The Covey|September
2015
Director of Operations - Craig Palm
Greetings Alvamar Members –
This is a very exciting time for Alvamar Country Club. As we look forward to the future of this club, there will be questions as to how the new facilities will affect your membership. The management staff will always endeavor to relay the most accurate information, when available. With that, here is a message from the Alvamar Board of Directors.
Alvamar Country Club Member;
As you know, we have been under contract to sell the Golf Course Properties, Equipment, and other related Assets to Bliss Sports, LC. The managers of this LC are Thomas and Dru Fritzel. The sale of this land is contingent on Bliss Sports being able to get approval from the city to rezone approximately 51.58 acres, receive a Special Use Permit for Active Recreation uses in the Alvamar Planned Development, and receive approval for a Preliminary Development Plan for another 50 acres.
We are pleased to report that on Monday evening, August 24, The City of Lawrence - Douglas County Metropolitan Planning Commission — on a 9-0 vote — recommended approval for all of the items mentioned above!!! With these approvals the developer would add about 300 additional apartments, condos and other multifamily units near the course. The idea of an expanded banquet facility with about two dozen overnight guest rooms also received a thumbs-up from the planning board. Also, the plans call for a new golf clubhouse, fitness center, two swimming pools, cart barn, and a large feature pond!! Now the plans will go to the City Commission for approval on Tuesday evening, September 15.
With the approval by the City Commission on September 15 we would anticipate a closing on this sale no later than December 31, 2015.
Thank you!!
Alvamar, Inc. Board of Directors
We are excited to see these many changes and additions happen to our club. The staff looks forward to offering even more amenities to our members. As a reminder, I have placed the new overlays down in the Alvabar for your viewing. As soon as Staff is informed about timelines, we will post those as well.
Housekeeping reminders from the Business Office:
· Standing balances on membership accounts need to be paid off by the 10th of every month.
· There are 3 ways to view or access your account, online, monthly statement or call the Business Office.
· All memberships need to be in good standing prior to the ownership change over. If a membership has a standing balance, said membership may lose all privileges.
· Please call Janice Loux or Valerie Woodhead, in the Business Office, to find out the status of your membership if you have a question about it.
Food and Beverage News
I’d like to thank everyone who made this pool season a success. It was great to see so many families out enjoying Alvamar.
Mark your calendars for the annual Member Appreciation Tailgate on The Hill. Alvamar will host a tent on Saturday, November 21st on the KU hill. All members are welcome to come join us for complimentary food and drink. The celebration will start two hours prior to kickoff.
Alvamar would like to congratulate all our staff members who have recently graduated and moved on to other opportunities. As a result, members can expect to see many new faces on the Alvamar Food & Beverage staff. Please take the time to get to know this eager group of new arrivals and help to induct them into the Alvamar family.
As the seasons change the beverage cart hours will begin to change also. Please check in with the Alvabar or Pro Shop prior to your round for beverage cart updates. The beverage cart will continue to run on weekends through October but weekday hours will be reduced moving into fall.
See you at the club.
Jen Nuessen
Food & Beverage Director
From Chef Matthew's Kitchen
With summer in full swing, how about a little spice!
Here is an Indonesian Shrimp and corn fritter recipe:
1.75 cups corn kernels, fresh or frozen, thawed (either, lightly crushed)
4-6 oz minced shrimp
1 tsp minced garlic
2 Tblsp minced red onion (or shallot)
1 minced green onion
1 tsp minced celery leaves (omit if you don’t have and add 1 extra green onion)
2 eggs (beaten lightly)
¼-1/3 cup flour
Salt, white pepper, cayenne pepper and sugar to taste
Stir all but flour, mix thoroughly, add flour, should be a little moist. Season with salt, peppers, and sugar, start with a nice pinch of each maybe 2 pinches of salt, and adjust as needed!
Deep fry 3-5 minutes by dropping heaped tbls of batter into hot oil. Can be fried in skillet with small amount of oil, drop in oil, cook 2.5-3 minutes each side or until cooked through. Serve with Sambal, sweet plum sauce or both! Enjoy!
Until next month, good cooking! Chef Matthew.
Buffet Nights: 1st–Prime Rib, 8th-Pizza Night, 29th-Birthday Night.
We will have Early Bird specials on Tuesday 15th and 22nd.
