At last week’s Golf Advisory Committee meeting there was an outcry from members and Sun City residents who felt that their concerns regarding the Willowcreek project have not been heard. As a result, the RCSC Board of Directors has arranged a meeting with the golf architect and the six members of the Willowcreek Green Committee this week. Only members of the Willowcreek Green Committee will be allowed to attend this meeting so Sun City residents with concerns should make them known to the committee.
Although the Willowcreek Green Committee was asked to setup an evaluation meeting with RCSC’s golf architect, Gary Brawley, on September 3, 2010 and chose not to comply with the request, the committee did meet with Mr. Brawley on October 29, 2010 and again on December 17, 2010 and the committee accepted the master plan prior to the Board’s approval of it on January 17, 2011.
During this process it was conveyed that the committee was concerned with the forward tees (which have been removed), the tree on hole #15 (which has remained), the cart paths not being removed (minimal removals have all been replaced), the bunkers not being removed (27 bunkers are being renovated, 5 are being repositioned and 6 are being added), and the rebuilding of greens located on hole #7 and #9 (which remain in the master plan for maintenance and long-term green health reasons but are not being done during this summer’s project). Despite the response to these concerns, there still remains a lack of contentment that members have in fact been heard. Therefore, the upcoming meeting scheduled for the end of this week is an attempt to get the committee comfortable with the master plan and strategy for the Willowcreek golf course and to hear specific design concerns of the committee.
The Board takes the approval of an almost $700,000 expenditure very seriously and it is important to note that cost effectiveness is the foundation of everything we have done on RCSC’s golf courses and throughout the organization. All the golf course master plans completed to date are both cost effective to build/renovate and cost effective to maintain quality over time. There is always a cheaper option for today; however, the Board’s approach is to provide cost effectiveness over time, which eliminates the “pay me later” scenario that we have been dealing with over the last few years.
