By Lawrence Aylward
Golf Course Management
magazine
Bill Kubly is known as the grandfather of golf course construction. In 1976, he founded Landscapes Unlimited, a longtime leader in golf course construction, renovation and management.
The Lincoln, Neb.-based company’s résumé is extensive and includes work on several major-championship golf courses, including the construction of Erin Hills Golf Course, the public venue in Erin, Wis., that hosted the 2017 U.S. Open. But for Kubly, who turned 75 in July, no project hit closer to home and his heart than the recent bunker renovation he led at Monroe Golf Club in Monroe, Wis., where Kubly grew up.
“The course meant so much to my family and me when I was growing up,” says Kubly, who learned to play golf on the course when it was known as the Monroe Country Club and fondly remembers attending Friday night fish fries at the clubhouse. “The opportunity to enhance it was a dream come true.”
The club, which opened in 1923 as a nine-hole course and added another nine holes about 50 years later, was a mainstay in the small south-central Wisconsin town for many years. Back in the 1950s and 1960s, it was a vibrant club that counted many medical professionals as members.
But the club has struggled through some challenging times in the past several years. In 2020, the club changed from private to semi-private to attract more public play.
Going into its 100th year, the club was put up for sale. While there was talk it could close, three civic-minded members of the community, all experienced in turning businesses around, stepped in and purchased the club in early 2023.
When Kubly, who is semi-retired, learned about the club’s sale, he reached out to one of the new owners whom he has known for years and offered his services to help improve his hometown track.
“He called me shortly after my partners and I purchased the club,” says John Baumann, who also grew up in Monroe and lives on the course’s seventh hole. “Bill said to me, ‘Congratulations. I have a lot of experience in this industry. How can I help?’ He was very welcoming. We were thrilled he wanted to help.”
Kubly told Baumann the 6,243-yard course was in excellent condition with weed-free fairways and slick greens that rolled true, thanks to the work of golf course superintendent Drew Putzer and his small crew. The bunkers, however, were another matter and like a stain on a white golf shirt.
Unartistic and about 50 years old, the bunkers were a shadow of what they once were and had received few if any updates over the years. Each bunker contained a different amount of sand, with some having hardly any. None of them drained well and would puddle when it rained. And they were as unsightly as unsightly bunkers can get.
Kubly’s assessment didn’t come as a revelation to Baumann and the other owners, nor Putzer.
“Nobody was happy with the bunkers, from the golfers to the owners to the maintenance staff,” says Putzer, a 23-year GCSAA member.
Kubly, wanting to give back to the community and to a course he dearly admires, told the owners that Landscapes Unlimited would perform the bunker renovation at cost, with the club only having to pay for materials, labor and equipment. Baumann and the other owners embraced Kubly’s offer. When they acquired the club, they did so knowing they would have to invest in improvements to attract more play, from Monroe but also from other nearby communities, to make the club economically viable again.
“(The city) needs a good golf course,” Baumann says of Monroe, population about 11,000. “We have to make it worthwhile for people to drive a little further to visit us.”
‘Scary impressive’
Kubly traveled to Monroe in March 2023, shortly after the club’s ownership changed hands, to tour the course with Baumann and assess the bunkers. They agreed the bunkers needed to be functional and low maintenance and add to the course’s aesthetics.
At the time, Landscapes Unlimited was busy with other projects, and the renovation was scheduled for the fall. In early October, a three-person team from Landscapes Unlimited arrived at the club to begin the project, including the firm’s top shaper, Mike “Squeak” Ufken, who is Kubly’s first cousin and who also grew up in Monroe. Ufken has worked for Kubly for about 35 years and is regarded as one of the industry’s best bunker shapers.
Kubly drove from his Lincoln home to Monroe to meet the crew, Baumann and Putzer. While October is late to begin a bunker renovation in the upper Midwest, where the weather can turn cold and wet quickly, the crew jumped into the project with a fervor.
Kubly wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty. He staked and flagged each bunker. He worked with the shaper and mini-excavator operator and on occasion hand-edged bunkers while they were being constructed.
One of Kubly’s goals was to create bunkers that would drain well and not puddle after a rain event. The bunkers were tiled and installed with fabric liner before sand was placed in them and the edges sodded. When rebuilding the bunkers, drainage was directed around the bunkers instead of flowing into the bunkers where possible. The bunkers have about 4 inches of sand.
