Trinitas GC – Silent No More
The buzz in the golf industry is all about a golf course in the Sierra foothills that flew so far under the radar no one knew of its existence. And now everyone wants to be a part of it.
Trinitas Golf Course, 22 miles east of Stockton just off Hwy. 26, not only created this kind of buzz when word slowly leaked out – it practically set the golf course industry on its collective ear.
How could a masterpiece be built in such secrecy? This seemed impossible. Architects always file their plans and drawings in the public domain. And no golf course construction company ever began construction without insiders knowing about it.
So imagine the surprise of golf executives when they encounter someone who has been to Trinitas. This golfer talks of a view of the High Sierra peaks almost from Tahoe to Yosemite, and a golf course that fits so perfectly into the land that it looks like it has always been there.
Jaws drop to the floor. The course is already up? Yes, for a couple of years. But it hasn’t opened yet. Later this summer.
Then they hear this course has an advanced, computerized irrigation system. How could this be? There must be some reason for all the secrecy.
The answer is actually pretty simple. There was no architect. There was no construction company.
Huh?
“You might say God built it,” Mike Nemee explains. “The land was that good. The golf course was always there. We just kind of grew some grass.”
Mike who?
Mike Nemee. He practically did the whole thing all by himself. Others with talent and expertise eventually came along, only because they wanted to be part of this project, not to have their signature or tag attached.
Nemee is the first to admit he is a complete outsider. He has absolutely no experience in the golf business, never had any interest in golf course architecture or construction. He bought the land, an old cattle ranch, because there were olive trees and he thought it would be a good place to set up an olive oil business. Which he did.
Then one day he decided to build a couple of small golf holes around an orchard on the property. He invited a friend, Gary Reiff, who had built him a putting green in his old back yard, to have a look. Reiff is a golf construction guy who built Lockeford Springs GC nearby. His eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw this property. He told Nemee he had never seen land so perfect for a golf course.
Nemee played golf in high school and college, but he describes himself as nothing but a six-handicapper and he had no money to build a golf course.
But he read a book, Golf Course Architecture, by Michael Hurdzan, which explains how to build a course. He had an aerial photograph taken of the property and went on vacation to Italy. One day in Rome he looked at that aerial photo, saw the creeks and natural drainage and began doodling a hole. The next day he drew another hole. Soon he had drawings of 18 holes; remarkably professional for a guy who claims no artistic talent.
Creeks and natural drainage are accentuated by cobblestone gathered from the property.
Back home, invigorated, Nemee bought two bulldozers and a bellyscraper from a friend whose business went defunct. Nemee had never operated machinery like this, but he learned, and graded the land on his own. Utilizing native materials, Nemee was able to harvest sand and cobblestone on the property. Once he started the work, a miracle of what could only be called synchronistic confluence began.
Reiff brought in an irrigation guy, Kyle Ryerson. He walked the site and laid out the irrigation. Nemee told him, “You spec it out and I’ll install it.” Ryerson agreed that Nemee could dig the trenches and lay out the pipe.
Ryerson brought in Rain Bird, which suggested a high-tech system for irrigation that would fit his vision. It’s all computerized, operable by a handheld device similar to a Palm Pilot. The system talks to the weather station and the control stations.
Ryerson also brought in Lloyd Zastre, a well-known golf course shaper. Zastre told him he had quite a canvas here, but he could make it a Picasso. He did.
George Kelley, who developed Stevinson Ranch GC, brought an agronomist, Mark Logan, to Nemee. Logan believes in old school agronomy with minimal chemicals. Logan was handed the reigns to specify climate appropriate turf grasses and playing surfaces that require less fertilizer and maintenance. He helped Nemee plant Tifsport2 Bermuda.
All these guys knew Nemee had no money. They just wanted to be part of this thing, and charged him by the hour. At one point Nemee trimmed all the century-old oaks on the land and sold the firewood for money.
The 17th green plays over a creek.
It took seven years for the vision of Nemee and his creative friends to become reality. No bureaucrats, no beancounters, hardly any organization. Just the confluence of a vision.
“I never wanted to build a turnstile daily-fee golf course,” Nemee said. “From the beginning I wanted to put the soul of golf back into the experience.”
