Contour Services for Golf Courses : Bellows Golf Management

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Contour Services

Contour Golf Services

In conjunction with its subsidiary Contour Services, BGM Golf offers unique insights to golf course management because of the combined expertise in golf course construction supervision and golf course operations management. A golf course that is not planned well and subsequently built improperly will lead to endless future maintenance costs. Additionally the golf playing experience may not be appropriate for the local golfer profile, which will lead to limited customer support. BGM / Contour Golf Services can provide a more efficient golf course planning and construction supervision process for the golf course owner without conflicting with all of the contractor relationships. The service that BGM / Contour provides will allow for additional savings during construction that does not compromise the quality of the project but will lessen the long term financial demands on the overall performance of the new golf course.

What follows is an overview and examples of the various services that BGM / Contour Services can provide to any golf course at anytime during new construction or renovation. These services also can apply to existing golf courses that would like to improve their maintenance controls or develop improved marketing materials.

Contour Services Overview

In these difficult economic times golf management companies need a point of distinction to help the client make a decision in their favor. BGM / Contour Services adds a point of distinction by making the data gathering process more economical for the client during and after the construction process. This data collection process will lead to greater operational controls. More importantly the client is now in control of one data collection set for the entire golf course. This is very important and has been rarely done in the past.

Golf course renovation, construction and planning services summary:

Aerial photography services to generate contours and site mapping
Topographic mapping services to identify site features for permitting and design planning
Pre-construction 3D computer visualizations to enhance loan-packages, permit applications and public awareness
Stakeout the preliminary routing (center of tees, turn points, center of greens, lakes & other features) for architect walk-through
Stakeout construction limits, lakes, environmental areas for architect walk-through
Control staking w/elevations at 100foot intervals along routings
Construction monitoring of lakes, tees, greens, bunkers, and other features for location control and exact square footages
Construction review and irrigation installation monitoring
Grow in supervision including maintenance equipment acquisitions
Course feature and irrigation as-built mapping after grow-in
Maintenance training, schedules, and planning for after grow-in
Maintenance building and clubhouse design consulting services
3D graphics yardage book development based on as-built data
Logo development, advertising graphics and brochures
Post construction operations planning and management

Contour Renovation & Construction Management Information and Examples:

Contour can manage the entire digital data set for a golf site. This is important for planning, design work, budgeting, bid solicitations, construction controls, golf course grow-in, and finally golf operations. Contour represents the owner’s side of the entire budget and the subsequent golf operation to make sure things are done properly while keeping the general contractor and all of the subcontractors supplied with the various CAD data, GPS data, aerial photo data, topographical data, etc. Contour does this without stepping on the toes of any of the service providers and Contour is very familiar with the needs of each of the subcontractors as it relates to timely data files and hard copies of progress information to keep them moving (progress drawings, spreadsheet quantity breakdowns, 8.5 x 11 “quick picks” of particular features for clarification, etc).

Typically a contractor and each of the various subcontractors use their own mapping methods and rarely share their data with each other. The result is inaccurate and redundant mapping for final “As-Built” plans which usually results in extra costs. It’s not uncommon for the course boundaries, fairways, lakes, bunkers, cart paths, greens, and irrigation system to be mapped three or four times by the various subcontractors during the construction process ( Example: Boulder Creek GC in Boulder City, NV).

How does Contour accomplish the task of managing the construction process?

Contour first combines aerial photography with extremely accurate survey grade GPS data measurements (this accuracy is commonly known as RTK accuracy). Next Contour combines a software program which allows the client to view all that is planned prior to construction by activating any given amount of design layers to see, in advance, where features are in relation to one another.

Note: Generally most GPS technology and equipment that is used by various contractors is accuracy rated at +/- 3 feet under ideal conditions and most likely the accuracy will be +/- 30 feet horizontally. In difficult tree canopy conditions the accuracy of this equipment will degrade by 50% or more and the elevation data provided by this equipment is unusable because of its inherent inaccuracy. Contour uses survey-quality GPS equipment and both the vertical and horizontal measurements are accurate to a tenth of a foot.

Example of the aerial photo of a project site viewed using the software:

Example of planned features layered on the golf course site and viewed with the software:

The technology also creates an opportunity for the design team to see the planned golf course in a 3-D animated format. This can further reduce the chance for the contractor and the subcontractors to misinterpret the design which could lead to costly mistakes.

Examples of frames from a 3-D active video animation viewed from above:

Using the software and information provided by Contour the design team and contractors will have a more concise understanding of what might happen in the field and from that point the budget can be better defined. More importantly the golf course owner has a better understanding of the budget process as well as an improved line of communication with the various contractors.

On most new construction or renovation projects, the budget building process happens prior to all of the parties understanding what the final product might be. The services that Contour can provide helps collaborate all of the planning so that better budget controls can exist for the golf course owner. Typically the architect creates a list of tasks that are to be performed and some approximate dollar values are assigned to each of the specific tasks. At this point, and in conjunction with the Contour tools, the owner now has a great opportunity to layout a more cost efficient budget and contract bidding process. In most previous golf course construction projects this opportunity is missed and the total budget will include many line items with duplicate services and costs.

Included below is a sample budget of a particular project which will be used as a reference. To illustrate where Contour Services can offer savings in the construction process please review the individual line items shown below and on the following page. The particular line items highlighted in BOLD and marked with an “X” are the line items that require mapping work. Contour can perform this work on behalf of the owner. The result is that the owner now fully understands the work in progress and how much has been completed. Additionally the owner now has complete control of the map data and how it will be best used in the future.

