STAFFING CHANGES AT STALEY FARMS

STAFFING CHANGES AT STALEY FARMS

Matt Hemphill has taken a different position with GLKC.  Matt has accepted the Superintendent position at Shiloh Springs Golf Course.  We appreciate everything Matt did for us at Staley Farms and we wish him the best. 

Gregg Dutton has taken the Superintendent position at Royal Meadows.  Greg was a great Assistant Superintedent at Staley and we are thrilled to promote him to his first Superintendet position.  Greg will do great and we are happy for him. 

I am currently the Director of Agronomy for GLKC and I oversee all of the GLKC Superintendents.  My job is to recruit, train, and retain great maintenance staff.  We are building our team and getting stronger each year.  The latest moves made our company the strongest it has been in my tenure at GLKC. 

I would like to introduce Brien Agler as our new Superintendent of Staley Farms Golf Club.

BRIEN AGLER BIO

Brien was born and raised in Fayetteville, Arkansas where his parents still live to this day.  His father is a PGA golf professional which is where his love for the game came from. As a kid Brien would go to work with his dad in the summer and spend the entire day hitting balls and swimming in the pool…. He says he had it made. As Brien got into junior high and high school, his summers were spent with his Mom, traveling throughout the region playing in golf tournaments which ended up earning him a scholarship to play collegiate golf. Then after 1 year he realized how good you really needed to be in order to make the tour so Brien decided to come back home to Fayetteville and finish his college career. Brien had really enjoyed agriculture classes in high school so he decided to combine that with his passion for golf. So, four years later he graduated from the University of Arkansas with a Degree in Turfgrass Management. After 8 years as an assistant in the state of Arkansas at 2 high end country clubs, Brien made the move to Kansas City in order to find a bigger and better golf market. He landed at The National Golf Club of Kansas City for 2 years and Indian Hills Country Club for 3 until he received his first Head Superintendent Position at Deer Creek Golf Club. Brien has been at Deer Creek since April of 2017 and has improved the overall golf course maintenance operation in his time there. Brien was awarded Superintendent of the year honors in 2017 by the Heart of America Golf Course Superintendent Association.  Brien is excited and honored to now become Head Golf Course Superintendent at Staley Farms where he will continue improve course conditions and all maintenance operations.

Please join me in welcoming Brien Agler to Staley Farms Golf Club

STALEY FARMS BUNKER PROJECT UPDATE

We started the bunker project January 2017.  We laid out a plan to complete the project in two years.  We came very close to achieving that goal, but the weather has slowed us down a bit.  As I look at the video of the bunkers we sprayed that first winter, it is a drastic contrast from the winter we experienced in 2018/2019.  We obviously haven't been able to do much outside work this winter with snow on the ground for most of the winter.  The staff is anxious to get outside and the bunkers will be one of our highest priorities once winter breaks. 

We are planning to resume the bunker project April 1st.  We will give the course some time to thaw, and dry out before we start driving heavy equipment out there. We are also planning to aerate greens the 25th through the 27th of March (weather permitting) and that will take our entire crew to complete that process.

Bunker status update:
We started with 100,000 square feet of bunkers.  That is 2.3 acres!  That is a big number for an 18 hole golf course.  We reduced the square footage by nearly 14,000 square feet to make the bunkers more manageable. 

The great news is that we only have 8 bunkers left to complete. 

We have 4 bunkers shaped into depressions.  The shaper Doug Thackery did an outstanding job, we are lucky to have access to his talent.  These bunkers include 7 fairway right side, 16 fairway right side, 3 green back right, 13 fairway right side.  We will be seeding them as soon as the ground dries up.

There are two bunkers that are cored out, drainage installed, rock installed, and polymer treated.  The last step with these is to add the sand.  This will take place starting April 1st. 

This will leave two bunkers left to complete the project.  These bunkers include the front left green side bunker on 7 and the left fairway bunker on 9.  We will completely change the shape and contour of these bunkers to reduce the size and practicality of these hazards.  This will involve a skilled shaper so Doug will return to help us finish the last two bunkers. 

The Staley Farms staff as well as Chris, Justin, Doug, and Daryl did terrific quality work and we appreciate your efforts.  Thank you Great Life KC for your commitment to Staley Farms.   

Lastly we extend our gratitude to the Staley Farms members and guests.  We appreciate your patience and support of projects like this that improve our club.

The weather is getting better by the day.  We are excited for the 2019 golf season at Staley Farms Golf Club.