\

Tight common bermudagrass fairway at Pala Mesa Resort.

WORKPays Off

For Pala Mesa

14 sports TURF

Teamwork has always been importantto Bob Dobek, golf course superin-tendent at Pala Mesa Resort in Fall-brook, CA. The greatest moments in his lifeand career have resulted from working withothers to achieve a common goal.

From the U.S. Olympic Hockey Team in1976 to the management team at PalaMesa, winner of the 1988 John Deere GolfTeam Championship, Dobek has alwaysbeen a team player with spectacular suc-cess. SportsTURF thought you'd beinterested in knowing how teamwork canaffect the success and condition of a golfcourse.

Dobek has fond memories of the '76Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria. Asstarting center for the U.S., he rememberswaiting nervously for the faceoff to beginthe semi-finals against Poland. With twoplayers injured, the rest of the team had tostretch their talents beyond their limit if theywere to advance to the finals.

They were assured a bronze medal ifthey beat the Poles by seven goals. At thefinal buzzer, the Americans were on top, butonly by five goals. Olympic rules eliminatedthem from medal play. Dobek returnedhome to Detroit, MI, with a sense of accom-plishment and a great respect forteamwork.

His life as a team player didn't stop withthe Olympics. He continued playing varsityhockey at Bowling Green State University inOhio, where he recejved a degree in busi-ness. After college, he was drafted by theSan Diego Mariners, a professional hockeyfranchise owned by McDonald's founderRay Kroc. When Kroc decided to disbandthe team in 1977,Dobek had a choice: moveto Birmingham, AL, and play professionalhockey, or change careers.

Throughout his hockey career, Dobekhad enjoyed playing golf. To prepare him-self mentally for each Mariner home game,he would play 18 at Singing Hills CountryClub in EI Cajon. Golf seemed to improvehis concentration in hockey.

In the fast-paced game of hockey, he hadto make split-second decisions based uponset plays and pu.e instinct. In golf, his mainopponent was the course. The contrastbetween a cold, flat rink and the rollinglandscape of Singing Hills captivated him.It didn't -take Dobek long to seek outSuperintendent Dave Fleming for aninsider's view of the course and how it wasmaintained.

Dobek and Fleming became golf part-ners. The more Dobek asked about coursedesign and maintenance, the more Flemingthought he saw a budding superintendent.When the decision to disband the Marinerswas announced, Fleming invited Dobek tojoin the staff at Singing Hills. To his surprise,Dobek accepted.

For seven years at Singing Hills, Flemingand Dobek worked side by side. When afluke storm flooded the course and wipedout 42 of the 54 greens, Dobek was

Pines majestically frame this bunkered green at dusk.

introduced to the fine details of recon-struction.

"Basically, we had to rebuild the wholegolf course," he recalls. "Talk about a teameffort! We really had to pull together thatyear." Dobek was hooked. After thatexperience, he enrolled in the two-yearNursery Landscape Technology program atMesa College in San Diego, graduating in1982.

In 1981, North American Resorts pur-chased the aging Pala Mesa Resort innearby Fallbrook. Competition had growntremendously ~n the San Diego resortindustry since Pala Mesa was built in 1961.The stakes were higher. A major key to thesuccess of these resorts was the conditionand quality of their golf courses.

The Slavik family, which owns the com-pany, decided in 1984 to make their move:to build a convention center and improvethe course and grounds. They started look-ing for a superintendent with experience ingolf course renovation. The timing was per-fect for Dobek, since he now had theexperience and education to take on achallenge on his own. With Fleming's sup-port, he got the job.

That same year, Pala Mesa hired golfprofessional Chris Starkjohann to developinstructional and merchandising programsfor the course. John Slavik, the companypresident, made it clear he wanted Dobek,Starkjohann, and Club Manager DannaCampbell to work together as a team tobring new life to Pala Mesa. To develop anesprit de corps, he encouraged them toplay golf together. For Campbell, the finan-cial expert, that meant she had to learn howto play, which she did enthusiastically withStarkjohann's help.

By playing the course, its flaws becameobvious to the team. All the greens on theback nine were virtually dead. A previousexperiment of plugging hybrid ber-mudagrass into the existing mixture of Poaannua and old bentgrass had failed. Tem-porary greens had been cut out of the com-mon bermuda fairways and an automatictwo-putt rule was established.

Dobek's first move was to build a 15,000square foot nursery with Penncross bent-grass. Yet, he needed a temporary solutionto the dead greens until the sad from thenursery was ready and he could start

oontinued on page 16

August, 1989 15

Three greens have been rebuilt with Penncross sod from the resort's nursery.

Teamwork Pays Offcontinued from page 15

rebuilding. His only choice was chemicalrenovation, killing the remaining bermuda,bent and Poa with glyphosate. In Septem-ber, he aerified the dead greens heavily andseeded with Seaside, a salt-tolerant creep-ing bentgrass. His final step was to topdress

with mason sand, irrigate, and hope for thebest.

The most important season for the resortbusiness in Southern California begins inOctober. The greens had to be ready for thepeak season ... and they were. By October20, the nine problem greens were backopen and the temporary greens were gone.