Champions Tour pro Bob Eastwood is another friend of Nemee’s. He played the course and told Nemee to soften it up a bit. It was fabulous, but the average golfer would have a heck of a time playing it.
Nemee did, but from the beginning Nemee had a tournament course, a stadium course in mind. One time a few years ago Nemee walked the Plantation Course at Kapalua the day after The Mercedes Championship, and felt every golfer should be able to live that kind of PGA Tour experience. That was his business model. Included at Trinitas is a jumbotron by the 18th green, so golfers can see themselves up there as the tour guys do.
Nemee is a devout Catholic. “Trinitas” is Latin for “of the Trinity,” as in the Holy Trinity. Everything at Trinitas is done in threes – like three-pronged bunkers, a digit three in every hole yardage and three distinct hole locations on each green.
Three is the theme of the golf course. It travels through that many stages. The first six holes are oak woodlands, the second six transitions to links golf and the final six holes are cape-style golf. The third hole is the star of the course, a 153-yard par 3 with the tee on the highest point of land, offering spectacular views. The hole plays significantly downhill to a peninsula green surrounded by water, all beautifully framed by old oaks. The water is separated into three ponds by ever-present cobblestones, harvested from the land.
“Trinitas has a terrific set of par 3s,” management and golf consultant Bob Fagan explained. “The third hole is one of the top short par 3s in California and possibly beyond.”
The 17th hole, a 163-yard par 3, is likely the first golf hole in the world to have a green built over a creek. The green runs over and to the left and right of the creek, with an hourglass stem planted on a bridge over the water. The final hole is a demanding uphill 593-yard par 5 with stadium seating on the left which resembles the 18th hole at the Olympic Club.
Nemee still kind of shakes his head at the way the whole thing came together from nowhere.
“God built it,” was his only explanation.
The buzz is about to get a lot louder.
This is the first installment of a three-part series on Trinitas. The golf course will open for play in late July. For more information, please visit www.trinitasgolf.com
National award-winning golf writer Ron Salsig is a contributing writer for NCGA Golf.
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN,
MARK LOGAN IS A FRAUD AND SHOULD BE THROWN IN JAIL FOR ALL OF HIS ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION HE HAS CAUSED WITH HIS “LOGAN PROGRAM”! AND TO ALL OF THE IDIOT SUCKERS WHO GAVE IN TO HIS INSANITY, YOU DESERVE TO HAVE DEAD GREENS! WHO EVER HEARD OF FOUNDING FATHER SUPERINTENDENTS USING “OLD SCHOOL AGRONOMY” BY DUMPING FERROUS SULFATE IN THE SPRAY TANK AND NOTHING ELSE. YOU MAY AS WELL START SPRAYING MERCURY AGAIN.
MARK LOGAN ALSO HAS A DEBT TO PAY TO ALL OF THE GOLF COURSE WORKERS WHO HAVE BEEN PERMANENTLY POISONED BY DOING THIS ASSANINE PROGRAM! SKIN, EYES, AND RESPIRATORY POISONING AMONG WORKERS AS RECOMMENDED BY THIS MAN IS SOMETHING I HOPE HE STAYS AWAKE AT NIGHT THINKING ABOUT! WHATEVER HAPPENED TO NPK AND WATER? THIS ISN’T ROCKET SCIENCE PEOPLE, ITS GROWING GRASS!!!! WHY IS GROWING GRASS MORE DIFFICULT NOW THAN IT WAS 10 YEARS AGO?
SINCERELY,
August 4th, 2007 at 2:28 amWALTER BELLHAVEN
Your article about Trinitas was great to read and showed how golf courses were built 40 to 100 years ago. People found a great piece of property and saw a golf course before it was built. John Fleming an old school Superintendent can attest to his father and some great architects doing this very thing in Northern California.