Alvabar Lunch & Dinner Menu-NEW!http://www.alvamar.com/golf/emailer2020/img/alvamar/Alvabar_Menu_011215.pdf
May Calendar:
Click here to view our September Calendar.
Pro Shop News Eric Magnuson
Congratulations to Wayne Postoak and Jerry Tuckwin for winning the 2015 Mel Anderson. Also congratulations to Drew Lethem and Kathy Stuntz for being the overall Champions in the Club Championship. This month we will have both the Quail Hunt and Quail Classic (both Men’s and Ladies Member Guest). If you have not signed up please do so ASAP!!!!
Just a few notes for everyone to remind us what the cart rules are. Everyone, every day, is allowed to drive on the paths and fairways. On days that carts are restricted to paths, only a person issued a blue flag is allowed to drive into the fairway. WE are never to drive in the rough!!! That includes pulling up close to the tee boxes. An example is driving to the tees on #17. Our golf course has had a rough year and compounding it with driving in the unirrigated rough can cause more damage.
A BIG Thank You to Jerry Waugh for coordinating the goose grass extraction of #2 green last week. Also, a Thank You to Don Johnston, Doug Funk, Ken Creasey, Gary Leonardi, John Catlin, Jerry Magnuson, and Mike Chapman who took the time to come and help. We will be attempting to do #11 on September 2nd.
Labor Day Big Cup – September 7th
Quail Classic – September 15th and 16th
Quail Hunt – September 17th through 20th
Give me the fresh air, a beautiful partner, and a nice round of golf and you can keep the fresh air and the round of golf. ~Jack Benny
From the Ladies Tee- Bobette Puderbaugh
Our annual Quail Classic is here -- September 15th and 16th is ACCWGA’s especially themed GIRLS GONE WILD 2015 Quail Classic. We are hoping that ALL Lady Alvamar members invite golfing friends to join them at our home club to play in this fun-filled event! A flyer and registration form can be found on the link provided, or pick them up in the Ladies Lounge on the lower level of the club house. Fill out your Entry Form and forward to it Vicki Jewett—instructions appear on the form. If you would like to play but don't have a team, let us know, Pat Paul will happily help you discover those that are not yet part of a team.
The Alvamar Country Club Women’s Golf Association’s Handicap Tournament was held on August 18th and 19th. All of our ACCWGA members were encouraged to sign up and play in this two-day fun tournament. Congratulations to Sheila Collier for winning first place and to Janet Magnuson and Sue Bradfield for tying for second place!
WGAKC City Play
The Women's Golf Association of Kansas City created a non-competitive organization in 1915 for the purpose of promoting cooperation between golf clubs in the surrounding area. Today "City Play" is open to all the ladies at Alvamar. For a $45 membership, we can play ten different golf courses. Lunch always follows golf with the results for that day. Although this is non-competitive, low gross and low net scores do receive gift certificates. The participating clubs include Brookridge Country Club, Country Club of Leawood, The Duce, Lake Quivera Country Club, Lakewood Oaks Country Club, Loch Lloyd Country Club, Milburn Golf and Country Club, National Country Club of Kansas City, Nicklaus Golf Course at Lions Gate, and Staley Farms Golf Course. Currently our own Linda Swain is the Vice President of WGAKC, which consists of approximately 130 members.
Kathy Stuntz heads up and organizes Alvamar’s participation in City Play. This is a great opportunity to share our beautiful golf course with some Kansas City golf clubs and create wonderful friendships with the women we meet from other golf courses. A big thank-you goes out to Elaine Brady who was the first person to encourage Alvamar to participate in this long-lasting relationship with KC golf courses.
TEAM PLAY
As I write this article, the Alvamar Ladies Team Play team is in first place with two remaining matches to play – GO ALVAMAR!
KC CUP
Alvamar women have made it to the KC Cup playoffs – GO ALVAMAR!
Ladies Bridge Corner
Ladies' July Bridge:
Friday, August 14th at 11:30
Please make your reservations by noon on Wednesday,August 12th by contacting Carolyn Phillips at 424-5927 or Lu Vaccaro at 842-3866
Tee to Green
It is the day after the Mel Anderson Member/Member event. I hope all who entered had a good time. For those who didn’t, there is always next year.
