December 5, 2011

Dear fellow golfers,

We wanted to take the time to thank you very much for your responses to our first email newsletter customer survey, to tell you about some of the results and to respond to some of the comments and suggestions that you have made.

You liked all of our logos, especially the newest "ball and crane" logo. We will continue to offer all of them on a variety of our products like balls, shirts, hats, and towels. The suggestions for the 2012 golf shop are appreciated as well.

Most of you like having a golf professional on staff, though only about half said they were interested in lessons, some only an annual "tune up". You liked that we have a professional to run our junior golf camps and tournaments. We will continue to seek qualified professionals with a spirit of adventure who would like to spend the summer season with North Star Golf Club. It is always challenging to find a place for them to live, so we appreciate those who have helped us with that.

Some of you think the annual Club Championship is important, many did not care either way. A few commented that it "legitimized" North Star as a "real" golf club. Some thought it was held "too early". It is always a challenge to find a weekend that does not conflict with all the other things going on in our short, sweet summer months and when we still have our golf professional and most seasonal staff. Then, of course, there‟s moose season in September. We have tentatively scheduled the 2012 NSGC Club Championship for August 25th and 26th.

Your additional comments were interesting and varied. A few were complaints, many were compliments and some were suggestions. We will continue to reflect on them throughout this winter. Thank you to all who took the time to give us this feedback.

Not everyone was happy about the way leagues and tournaments were run and prize money allocated; one promised to play elsewhere next season, though the sums involved are small and 100% or more was returned to the players in league and tournament dinners and golf shop credits. We will revisit the "golf shop credit" issue that some of you raised. We so appreciate the time and energy that the volunteer league organizers, Pat DeRuyter and Lee Williams, put in to make your leagues fun.

Thankfully, the vast majority of you are looking forward to another great season at North Star Golf Club. Most appreciate the continuous, incremental improvement program we have implemented on the course, others would like us to do more, and sooner. This makes for fascinating and informative reading. Of course, we try to maintain a balance so that we can continue to offer you as customers, season pass holders and friends this reliable, predictable, and affordable retreat or "oasis" as one of you put it.

In answer to some of these:
We‟ve read that benches slow down play by encouraging golfers to sit, and agree that when play is slow, a place to sit while waiting for the fairway to clear is nice. We will keep adding benches.

We fill holes with dirt, but our dirt is damp and clayish and not 'smoothable' until it dries, so it takes us some time and multiple tries to get it spread smooth enough to plant. Some of these thermokarsts are sinking so fast that by then they already need more dirt, so it would be a waste of time and money to plant them and then have to fill them again. It‟s the same with sand, which we place in the wettest areas before covering with dirt and planting. There is a rule which lets you move a ball away from these places, known as ground under repair.

Areas in the rough which remain sandy and unraked year after year are known as waste hazards, and you are expected to play the ball as it lies, unless
there is casual water, in which case it can be moved. Most groups have standing local rules which they play amongst themselves regarding these areas. That‟s a good idea, because it is unlikely that they will stop occurring in the near future.

We don't intentionally allow large groups to play together during busy times. Sometimes we allow fivesomes of experienced players with carts that know how to play fast. It isn‟t really the group size as it is the practice of ready golf and not wasting time with endless shot preparation. Watch Tom Watson play. He almost won the British Open at age 60. When his turn is up, he has already decided what club to use, where to aim, and he steps up and hits it in 10 seconds or less. If we would all play more like that we wouldn‟t be waiting for each other. Save the practice swings for the driving range!

Course marshalling is a sticky wicket. How do you tell people they are holding up everyone on the course without making them mad? It‟s true that some people are unaware, clueless, rude, and painfully slow. Others are impatient, ornery, some don‟t care. They are all out there playing at different paces. What can you do other than try to encourage people to keep up with those ahead? Some people play 120 strokes in three hours and others take 80 in five. If you have a suggestion that doesn‟t involve telling people to leave and never come back, or making them do that unintentionally, we‟re interested. But know this...we need their business to help keep your fees low. In 2012 we will do more training with and make more use of our staff to keep golfers moving on the course, especially during busy weekends.

We try to present a natural looking golf course. We think that tee and scorecard advertising is tacky and we don‟t do it. We do plan to refurbish our tee signs, but we prefer them small and non distracting on the landscape. We do not use herbicides or insecticides on our golf course, so you may expect to see dandelions and clover in the roughs. We try to mow often and low enough that these weeds do not compete as well with the bluegrass. This season we made a point of mowing down all of the invasive vetch we could reach in the deep rough and will continue to try and keep it at bay. We don‟t like the way it is killing the fireweed along our highway system and don‟t want that to happen at North Star Golf Club.

This summer was most rewarding for us. Roger had golfers flag him down on his tractor to tell him how beautiful the course was! We have never received as many compliments on the condition of the golf course, and for that, we thank you, though we give most of the credit to our hard working crew. . Our crew loves the course as much as you do and they love to hear your praise. Thank you all so much!

Some of you were unhappy that we close the course at the end of September. (One respondent said we closed "a month" early this season.) There is always snow in October, if not September, and we need this time to prepare our greens for the winter so that you will be back on them as soon as possible the next spring. We have been praised by many of you for having "best greens in town" or "in Alaska" for many years now, usually into June and beyond.
Unfortunately, October has become some kind of "open season" for strangers to come out and play for free, walking on frosted grass, leaving trash and drink containers, and basically disrespecting your course, causing physical damage, and costing us all time and money to repair and clean up after. Any suggestions you may have to help us with this problem would be most welcome.

Thank you for your responses, and for choosing to play at North Star Golf Club. We look forward to seeing you golfing in 2012!

Sincerely,

Melinda and Roger Evans
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