Mother Nature has blessed The Rim Golf Club with spectacular views and a challenging layout-and the management team is doing its part to provide pristine conditions as an added attraction.
Sometimes people can see things—such as the undeniably spectacular views offered by The Rim Golf Club in Payson, Ariz.—quite clearly for themselves. Other times, a picture truly is worth a thousand words.
Situated in the largest continuous stand of ponderosa pine in the United States, The Rim GC’s par-71 layout offers a bonanza of striking scenery, ranging from boulder outcroppings to mountain vistas to dramatic elevation changes. Views of the 200-mile mountain plateau are visible from every hole.
Some great views of the golf course, and the maintenance operations needed to keep it in top shape, can also be seen—via real-time photos—on Justin Ruiz’s Turf Maintenance blog, which the club’s Certified Golf Course Superintendent uses to communicate regularly with The Rim GC’s membership about the various practices he and his staff are following to provide playing conditions that are worthy of the surroundings.
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Golf Course Scorecard
Club Name: The Rim Golf Club |
“I started the blog a little over a year ago, to keep the members up to speed on how we’re maintaining the golf course,” Ruiz says. “I can tell them about special projects and special issues, and other departments at the club can look at it as well, so that everyone is always on the same page.”
As If You Were There
Because the golf course maintenance crew performs many of its duties before golfers get out on the course, notes Ruiz, the blog photos help to illustrate the work being done.
“It’s like putting a face to the name,” says Ruiz. “It gives members a better understanding of what and why we’re doing what we’re doing.”
The blog is relatively simple, Ruiz reports. He takes photos with his cell phone, and posts the pictures along with real-time comments to his Twitter account, which then syncs with his blog (view Ruiz’s blog at http://therimgolfclub.blogspot.com).
The blog also serves as a forum to answer members’ questions, particularly the queries of those who do not play as frequently.
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Superintendent Profile: Justin Ruiz
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Beyond being savvy about social media, the property is progressive in other ways. It will serve as a pilot golf course for the Audubon Lifestyles Sustainable Golf Facility Program, which is geared to help courses that seek to become local, regional, national and international models of sustainability incorporate sustainable principles, concepts, and management strategies. The Golf Course Superintendents Association of America is also highlighting The Rim and its water-conservation efforts in that organization’s Drive for Sustainability campaign.
“I’ve always tried to push myself to do better and to find more creative ways to do my job,” Ruiz says. “With the economy the way it is, these types of initiatives not only help to improve the course’s operation, they also put the club’s name out into the public sector, hopefully attracting more members.”
A New Business Model
Located just 75 minutes northeast of Scottsdale, The Rim features a clubhouse, pro shop, restaurant, bar and fitness center. In addition, the property is converting from developer-owned-and-operated to resident-owned-and-operated, a transition that got underway after Crescent Resources, the developer of the mountain community that surrounds the course, filed for bankruptcy in the summer of 2009. Since then, the new ownership has reduced fees, opened the club to the public for limited playing times, and devised membership programs to appeal to non-property owners.
“We are also looking to add local members and members from other parts of Arizona within a radius of one-and-a-half hours,” notes General Manager David Bosley.
And Bosley believes The Rim has the goods—and the pedigree—to merit the attention. The golf course, with its unobstructed views of the Mogollon Rim, was the final collaboration of the design team of Tom Weiskopf and Jay Morrish.
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C&G Profile: The Rim Golf Club
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Make no mistake, though, beneath all that beauty lurks a monster that will test any player’s game and patience. “We are a country club, but golf is absolutely the primary focus,” Bosley says. “The course has a wonderful combination of challenges and opportunities, as well as several risk-reward holes.”
The club, which sits in a valley that is shielded from the wind and boasts 70-foot trees, offers ideal weather conditions that allow year-round play.
“We believe we are in the best climate in the state and one of the best climates in the nation,” notes Bosley. “We describe it as ‘above the heat and below the snow.’ ”
The golf course is built on ridges, and rather than following an east-west or north-south layout, the 18 holes face all four directions.
“The golf course probably has more memorable holes than any course I know of,” says Bosley, who played for three years on the Senior PGA Tour. “Each hole stands by itself. There’s only one place on the golf course where you can see another hole.”
Bosley takes a hands-on approach to managing the property, working closely with Ruiz to maximize the playability of the course.
“We tour the golf course every couple of weeks, and identify playing conditions we want and areas of opportunities for improvement,” Bosley says.
While the General Manager devises playability concepts, Ruiz leads sustainability efforts and implements maintenance practices that keep the turf safe and healthy. This year, Bosley notes, the fairway height was increased by 1/8-inch to improve playability, by giving golfers better lies.
“The goal is to make this a more enjoyable experience for our players,” he says.
Bobby Trunzo, the club’s Director of Golf, says course conditions are critical to the overall success of the property. “When people look to join a private club, first and foremost, they’re looking for a great golf course,” he explains.
Trunzo and Ruiz communicate constantly to keep each other informed about their day-to-day activities. Trunzo needs to know when the crew will perform tasks such as watering or fertilizing, so he can plan accordingly. Because he comes in closer contact with the membership, he adds, he needs to be able to speak knowledgeably about upcoming projects or maintenance practices. And Ruiz’s blog has been especially helpful in keeping Trunzo up to date.
Sustainable Practices
Ruiz and his staff have worked tirelessly to create Best Management Practices to conserve water at The Rim GC. They spent two seasons making adjustments to the irrigation system to reduce water usage. Their efforts included making manual adjustments to the field equipment, implementing computerized central-control programming, adjusting run times and reducing the amount of turf grass.
“A lot of heads were not working properly. There were leaks, and nozzles weren’t clear,” says Ruiz.
They adjusted all of the perimeter heads to ensure they were irrigating only turf grass, and not native areas. Ruiz also discovered that the data the computer was using to manage water applications did not match the set-up of the field equipment.
Adjustments were made and as a result, the property has reduced its annual water usage in the last 10 years by three million gallons.
The savings don’t stop there, though. The decreased water usage has resulted in energy savings by reducing pumping costs.
“It gives us flexibility to manage how much water we put out each night, and it helps us make decisions on how to scale back,” notes Ruiz. “It’s a balancing game, and that’s where the c
omputer programming really makes a difference.”
The crew is also rolling greens more to reduce mowing frequency, which saves time, fuel and labor costs, too.
“We’ve made some great strides in getting through the summer,” reports Ruiz, “but we’ve done nothing to adversely affect play or presentation. Plus, members can go to the blog and see what we’re doing. They’ve become part of the process.”
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