By then, Dobek had also overseeded thetees and fairways with perennial ryegrass.This was done by scalping and verticuttingthe common bermuda with a Toro 450Dfive-reel, hydraulic fairway mower. Afterremoving the debris with an Olathevacuum, he broadcast the seed anddragged it in.

The emergency work performed byDobek and his crew paid off. The confi-dence of the Pala Mesa team grew, andtheir success opened the doors for Dobekto purchase more equipment and to createa five-year plan to rebuild tees and greens.

The new convention center would makethe resort busy year-round and increase theimportance of the summer condition of thecourse. That meant doing all they could toimprove the health of the Poa in the sum-mer with better drainage, more precise irri-gation, and a close watch on diseases. Thegreens are 85 to 90 percent Poa.

"I'll never forget the first time we aerifiedthe greens," says Dobek. "The stench fromanaerobiosis was so bad we had to wearmasks!" It turned out the greens had notbeen aerified in two years. They were com-pacted and had no subsurface drainage.The silty soil tested at a pH of 7.5 to 7.7 andwas high in both chlorides and salts.

To restore drainage and improve rootdepth, Dobek developed a plan to incor-porate sand into the root zone by coring andsand topdressing. He started the followingsummer, aerifying and topdressing the

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greens five times. He then injected wettingagents into the Rain Bird irrigation systemand flooded them to leach out the salts andchlorides.

"In this valley you live with Poa," Dobekpoints out. "Bentgrass just isn't aggressiveenough during the winter. That's when thePoa shines. The test comes during thesummer, especially in July and again inSeptember, when the Santa Ana winds kickup. For three months you have to babysit it,being real careful with fertilizers, irrigation,and now disease."

The disease he is referring to is summerpatch, a root disease that hit most of thePoa courses in the area during the past twoyears. "We couldn't identify the problem atfirst," says Dobek. "Joe Vargas (turf pathol-ogist at Michigan State University) hap-pened to be out here last year and gave usthe answer. Since then, we've been on apreventative fungicide program withbenomyl." This is in addition to summerapplications of Subdue and/or Koban forpythium control.

Pala Mesa has rebuilt one green eachyear for the past three years. The main rea-son i.s to improve drainage and root growth.The other is to take out some of the moresevere undulations to allow a wider choiceof pin placements. "John (Slavik) makes thefinal decision on grading and reshaping,"adds Dobek.

The crew strips off the top 16 inches ofsoil and installs a network of four-inch per-

The Pala Mesa golf team savoring victory after the John Deere Team Championship, (L to R)Jim Davis, Bob Dobek, Danna Campbell, Chris Starkjohann, and John Slavik.

forated drainpipe. After lining the bottomwith a four-inch layer of pea gravel, theybring in river sand, amending it with firbark. The new root zone is fumigatedbefore the Penncross sod from the nurseryis laid.

"It takes about six weeks to rebuild agreen and get it back in play," states Dobek.

"So far, we've rebuilt three greens andreseeded six others." To make certain eachpiece of sod cut from the nursery is level,the meticulous Dobek turns it upside downon plywood and shaves off some of the soilwith the bedknife of an old mower.

)( The greens are topdressed with sandcontinued on page 18

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Water and trees make the approach to this large undulating green challenging.

Teamwork Pays Offoontinued'rom page 17every four to six weeks. They are aerifiedfour times a year before topdressing. "Afterthree years of repeated coring and top-dressing, the soil is now a sandy loam tex-ture,"Dobek reveals. "We no longer detectan odor when we aerify." The cutting heightof the Jacobsen Greens Kings is set at 1/B-inch in the fall, winter and spring and 5/32-inch during the summer.

Four tees have been converted fromcommon bermuda to Tifgreen. All the teesare aerified four times a year and top-dressed monthly. The tee mower is kept at3/B-inch year-round.

Fairways are aerified three times a yearand maintained at 1/2-inch with the 4500.The common bermuda has few problemswith diseases, weeds or insects. Divots inthe aggressive turf fill in rapidly. Thin orthatchy areas are verticut and seeded in

--l late spring.\ ..... The cart paths have been rebuilt and gol-

fers are required to keep their carts on themduring certain times of the year.

"This is a classic golf course and weintend to keep it that way," says Dobek. "Itreminds golfers of some of the greatcourses they played back East, lined withmature pines and oaks." If you look closelyat the desert foothills you also seesagebrush, tall eucalyptus, and junipers.It's a challenging course at 6,500 yards, withtight fairways, undulating greens, and heav-ily bunkered greens. Nearly 40 largebunkers and three lakes challenge thegolfer.

Today the resort and convention centerare busy both summer and winter.Nevertheless, the management team ofSlavik, Starkjohann, Campbell and Dobekstill find time to play their course regularly.With all the original flaws corrected, theteam now discusses small refinements asthey play, like tucking the tees further back

18 sports TURF

into the trees to add yardage or reshapinggreens to adjust for the shade from thetrees as they grow taller.

