When Dedham (Mass.) Country and Polo Club (DCPC) renovated its golf course from mid-September 2017 to late May 2018, the membership closely monitored the progress of the project. And that’s just the way the club’s staff wanted it. In fact, they gave the members the means to do it. The DCPC staff devised a “renovation scorecard” (see image at right) that mimicked the property’s golf scorecard, so members could track progress, project by project and hole by hole, on a weekly basis.
“One of my personal goals was to over-communicate the project and really hype it up,” says Ryan Kenny, CCM, General Manager/COO. “We challenged the construction team to keep us up to date in a format that would be easy for members to follow.” The $6.5 million renovation project was rooted in a 2005 master plan to help the storied Boston-area property reclaim its identity as the only Seth Raynor-designed golf course in Massachusetts. The original project included reshaping bunkers and fairways and adding tees—but once the membership agreed to shut down the course for the renovations, it quickly grew legs. “We tried to figure out any other projects we could add [and] the project evolved a lot, says Green and Grounds Superintendent Matt Powell, “Momentum kept building, and people got excited about it.”
Kenny thought the golf course at the club, which also has the second-oldest trap shooting program in the country and the largest paddle tennis program in the state, should stand out as well. “It was like an old house with a lot of deferred maintenance over the years,” he says. The project ultimately included construction of a new irrigation pumphouse, installation of a state-of-the-art irrigation system, 2,500 feet of underground electrical run, 2,800 feet of sewer connection, reconstruction of 19 greens to USGA specifications and of 90 bunkers, and restoration of the original golf course layout.
Because of the expanded scope, progress had to be communicated effectively to the membership. “A big part of any project, especially when you take the golf course away from the membership, is making sure they know what’s going on,” says Powell. “I wanted to make it easy for them to understand.” When the project got underway, the master plan contractor, architect, and DCPC staff members tracked progress on a spreadsheet that essentially acted as a project-management scorecard. The same concept, Powell suggested, could also be used for informing the membership, and that led to the idea to create the “renovation scorecard” that would list the various projects and their percentage of completion on each nine and the entire golf course.
“We made it just like a golf scorecard and put the Dedham logo on it,” explains Powell. “I wanted to make it easier for members to follow along and feel like it was their own.” The scorecard served as a living document for hole-by-hole updates on projects such as fairways expansions, sodding tees and greens, and cart paths. A green checkmark inside a circle, placed where a score for a hole would normally be recorded, indicated that a project had been completed.
Black, encircled checkmarks showed projects that were still underway. One percentage on the scorecard designated the completion rate on the “out” holes (one through nine) or the “in” holes (10 through 18), and the other percentage indicated the completion rate of the project on the entire 18 holes. “Everyone looks at information differently,” Kenny says. “The scorecard offered a snapshot.” Each week, Powell e-mailed a new scorecard to the membership, while also updating the grounds department’s blog by posting a detailed synopsis of the week’s work, along with photos and videos, and tweeting out blog updates.
The property also updated the scorecard link on its website every week. “We used many different forms of communication,” Powell says. “We wanted to use every avenue we could.” Adds Kenny: “We showed the membership on a weekly basis where we were and how much was left to be done. It really tempered expectations. “We believe in transparency,” he adds. “At the end of the day, when you have proper and effective communication, it makes everything better for everyone.”
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