The Detailed Process of Choosing a Contractor for Golf Course Greens & Bunkers Renovation

A tremendous amount of work was done last year on the Golf Course Greens and Bunkers Renovation Project by the SDCEA Board, staff, volunteer committee members, experts in golf course irrigation and others, all led by the experience and vision of Golf Course Architect Andy Staples.

The main focus in the past two months has been on the bidding process to select a contractor for the 2019 renovation of the San Vicente Golf Course. Attention to detail — a forte of Staples — has been a key to this very well-planned strategy to ensure that the project meets or exceeds the goals that are so very important to our community and its amenities.

Here’s a step-by-step look at the bidding process:

1. Staples created a list of 10 national and local golf course builders that he felt addressed the needs of the project. The main factors were:

a. Financial strength
b. History of working with Staples, and similar projects
c. A record of completed projects that were of the highest quality, and reflected a philosophy of “doing it right the first time”
d. Being local, which was viewed as important and positive, but not mandatory

2. The 10 contractors were sent a request for qualifications, and seven responded.

3. The seven were narrowed to five, based on the following criteria:

a. Experience, specifically in U.S. Golf Association greens construction
b. Local work
c. Experience working with Staples
d. Verified references

4. Golf course plans, including irrigation, were submitted to the five contractors for their use in bidding the project.

5. Individual pre-bid meetings with the San Vicente team, including Golf Course Superintendent Pat Shannon, were held to review the bid form and plans, and give the contractors an opportunity to ask questions. A tour of the golf course was included.

6. Casa Verde Golf, Duininck Golf, Integrity Golf and Heritage Links attended their prescheduled meeting. LaBar Golf was not able to make their dedicated time slot but did visit the site with their irrigation subcontractor, Formost Construction.

7. Based on these meetings, Staples adjusted the plans, specs and bid form to address each item he deemed important to getting an apples-to-apples bid comparison, and the best price.

8. All contractors were comfortable with the project schedule, and very happy with the level of detail in the bid documents, and bids were provided to Staples on Nov. 30. He prepared a summary of the bids for review by the SDCEA Board.

The San Vicente team worked with the contractors to understand the specifics of each bid and integrate their experience to ensure the project matched our expectations, but also gave us the best price. Bid review meetings were held with the Board on Dec. 7 and 11, and in a Dec. 18 workshop.

After thorough review, the contractor list was narrowed to one, Heritage Links, a subdivision of Lexicon Construction and Fabrication Corp., which has a local team based out of Temecula, CA.

The SDCEA Board approved the contractor and the bid cost of $2.2 million at the Board meeting on Dec. 18. Although there is more work to do, thanks is extended to the team who have worked hard to make this happen, and for the team who will make this a reality in 2019.

Information about Heritage Links can be found at www.lexiconinc.com/heritage-links/