds played on our course in 2014, they have a lot of golfers to manage! Randy Mathis and his outside crew provide rangers for on-course assistance and to keep the field of golfers moving along at an enjoyable pace for everyone. They also maintain our practice range in an endless loop of retrieving golf balls from the range to feed the ball machine to supply golfers with practice balls to pick them from the range again! Whew!
It’s essential that all three of these entities communicate and cooperate to produce the best golf experience for Quail Creek that we possibly can. Now you know!