News

I want to wish everyone a Happy Fourth of July, and hope you were able to celebrate and spend the holiday with friends and family.

Those who were able to join us here at the Club were able to enjoy golf, a great cookout, the pool and games. Those who used the pool noticed that we’ve received our final health department approvals and the pool house is officially open. Our members are now able to use the locker rooms, the halfway kitchen is open and the asphalt damage from where the construction trailer and parking were located has been repaired. I know we’re all happy to have the extra parking spaces available once again!

As our pool project comes to a finish, I’m happy to confirm that we did come in on budget, and although we waited on the municipalities for our final approvals to get full access to the facility, we were able to use the pool starting on Memorial Day, as originally planned. We did have some minor inconveniences along the way, so thank you for your patience over the last few weeks while the work was finalized. A big “thank you” to the staff, the House and Finance Committees and Erhardt Construction for all their work that allowed this project to come together in an environment with significant construction inflation and supply chain challenges. As we are working through other capital planning, it’s very apparent that if we tried to move forward with this project at the end of the 2022 season, our budget would need to be significantly higher and we would certainly be delayed and likely miss the pool for a significant portion of the 2023 season.

With the golf courses being a central part of the EVCC experience, we’re excited to announce a change to the playing experience. We are in the process of changing the flags and flagsticks on the Valley and Ridge Courses, along with updating the flags and flagsticks on our practice green and short game area. We are moving to a white flag with the club logo and white flagsticks. The new flags will provide greater visibility and provide a better look for our championship golf courses. As part of this change, we will no longer have the front, middle, and back color-coordinated flags. While we recognize some of the membership will miss this feature, we do believe this improves the appearance of our club and brings us closer to standards with the best courses in the country.

The Greens Committee remains committed to working with Kyle Lundy, Jeff Holmes, and Mike McGonigal and their staffs to continue to improve the playing conditions and experience on our courses. The continued execution of our Master Plan, increasing our spend on preparation and maintenance of our courses, and improvements such as the Strackaline and Hole Location tools are a few advancements over the past year. We are developing a list of the next areas that need investment. If you have any comments or concerns about our golf courses or golf experience, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Chris Hufnagel or a member of the Greens Committee.

Our capital planning project with Club Benchmarking is progressing, and a subcommittee—led by Mark Mossing with Paul Flynn, Jack Hannigan and Dan Carter—continues to meet and refine our overall strategy and financial modeling. Over the last several years, we’ve invested significantly in the Club and I’m happy to say we are in a very strong financial position. As previously mentioned, our goal is to develop a strategy that allows us to continue work from the previously completed Master Plan and also balance ongoing maintenance of the property with other aspirational goals. In the coming months, we look forward to sharing a comprehensive plan with the membership.

While we do have some challenges finalizing the plans for a few of the contemplated projects for late 2022 (due to supply chain constraints), we are installing our new full-site generator this fall, and you will soon notice the Ridge Halfway being open and the deck overlooking Valley 18 green was removed. We are making progress and are continuing to reinvest in the Club and hope to have more to share soon on possible other projects.

Finally, the Club continues to be heavily used by members and we recently had successful and full Men’s and Women’s Member-Guest tournaments. The staff is nearly full, allowing us to handle the peak business volume very well while continuing to focus on providing the best member experience we can. Our July calendar is packed with plenty of fun things, including Mulligans & Margaritas Twilight (July 8), the Women’s Member-Member tournament (July 12-13), the Men’s Member-Member tournament (July 15), Beach Bash (July 21), the Parent-Child Championship tournament (July 23), Summer Concert Series (July 27) and the Swim-in Movie (July 29).

Enjoy all that Egypt Valley has to offer!

Justin Karl
Club President