I am starting my 7th week at Alvamar. I have had numerous questions asked of me, about the course. I have had numerous suggestions told to me on what needs to be done to make this, the Alvamar that most of us remember, top 75 in the nation. I appreciate all the feedback I have been receiving. It is almost impossible to see all of the acreage that we have to maintain. That is why I appreciate all of the homeowners that their property backs up to the golf course that I have heard from. We have tried to get to everyone’s concerns as quickly as we possibly can. Thank you for your understanding and concern.
With starting a new position there is always a learning curve. I have had to learn the golf course over again. I had to learn how each individual hole acts or reacts to the weather, to the mowing, to the watering, to the fertilizing, etc. Then, I had to see how everything was done before and see if I could improve on anything or just go with status quo. I had to do all of that starting in the month of July which in Kansas is considered the start of dying roots, dormant grass, disease, usually droughty conditions, but not this year, and several other problems that growing grass under a 1/8 of inch in this beautiful State of Kansas has to offer.
I have heard several complaints about the conditions of the greens. They are too slow; the ball marks are terrible this year; the goose grass in the greens and collars along with all of the other weeds that are present in the collars and green banks. I just want you to know that your complaints have not fallen on deaf ears. I take a lot of pride in how I maintain a golf course. I see just about everything that you see and I want you to know that my staff and I are trying to do our best, with the resources that we have, in correcting the situations.
I know everyone is saying how Mother Nature has treated us so great this year with rain and that your yards look great and your water bill looks even better. Well, I assure you our water bill this year looks awesome. I am not sure who said it but it was a golf course superintendent that said, Mother Nature grows grass for 10 months, here in Kansas, and we help her out the other two. What that means is that we normally work 10 months aerifying, fertilizing, watering, verticutting, spiking, topdressing, etc., to make sure the 2 months of July and August don’t just destroy us. Grass can be lazy like a human. If Mother Nature gives it all of the water it needs to survive, every couple of days like we had from March to now, then the grass plant will not spend the energy it takes to send it roots down looking for the water it knows it will need later when it gets hot. That is basically, what has happened to our greens. Our mass root depth is about 1 ½ inches per green. Most of the greens that I have worked with, over the years, have had a mass root depth of around 3-4 inches this time of year, with feeder roots as far down as 8 or 9 inches. The mass roots, in a green, help the grass plant to maintain in stressful conditions. It helps the ball marks to not explode. It helps the ball marks to repair easier. It helps the weeds to not invade the turf because the plant is a healthier plant and has a thicker turf canopy. Well, like I said earlier our mass root depth is about a 1 ½ inches down. I love Mother Nature but sometimes she can be a little hard on us.
Grass acts a lot like a human. Grass needs food, it needs water, it needs oxygen and it needs sunlight. Several of our greens do not get enough sunlight, at least not the important sunlight, which is the morning sunlight. Holes, #6,#7,#11,#12,#13,#14,#15,#16,#17,#18 on the Country Club don’t get enough morning sunlight. Several of our greens on the Country Club do not get enough air movement, #2,#3,#4, #5, #6,#7, #8,#11,#12,#13,#14,#15,#16,#17,#18. If you look at the greens at the Public side they do not have many “Mother Nature” problems at all.
I hope that long winded explanation has helped you to understand a day in the life of a golf course worker and some of the things that I have had to deal with in the last 7 weeks. I look forward to hearing from you all in the future and seeing these golf courses improve.
Sincerely,
Richard Herries
Golf Course Superintendent
Welcome to the club's newest members!
Preston & Erin Girard
Club Staff
Craig Palm|Director of Operations
Paul Hooser | Director of Instruction
Eric Magnuson | Director of Golf
emagnuson@alvamar.com
Ryan Davis | Assistant Golf Professional
rdavis@alvamar.com
Jen Neussen | Director of Food & Beverage
jnuessen@alvamar.com
Kursten Minnis | Event Sales and Marketing Director
kminnis@alvamar.com
Chef Matthew Michel-Cox | Executive Chef
mmichel-cox@alvamar.com
Richard Herries | Course Superintendent
Rob Etken and Tom North |Assistant Superintendents
retken@alvamar.com
tnorth@alvamar.com
Valerie Woodhead |Director Of Accounting
vwoodhead@alvamar.com
Janice Loux | Member Services