51 reached out to me. They wanted to make the course more player friendly; it was a very difficult golf course, with lots of undulations. You used to lose a lot of golf balls, and I think that hit their rounds. Ever since, I have worked with them expanding fairways, adding more shortgrass around the greens and doing tree management.” As a muni, Bos Landen is maintained by a small crew and operates on tight budgets, which Hoekstra says impacts the work that can be done. “Working with the city has on occasion been kinda difficult,” he says. “The city wanted to see some improvements, so they hired a new head pro, and he’s done some great work. There have been 19,000 rounds this year, which is a record for them. The city was reluctant to allocate funds until they saw the numbers rising, so hopefully that will improve matters. The super does a lot of the tree work himself in the off season, and we’re now starting to look at bunkers – which is a bigger challenge. Obviously, that incurs costs, but then putting bunkers back in play after heavy rain incurs costs too. We have already done the bunkers on four holes, which has been received really well – they don’t wash out.” Jay Blasi has recently started working at a club in Madison, Wisconsin, of which his family were members for years. “I grew up playing municipal courses,” he says. “When I was in high school, my parents joined Maple Bluffs. We always lived on the other side of town, so it made no sense to join, but my dad wanted to because he knew it as the best in town. It has been 18 holes since 1916. I played there for several years, and while I was there, they went through a masterplan process with Art Hills – I remember sitting in on a presentation about it, which was interesting given that I knew it was what I wanted to do. A couple of years ago, they reached out to me and said they were interested in doing some work. “I’ve put together a masterplan, and we’re in the process of selling it to the members. It includes tree management, all new greens and bunkers. They did the irrigation two years ago, but the course needs regrassing.” Blasi says his close connection to Maple Bluffs has made him stop and think about the project on occasions. “One person on the committee – a former president of the club – is a close family friend who held me as a baby!” he smiles. “It’s very awkward. When they invited me to come and talk to them about working there, I immediately got excited. A week or two later, a lightbulb came on and I HOME COURSES “ We must have done 15 projects in the time I have been out here. It’s almost like I’m a full-time staff member” Eleven-year-old Jay Blasi, left, at Maple Bluffs in Wisconsin, where he is now the club’s architect Photos: Jay Blasi
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