(Above) In July 2003, Weitz Golf Inc., began construction of the Shadow Hills Golf Course. Located in Indio, California. This Schmidt & Curly designed nine hole golf course is the center piece of an adult residential community developed by Del Webb/Pulte Homes.

Weitz Golf International has been working with some of the top line golf course designers in the country since 1998. The company is a division of The Weitz Company located in Des Moines, Iowa. Weitz Golf International has offices in West Palm Beach, Florida and Temecula, California. "By having offices in these two cities that puts us in two of the best areas for this type of business," said Richard Stevens, Weitz Golf Project Manager. The company has approximately 30 full time employees with staffing running as high as 400 depending upon the number and size of projects. For the most part, projects usually utilize 30 to 60 employees during construction and average approximately six to seven months in duration.

Weitz Golf International offers its clients true turnkey capabilities in the construction of any golf course and resort. The company specializes in both horizontal and vertical construction. They have the staff, knowhow and ability to handle all phases of golf course development and building from pre-construction consulting to complete construction. When it comes to golf facilities Weitz Golf Internationl will do everything from handling the construction of club houses, grading, irrigation, grassing, feature construction and cart paths, amongst other things. "The fact that Weitz Golf can offer a client true turnkey capabilites is one of the things that sets us apart from a number of other companies," Stevens pointed out.

The company's goal is to provide superior service to all of their clients. Weitz Golf's success rate and commitment to meeting a client's needs can be easily measured by the number of repeat customers they have. Another aspect that makes Weitz Golf unique is their use of a Guaranteed Maximum Price (GMP) form of agreement in both horizontal and vertical golf course construction. This method allows the client to be involved in the entire process of construction and be able to monitor the budget from the design stage all the way through the completion of construction. While GMP is fairly common in vertical construction Weitz Golf actively encourages clients to take advantage of this form when it comes to horizontal construction, something that is rare in this industry. "This gives the client the opportunity to monitor all budget aspects and to design it according to their needs," explained Stevens. "We provide the client with all the information they need relating to the costs of the work, design etc. That gives the client the ability to make whatever changes they may need to along the way with regard to the course's construction." Weitz Golf's quality control starts in the pre-construction phase and continues through to the project's completion. At the inception of a project the company also prepares a Project Plan that will document the expectations, risks involved and methods of how to minimize those risks. This type of pre-planning offers the client the unique opportunity to minimize construction insurance costs and thus lower the total cost of the project. With Weitz Golf's pre-construction planning and scheduling it offers the customer the security of knowing that their project is being sequenced properly and that the finished result will be of the highest level of quality possible. The company is a certified builder member of the Golf Course Builders Association of America (GCBAA).

(Above) Forming sand traps with the help of Bobcat skid steer loaders at Shadow Hills Golf Course located in Indio, California.

Weitz Golf Internationl has worked with some of the top names in golf course designing in the country such as Arnold Palmer, Jay Morish, Ted Robinson, Jack Nicklaus and Arthur Hills, to name a few. Weitz Golf International has constructed and renovated courses in dozens of states from Texas to South Carolina from California to Georgia. The company has the know-how to tackle just about any type of terrain or climate in construction and course maintanence. In places such as Bend, Oregon's Pronghorn Golf Club, Weitz fast-tracked their construction to accommodate the area's short growing season.

(Above) Weitz Golf International performed all of the shapin, drainage, irrigation, greens, bunkers and prepared the surface for grassing for the Shadow Hills Golf Course located in Indio, California.

In July 2003 Weitz Golf Inc. began construction of the Shadow Hills Golf Course. Located in Indio, California this Schmidt & Curly designed nine hole golf course is the center piece of an adult residential community developed by Del Webb/Pulte Homes. Shadow Hills covers some 89 acres with over 1700 homes located around the course. Though the course is due to open sometime in the summer of this year home sales have been phenomenal. Pulte Homes is currently in the planning stages for the next phase. "We did the shaping, drainage, irrigation, greens, bunkers and prepared the surface for grassing." As with nearly every project Shadow Hills presented it own set of unique challenges. "We worked under a tight schedule," siad Stevens. "One of the biggest challenges to the project was the limited availability of water during construction, this posed serious scheduling headaches that were overcome successfuly. I don't know how familiar you are with desert climates but we had to deal with dust and strong winds throughout the course of construction." To get a good idea of the scope of this undertaking, some 2 million cubic yards of earth were moved for the entire Shadow Hills development project. "Dust control was a major challenge on this project and we brought in a fleet of water trucks to help keep the dust down." Naturally every project is different but on most Weitz Golf International projects, we will use a wide variety of equipment during the course of construction from scrapers, backhoes and skiploaderes to dozers ranging from Cat D8's to John Deere 550's.

In addition to new golf course construction, Weitz Golf International is also very active in course renovation. The company recently handled the major job of renovating the Incline Village Golf Course in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. Kyle Phillips was the designer of the 18 hole course."That project posed some real challenges for us," Stevens admitted. "We hit a large amount of granite working on that course. The existing course was completely gutted and we performed a total renovation. All told we excavated about 60,000 cubic yards of rock on that job." Work began in May of 2003 and was completed on schedule in September of last year. The course is scheduled to open in the summer of 2004.

(Above) Shadow Hills covers some 89 acres with over 1700 homes located around the course. Through the course is due to open sometime in the summer of this year home sales have been phenomenal. Pulte Homes is currently in the planning stages for the next phase.

Weitz Golf is currently constructing turnkey "package" projects at Traditions in Bryan, Texas and The Georgia Tech Club in Atlanta, Georgia. The scope of work on these projects includes golf course construction, infrastructure, golf cottages, maintenance buildings, golf learning centers and clubhouses. Other turnkey projects completed by Weitz include The Bear's Best Las Vegas and Bear's Best Atlanta projects.

Another aspect that makes Weitz Golf International unique in their field is that the company is employee owned. "This is the best company I've ever worked for," stated Stevens without a moment's hesitation. "Being an employee owned company puts us in the front seat. Weitz is very high on integrity and that factor is stressed in our relationships with our customers." With total revenues running between $70-90 million per year, and an experienced client oriented management team Weitz Golf International offers high end quality in all phases of construction, renovation and maintenance