A.		DESCRIPTION	QTY	UNIT	UNIT PRICE	TOTAL

	402	MOBILIZATION & PRE EXPENSE	1	LS	20,000.00	20,000.00
X	410	LAYOUT & GRADE CHECK	1	LS	30,000.00	30,000.00
	408	CLEARING & DEMO	1	LS	160,000.00	160,000.00
X	404	EARTHWORK & GRADING	1	LS	687,500.00	687,500.00
X	444	LAKE CONSTRUCTION	1	LS	121,000.00	121,000.00
X	412	DRAINAGE ( No Greens or Bunkers)	1	LS	200,300.00	200,300.00
	413	STORM WATER MANAGEMENT	1	LS	107,500.00	107,500.00
	406	SHAPING	1	LS	150,000.00	150,000.00
	414	FINISH WORK	1	LS	48,000.00	48,000.00
X	416	GREENS CONSTRUCTION (20)	1	LS	343,450.00	343,450.00
X	418	TEE CONSTRUCTION	1	LS	64,300.00	64,300.00
X	440	DRIVING RANGE	1	LS	40,450.00	40,450.00
X	426	IRRIGATION SYSTEM	1	LS	717,000.00	717,000.00
	428	PUMP STATION (w/ House & Heat)	1	LS	202,500.00	202,500.00
X	424	BUNKER CONSTRUCTION	1	LS	58,250.00	58,250.00
X	448	PATHS (Concrete)	1	LS	602,500.00	602,500.00
	447	BRIDGES & CROSSINGS	1	LS	165,500.00	165,500.00
X	449	RETAINING WALLS & BULKHEADS	1	LS	80,000.00	80,000.00
X	430	LANDSCAPING	1	LS	210,000.00	210,000.00
X	422	GRASS FAIRWAY	1	LS	160,100.00	160,100.00
X	420	GRASS ROUGH & NATIVE	1	LS	156,750.00	156,750.00
X	452	MATURATION PHASE	1	LS	235,000.00	235,000.00
					SUB TOTAL	4,560,100.00

		Total cost of areas needing attention:				3,706,650.00
X		Potential savings using RTK & graphics		~ 10%		> 370,000.00

B.		GOLF COURSE STRUCTURES

	432	CLUB HOUSE	1	LS	464,500.00	464,500.00
	436	MAINTENANCE BUILDING	1	LS	260,000.00	260,000.00
					SUB TOTAL	1,231,750.00

C.		FEE SCHEDULE

	502	PRE-CONSTRUCTION MGMT.	1	LS	85,000.00	85,000.00
X	504	CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT	1	LS	350,000.00	350,000.00
	406	EXPENSES for G.C.	1	LS	34,000.00	34,000.00
	508	Fees for Golf Design	1	LS	150,000.00	150,000.00
X	600	LAND COST & ENGINEERING	1	LS	1,000,000.00	1,000,000.00
					SUB TOTAL	1,619,000.00

Accurate and complete “As-Built” drawings are important for many reasons including proper controls on future maintenance and operational issues. Typically and as previously mentioned the contractor and subcontractors manage their own map data throughout the project and don’t share or use the same mapping controls with the other contractors. Additionally the various contractors don’t organize and compile all collected data into one final “As-Built” plan. Many times information needs to be completed one more time from scratch and this usually means an additional expense that could possibly be in the $10,000 - $20,000 range.

Contour Services Summary:

Having one company manage the data set through the construction / renovation process means the final “As-Built” plans are more complete and all the information is tied to one data / control set. Additionally the information will provide the owner more confidence during the construction process that the work being performed is correctly located and matches the particular per unit costs shown in the budget.

After construction the data is then ready to be used by the grow-in team as well as the maintenance staff to maximize the efficiency of the irrigation control system to insure the best possible future playing conditions. It also finally means the complete data set is controlled by the golf course owner and can be organized to produce maintenance books, yardage books, scorecards, web pages and other various marketing materials that can be produced for years to come.

Sample of an “As-Built” map used in a maintenance book with accurate feature sizes and locations for better future maintenance controls:

Sample “As Built” map layered over aerial photograph with various features that can be amplified with the software provided the golf course owner:

Contour Golf and Mapping

Key mapping personnel information:

Mr. Eric Gakstatter – 1987 BS Oregon State University. 1987-2000 - GM & Senior V. P. of Corvallis Micro Technology, Corvallis, OR, which is a GPS mapping systems, hardware, and software development firm. Eric started the GPS mapping-surveying division that brought to market five new hardware platforms and two major software products generating a multi-million dollar net profit. During those 13 years, Eric has been invited to speak as a continuing education GPS mapping technology instructor at several major universities in the US and has been an invited speaker at several conferences regarding GPS mapping technology. Eric supervised the procurement, development and implementation of an internet-based sales and support infrastructure that resulted in a low cost increased quality of customer support and communication. 2000-01 - Eric helped form GPS-Mapping & Discovery Management Group, and consulted with various private, State and Federal Government agencies, including NATO and USAID on implementing GPS mapping systems. Eric has performed golf course mapping and construction services using GPS for many golf courses in the United States. Eric also compiled and provided the GPS data for the golf animations used for the NBC Sports nationally televised 2001 US Open played at Southern Hills C.C. 2002-Present - Eric works directly with Contour Services, LLC on their projects.