CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA | Keith Wood, the superintendent at Quail Hollow Club, remembers looking through old aerial photographs of the property from its early days back in the 1960s and marveling at how different the property is today.
Except for one thing.
The maintenance building that has been home to every superintendent and staff since the club opened in 1961.
The basic green building located in the center of the property had undergone various refits and renovations through the years to accommodate Quail Hollow’s growing stature in the game, including hosting two PGA Championships and the Presidents Cup, but it was like adding on to an already-renovated house.
What Quail Hollow needed was an entirely new maintenance facility.
It arrived Feb. 1 – all 35,000 square feet of space that includes four buildings on 4.89 acres – and is a state-of-the-art complex designed to handle the club’s existing needs, which include hosting the PGA Tour’s Truist Championship this week, while also anticipating an eventual shift to all-electric equipment, perhaps sooner rather than later.
With meeting rooms fitted with technology worthy of a Fortune 500 company, ample space to store 160 pieces of mechanized equipment, locker rooms, a dining room, a parking lot with 52 paved and marked spaces, and computerized fuel pumps, the facility is landscaped to be hidden from golfers’ views despite its proximity to the course. It’s the new model for what high-end clubs can have.
It didn’t come cheap – the price tag reportedly reached eight figures – but patience and perspective came together to finally bring to life a concept that had been in the works for years.
“Golf course maintenance is the heartbeat of a golf course. Our old building was falling in on itself. We looked back at some of the aerials and that cinder block building was there before there were any trees on the property,” said Wood, who has been superintendent for 10 years.
“As time went on, different superintendents added a little shed over there or a building and it became what it was. It was not at all reflective of the club or the club members.”
“Taking 18 years to do this, we were able to do it the right way.” — Tom DeLozier
Discussions about a new maintenance facility began three superintendents ago, club manager Tom DeLozier said, and the disruption created by COVID-19 in 2020 had the unintended consequence of allowing Quail Hollow to refine its focus even if the budget eventually grew.
“We probably spent three times what we could have done it for before COVID but we have learned as the industry has evolved,” DeLozier said.
“Taking 18 years to do this, we were able to do it the right way.”
Wood remembers the day that he and DeLozier were called to a meeting with Johno Harris, son of club president Johnny Harris, and club treasurer Alan Tate.
“They said, ‘We remember that green building from when we were kids and we don’t want our kids to remember that old green building. Do you mind if we just knock this down and start over?’” Wood said.
“It was music to my ears. We were going to make do with what we had and they said, no, let’s get rid of it and start over. Let’s fix this problem so our kids don’t have to fix this problem.”
Through the years, Wood and others visited Royal Melbourne, Oak Hill, PGA Frisco, Wade Hampton, Biltmore Forest, Bellerive and other clubs to get a sense of what they wanted and what they didn’t want.
Situated near the center of the Quail Hollow property and with wide service roads, the location provides easy access around the course. With an infrastructure that has been enhanced through the years including multiple power stations to handle the largest events, Quail Hollow built four separate buildings, each with a specific purpose that ties into the overall design.
The administration building is the gathering spot with offices, meeting space, multiple computer stations, locker rooms with boot dryers and dining areas. The main entryway features artwork that can be changed out and highlights special moments through the club’s rich tournament history. There are flat-screen TVs throughout the building and branding opportunities for club partners.
It’s where each day begins, often as the sun is rising.
“Everything that used to be on a dry-erase board like job duties, where you assigned people a task and somebody was writing it down by hand, all of that is digitized now,” Wood said.
“The assistants can assign jobs via their phones and it goes up on the board. The employees can either come in the break room or they get notified on their phones that their job has changed.
“The equipment works off the same platform. If an employee has a problem with a piece of equipment, before they come back into the shop, they can tell somebody what it was or label it. They can create a work order on the same app that tells them what they’re going to do. They can say No. 4, the right front tire is low and it sends a notification to the mechanics. They can set up a schedule to fix it.”
A second building houses the mechanics’ workshop, perhaps the most needed upgrade, Wood said.
“Golf course maintenance equipment is expensive and getting more expensive. It’s almost seen as a luxury. John Deere and Toro and Jacobson have figured that out and put a premium price on their golf course equipment,” Wood said.
“Our mechanics, before they were working off a concrete floor with decent tools in a bad environment, now they’ve got the best environment you could ask for with the best equipment.”
The building also includes a recycled water system to wash the equipment along with an automated fueling system.
“Before our fueling system, we were asking our employees to write down the number of gallons they used on a clipboard. Now it’s automated. They punch in a code, it records it, puts it on a spreadsheet and it helps us with our tax filings at the end of the year,” Wood said.
If Wood or someone on his staff needs to know where a particular piece of equipment is, it’s available on a computer or app.
The third building is devoted to agronomics, housing chemicals and fertilizers. It’s where spray tanks are mixed and spreaders are loaded. The fourth building is open on one side, housing sand and other materials needed for the course.
Irrigation is controlled by computers and satellites (green control boxes around the course). Each irrigation head can be controlled individually to adjust how much water is being spread.
Sprayers are outfitted with GPS and auto-steer allowing them to have perfect spacing when they are applying fertilizer.
“There’s no overlap so we’re getting things done faster,” Wood said.
Using GPS, Wood is able to use prescription agronomics, tagging specific soil samples and, upon getting the individual results, writing a prescription for each area rather than blanket a large area with the same recipe.
“We’re only putting out what the soil is telling us it needs. On the first hole, for example, we may put out 1,000 pounds per acre of lime near, let’s call it, the front left bunker. In the center of the fairway, I may only need five pounds to the acre,” Wood said.
“I load the prescription into the computer, put the lime in the hopper, start driving and between the satellite signal of where it’s going and the prescription, the spreader puts out what it’s supposed to put out.”
“We knew we didn’t need to invest all our money into electrification now if we’re not going to use it [yet]. … But we needed to … have the proper circuitry and a good game plan to be able to play and plug when the time comes.” — Keith Wood
The new facility has also been fit for an eventual conversion to fully electric equipment, including mounting reel cords in the rafters to supply electricity when needed. Quail Hollow has a long-standing relationship with Toro and has gotten a glimpse of what could be coming within a decade.
“The big three [equipment companies] started moving toward electrification,” Wood said.
“We knew we didn’t need to invest all our money into electrification now if we’re not going to use it [yet]. The equipment hasn’t gotten there but we needed to go ahead and set the conduits, have the breaker boxes, have the proper circuitry and a good game plan to be able to play and plug when the time comes.”
Years in the making, it is a testament to the vision and commitment that is at the core of what they call the Quail Hollow way.
“From the moment the founders of Quail Hollow Club set out over 60 years ago to build the very best golf course possible, their vision never wavered – embraced by members, admired by guests and recognized on the professional stage,” club president Johnny Harris said.
“Today, that same relentless pursuit of excellence lives on, as superintendent Keith Wood and the board of directors carry the founders’ legacy forward, ensuring that Quail Hollow continues to define what ‘the very best’ truly means.”