"You need to make small improvementseach year to keep classic courses in topcondition," says Dobek. "It's condition thatimpresses golfers and makes them want tocome back. After a few rounds on a PeteDye course, they want to return to a coursethey feel comfortable playing:'

With each improvement, the Pala Mesateam's game got a little better. They missedthe first Deere Team Championship in 1987at PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens,FL. They were determined not to miss thenext one.

"You need to makesmall improvements

each yearto keep classiccourses in top

condition. "

The Deere Team Championship startedout two years ago as a way of introducing allthe decision makers at golf courses to thecompany's products and distributors. Theyrecruited the PGA to set up and direct a ser-ies of sectional golf tournaments in whichthe superintendent, club manager, golfprofessional, and club president playtogether as a team. The winners of morethan 40 regional events advance to anational championship.

PGA set up the tournaments in a modi-fied scramble format, explains Clair Peter-son, tournament director for Deere. In thisformat the professional plays his own ballwhile the rest of the team plays best ball,using at least two drives from each memberof the team. The pro helps the others plotstrategy. At the end of the tournament, thepro's score is added to the score of theother three.

"To score well a team has to plan eachstroke, utilizing the strengths of eachplayer," explains Pete Wofford, PGA's infor-mation manager. "That requires a groupdecision on every shot. If you don't workwell together, you won't win a scramble:'

The pro lends his expertise on shotmak-ing, while the superintendent advises theteam on the effects of the condition of thecourse, such as the speed, grain or soft-ness of the greens. The club manager andpresident witness the skills of their staff inreading the course and reap a different kindof reward from working together as a team.

The Pala Mesa team had an advantagein the 1988 sectional since it was held there.But they were just as awestruck as the restof the finalists by the tough Jack NicklausResort course at PGA West. In the champi-onship, the Deere distributor representativeserving the club joins the team to play bestball with the amateurs. Jim Davis fromHydro-Scape in San Diego, a two-handicapper, was Pala Mesa's Deererepresentative.

"We had one day to practice and buildour strategy," recalls Starkjohann, captainof the team. "The course had just been reo-pened after overseeding. The ryegrass wasyoung and slick, so we expected some flyerlies. But we had been practicing at home insimilar conditions.

"The fairways were just as narrow asours. Instead of trees, the Nicklaus coursehad big, steep-walled bunkers, lakes, andmounds topped with lovegrass. Water is abigger factor at PGA West.

"The bent greens had about the sameundulation as ours, but more grain. Sinceours are Poa, they were about as fast as thelow-cut bent," noted Starkjohann.

For the next two days, everything seemedto click for the Pala Mesa team. At the endof the first round they were one stroke offthe pace.

"Everybody got hot in the final," Dobekrecalls. Starkjohann shot a 70 the first day.Campbell, playing from the ladies' tees,drove over 150 yards consistently. Instead ofusing just two of her drives, they used more.Dobek and Davis, both long hitters,provided strength on drives and fairwayshots. Slavik proved invaluable with hischipping.

The final day was a shotgun start with thePala Mesa team beginning on the tenthhole. "Danna (Campbell) sank a 35 footerright off the bat," Starkjohann remembersvividly. "Then John (Slavik) sunk two longbirdie putts. We ended up birdieing the firstfive holes!"

With one hole left to play, Starkjohannwas worried. "The ninth hole is a par 4 withwater. In the first two rounds, my drive wentinto the lake. This time not only did my driveend up in the lake, so did everybody else's.We had to take drops. Bob hit an unbeliev-able eight iron 15 feet from the hole. Withthat inspiration, I hit mine five feet insidehis.

"As we walked up to the ninth green, weknew we had to sink our puts to save parand have any chance to win the tourna-ment. Dana, Bob, and John all missed the15-footer. It now was up to Jim and me. Therest is like a dream. Jim rolled his right intothe center of the hole for their par. We allwent nuts! I stepped up to my ball, havingread the break on Jim's. Like fate, I caughtthe right side and it dropped in the cup.What a great sound!

When Pala Mesa's score was posted,they realized they had the lead by two-tenths of a point. When the last teamfinished, nearly 30 minutes later, theyremained on top of the leader board.

To the team, the victory meant more thana trophy. It was the climax of five years ofconsistent teamwork. Not only had theybrought their resort back to life, they haddeveloped a rapport that held up undercompetition.

This year the sectional was again held atPala Mesa. But this time the team from Mis-sion Trails in San Diego rallied on the final

An outbreak of summer patch forced Dobek to treat his Poa greens with benomyl.

hole to beat Pala Mesa by one stroke. "We'llbe back next year," Dobek promised.

Sectional tournaments are being heldacross the country until October, saysDeere's Peterson. This year the champion-ship will be played on two courses in LaQuinta November 16-19.The 40 finalists willplay one round on the Nicklaus ResortCourse at PGA West and the second on theDunes Course at the La Quinta Hotel.

Two teams, Pala Mesa Resort and OceanPines Golf & Country Club in Ocean City,MD, winner of the first Deere Team Cham-pionship, have shown that teamwork paysoff in more ways than one. The club presi-dent, club manager, golf professional andsuperintendent have a joint stake in theircourse. By working and playing together,they can accomplish more than they couldas individuals. Just ask Bob Dobek .•

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