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On the Tee: Little River Completes Step in Huge Project
September 14th 2008 - BY HOWARD WARD: GOLF WRITER

If the proof is in the viewing, Little River Resort is living up to promises and expectations.
This Dan Maples-designed golf course that used to be a horse farm is making rapid strides in reaching the aspirations of owners Gerry Fagan and Simon Burgess.
Hard proof of this is evidenced by the spanking new 4.5-star ranking given the club by Golf Digest Magazine in its Places to Play listing.
Since the purchase of the property by Oceanico, a Portugal-based company that owns several exclusive resorts in that country, there has been a steady stream of improvements and commitments to new projects.
The first thing Oceanico did was bring in Troon Golf, the huge course and club management team with an impeccable record in refining and micro-managing resorts all over the world.
And now, as some of those projects are being completed, the consensus among interested observers is that those commitments are serious.
Chris Lassiter, who has been the course superintendent at Little River almost from its conception, is probably one of the more excited persons involved in the excellence-committed approach by the owners.
Lassiter, who was forced to operate the maintenance operations on a shoestring budget for years, is reveling in his new affluence.
"I've been here 11 years, and I've seen more activity in the past year than I saw in the first 10," Lassiter said. "We've got the best equipment we've ever had and a much larger staff. Everything is just so much better, so improved."
Lassiter is also delighted that after having to oversee an under-manned staff for years, he's now been given the option of hiring even more personnel.
"If there's someone out there who seriously wants to work on a golf course, have them give us a call," he said. "We're like the Marines. We're looking for a few good men."
The latest project completed at Little River is the renovation and reshaping of eight tee areas.
"We began reworking the tees on eight holes in July," Lassiter said," and they're open for play now. The most obvious difference is on the par-3 16th, which we opened up for a lot more tee space that can make the hole play differently because of the angles involved.
"All of the tee areas were too small on those holes and golfers have a lot more options now."
"Our tee areas were one of the most identifiable weaknesses of the course," said General Manager Craig Luckey. "We considered them the most urgent repair item of the $2.5-million project that we were undertaking, along with the modernizing of our maintenance equipment."
Lassiter is appreciative of that support.
"I'd really like to thank Oceanico and Troon Golf for providing these resources," he said. "Prior to this, we'd been pretty much taking our maintenance from tee to green, but now we're taking it farther.
"I take a lot of pride in that 4.5-star ranking. That's a big jump for us and I'd like to thank the entire staff at Little River for making it happen."
Marvin Waters, the director of golf who has been at Little River since 2005, has served under three ownerships since then and counts his blessings.
"We don't have members here," Waters said, "but the Troon mantra is, 'We want everyone who walks through these doors to feel like members for a day.' We have something here for everybody, from beginner to pros. We even have a set of tees for kids.
"The backbone of our business is the package golfers, but we want families, too. We want everyone. And we treat them in a way that we get a 95 percent return rate from our golf outings.
"We treat every outing like a major tournament. Golfers see the tent and ask, 'What's going on?' And we say, 'You're what's going on. The tent's for you.'"
There is no question that the new tee on the 16th hole is a statement in itself. The tee runs for almost 100 yards around the lake fronting the green and is all carry over water except for the senior and women's tees set up on the side of the lake.
"It's beautiful," Waters said. "It's our signature hole."
Lassiter points out that expanding the tee area from three sets of tees to four has not weakened the design structure.
"The fourth set of tees weren't just thrown out there," he said. "Jeff Poling, the director of Troon golf course construction, oversees the placement and alignment of each tee to make sure that they're set up with the proper angle for tee shots."
Waters, who is sensitive to the previous concerns voiced about the course not being over-friendly to women golfers, points out that is no longer the case.
"All of the tee boxes have been redone and laser-leveled," he said. "And there was as much attention given to the ladies' tees as to the championship tees. I can assure you that's not us here on the Little River staff out there plumbing with a thumb."
With the new placements, the blue championship tees measure 7,018 yards and play to a slope of 140. The white tees play to 6,430, the gold senior tees to 5,516, and the red to 4,850.
"We're getting away from the red, white and blue colors, though," Luckey said, "We're gong to black, gold, silver and jade. We're also upgrading our yardage markers by doing away with the lines on the cart paths and replacing them with bronze markers at 200, 150 and 100 yards."
Just another Troon touch.
Contact Howard Ward at 867-6493 or 690-2211 or by e-mail at
howardward@att.net
 
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