“Now the bunkers are artistically shaped, edged and flashed where needed to make them visible from approaches,” Kubly says.
Mother Nature threw a few curveballs and slowed the project at times, but the crew was able to complete the project in the third week of November.
“There were about 10 days of the best weather to be had around there at that time of the year,” Kubly says.
In the end, four new bunkers were built, two were eliminated and 30 were rebuilt in five weeks.
Kubly visited the club three times during the project, spending four days on his first visit and one day on his second. He visited the site a third time 10 days before completion to help schedule the finishing of the project.
Putzer, who is in his 19th season at Monroe, was beyond impressed with the team’s accomplishment.
“(From the beginning), it was full steam ahead at a pace I’ve never experienced before. It was absolutely incredible,” he says. “I don’t know in this industry that I’ve ever run into people who do their jobs better. It was scary-impressive.”
The course remained open during the renovation, and Putzer still directed his crew, but most of his attention was on the bunker renovation, where he performed various functions such as procuring materials from local vendors, laying sod and hand watering it.
“I slid into whatever role I was needed without getting in the way,” he says. “I learned a lot.”
When Kubly was on the job site, Putzer says Kubly never stopped moving. “He was so enthusiastic. He absolutely loves what he does, and it shows in his work,” Putzer says.
Kubly’s presence also attracted some local residents — former high school classmates who heard about the renovation and showed up to watch and even offered to help. “One woman I went to school with talked about how much the club means to her and her family,” Kubly says. “She said she just wanted to give back.”
Flash forward to April of this year when the course and its golfers came out of hibernation. Putzer says he noticed two things about the bunkers: One, they weren’t puddling after rain; and, two, golfers were giving a thumbs up to the renovation.
“There hasn’t been this type of excitement about the club for a long time,” Putzer says. “This is what we needed in the community as far as golf is concerned. We’ve turned a corner. We’re building something new here.”
The bunkers have also added a new degree of difficulty to the course. They won’t be as easy to hit out of when golfers hit their balls into them, but, as Putzer points out, that’s the way “real” bunkers are supposed to play.
“Hitting out of them is certainly an adjustment for our longtime members,” he says. “It has put a premium on their shots.”
Civic pride
Kubly and Baumann have been friends for about 30 years. Baumann is the former CEO of Monroe-based Colony Brands, which was founded by Kubly’s second cousin as Swiss Colony, the first mail-order cheese company in Wisconsin. Kubly and Baumann first met when Baumann was president of the club’s board of directors. Around that time, Landscapes Unlimited installed a state-of-the-art irrigation system on the course.
Baumann’s civic pride is not lost upon Kubly, who commended Baumann and the other owners for stepping in to buy the club and investing in it.
The owners have also renovated parts of the clubhouse, including the opening of a new gastro pub.
“This land probably would have subdivided and sold if the course hadn’t been purchased,” Kubly says. “(The renovations) show the community and the golfing public that the new owners are committed to putting money into the club.”
Kubly calls Baumann “a fixture” in the community. “He’ll get this club to a point where it will be a big draw,” he says.
Kubly’s civic pride is also not lost upon Baumann, whom Baumann says has been a strong supporter of the club, despite relocating to Nebraska many years ago. Kubly often plays the course when he returns to Monroe.
“He brought tremendous industry knowledge, energy, positivity and creativity to this project,” Baumann states. “He has been a great partner for what we wanted to do with this golf course.”
Putzer says the bunker renovation, which cost about $195,000, will increase maintenance for his small crew of eight people, including himself, but he welcomes it.
“This course is so important to the city and surrounding area,” he says. “It hosts many charity events and local outings. This is what the property deserved.”
The consensus is that the bunker renovation will help the club increase play and its overall business.
Baumann says it has been a long time since the bunkers looked and played so well.
“They have added a lot of character to the course. The bunkers are as good as bunkers can get,” he adds. “And to think the person who headed the renovation is from Monroe. Bill Kubly came back to his hometown to do something good. That’s pretty sweet.”
Kubly says he doesn’t come out of semi-retirement for just any project. It has to hit home for him. This one did — literally.
“Not only was Monroe’s favorite golf course invigorated,” Kubly says, “but I was, too.”
— Lawrence Aylward is a freelance writer from Medina, Ohio, who has covered the golf course maintenance industry for 26 years. This article was originally published last month on gcmonline.com.
