By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
Great Bend Rec staff reported some impressive participation numbers during Monday’s monthly board meeting. Those programs are impacting thousands of local lives, but the elephant in the room is still the golf course renovation. On Tuesday, Rec Executive Director Chris Umphres said everything is still progressing well.
“We’re still on schedule for our late 2027 opening,” he said. “Budget-wise, we’re still on. The architect is on-site now more often, making sure his design is being followed. The irrigation architect has put together bid documents, and those have been posted to see if we can get irrigation companies to come in still this year and put irrigation in.”
No quotes have been submitted yet for the irrigation work, which Umphres called “substantial,” but local companies have shown interest in the work. Umphres said staff has removed some 1,000 trees from the course, but several thousand remain to provide plenty of obstacles and shade. Approximately 1,500 truckloads of fill dirt have been moved in and around the course. The old clubhouse was razed, and a new one will be built toward the end of the project. New turf will be installed after the irrigation system is replaced.
“The fairways are going to be a Bermuda grass,” Umphres said. “The greens will be a traditional bentgrass. The rough areas we’ll either let grow long or get some sort of native grass in there to grow to kind of separate the holes.”
Last November, the Rec unveiled its plans to renovate the course in the northeast corner of Great Bend. Private funds and sponsorships are driving the construction and re-opening of the former Stone Ridge Golf Course.