My issue with the article is the way one man was portrayed as an old school agronomist. Just to fill you all in at the NCGA of the practices that Mark Logan has taught some Superintendents in Northern California and beyond, are not considered old school agronomy by those of us in the business. His so called “old school agronomy” is extremely harmful to the soil, water, and the environment. Ask any Superintendent using his techniques or being forced to use his techniques,”How are your roots?” They cant answer you because his program doesn’t consider the soil at all. In fact with the huge amounts of Iron and other fertilizers being applied, which cannot be used by the plant, largely end up killing any living organism within 6 inches of the surface. The way the fertilizers are applied is completely unsafe not just for the environment, animals, insects, and waterways, but also unsafe for the applicators which are normally Latino crew members. Look at their clothes, look at their eyes, look at their shoes. They are covered in Iron at all times. Spraying iron in the air behind you while riding a tractor with a breeze of 5 mph proves to be extremely tough, especially when driving down wind. The fertilizer is being thrown unbelievably into the air which then turns out to hit you in the back. When spraying by hand, again an unsafe method is used. Using a one inch hose and a special nozzle to apply fertilizer should be illegal. Not only does the applicator get fertilizers thrown all over his face, but anyone within 20 yards of the green is being exposed to Iron and other fertilizers via there pores, nose, and eyes. I myself was told to spray with these techniques. After two or three applications I told my managers I would not expose myself to fertilizers in this way. Needless to say I am now a Superintendent who does not have to circum to Mark Logan’s program. Sure, some of the methods and raw material mentality is from the good old days. But most of this is coming from Australia and other countries. Has anyone heard about the serious water problems they are having in Australia? Largely caused by agricultural techniques and fertilizers used with no regard for the environment. Ask consultants from America who are now trying to help Australia get themselves out of a serious problem.
This Logan program is meant to be used in sandy soils where the soil has the ability to flush itself every year. There is no data on the affects of using these high amounts of Iron and other fertilizers will have in clay soils, rivers, streams, or ponds. I can tell you this, when I drove by five or six birds in a fairway and hit them with 30 or 40 ounces per thousand of Iron with a carrier of 5 gallons of water. I never saw animals cower and fly away in such a hurry. It hurt, you could tell by their screeches. The soil is embalmed basically and cannot produce any microbial activity after being sprayed for a few months under this program. Now tell me this, how is that OLD SCHOOL? It’s not! Which is exactly my point.
Feel free to share this with anyone you like, I would just ask that my email address not be exposed to anyone involved with Mark Logan or George Kelley. Mike McCullough is a friend and I would love to see this shown to him. We as Superintendents are natural environmentalist and keepers of the green. Most of the courses Mark is involved in only care about one thing, hard and fast, and will do anything to reach this goal. In fact, Mark and George have attempted to back door hundreds of Superintendents in the past by contacting their general managers or board members without asking the Superintendent if he would like to learn about their program. This is extremely disturbing and has lead to many men losing their jobs in Northern California. I know the NCGA would never want to give someone like this free press and I realize the article was written by someone who knows nothing of Mark’s background. I just thought the NCGA and the writer Ron Salsig should be informed for future reference. Thank you for your time. Bill.
August 5th, 2007 at 8:57 pmI would have loved to see the look on Marks face when he read the second email. I heard he was handed the email right in front of the owner of Trinitas.
August 5th, 2007 at 9:12 pmI heard they had a huge thatch problem at Trinitas, hmmm I thought the Logan program was suppose to eliminate thatch?
August 11th, 2007 at 1:11 pmJoe, Bill and Walter
Here is a novel concept, in stead of complaining about this guy why don’t you call him? It’s easy just tell some one you do not like them, it does sound a like your making this into a personal attack. I would guess that your struggling with keeping poa minimal in your greens. Good Luck!
April 5th, 2008 at 3:06 pmFOR THE NEGITIVE COMMENTS…WHAT DOES YOUR COMMENT HAVE TO DO WITH THE COURSE?..NOTHING..THIS MARK DOESN’T OWN IT…THE COURSE IS A NICE COURSE..COME ON… GROW UP ALREADY…WHY DON’T YOU PUT NEGITIVE COMMENTS ON MARK’S SITE (IF HE HAS ONE)…THE PUBLIC DON’T KNOW MARK AND DON’T CARE TO..IF YOU HAVE A COMMENTS ABOUT THE COURSE I COULD SEE POSTING IT..BUT THAT SHOULD BE IT…FIND SOMEWHERE ELSE TO VENT LIKE A 8 YEAR OLD…
October 2nd, 2008 at 3:35 pmsounds like sour grapes, you clearly don’t play golf, as a golfer who pays good money to play, this guy and his team has turned some average courses around and makes them a pleasure to play. P.S.Trinitas is the 8th wonder.
January 13th, 2009 at 5:32 am