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Gold Mountain Introduces Team Member of the Quarter!

Gold Mountain’s Team Member of the Quarter recognizes a team member who brings forward all of our values.

Enthusiasm, respect, creativity, honesty, sincerity, and accountability.

This team member is voted for by the entire team in all departments, and is recognized at our all staff quarterly meeting.

This quarter Denise Garza was voted to become Gold Mountain’s very first Team Member of the Quarter!

Denise’s outstanding qualities and contributions to not only Gold Mountain, but to Columbia Hospitality as a whole, have caught the attention of every team member that has the privilege of working beside her.

Denise started working at one of the Columbia Hospitality properties in 2006, McCormick Woods Golf Club.

At McCormick Woods Denise was the leader of the Snack Shop, lead dining room assistant, banquet server, and housekeeper.

Denise has always risen to any challenge with great enthusiasm and positivity.

In 2016, Denise was promoted to Snack Shop Supervisor at Gold Mountain Golf Club.

Denise has very successfully lead the beverage cart and Snack Shop teams.

She has helped broaden the inventory available in the Snack Shop and on the beverage carts, as well as helping create a new Snack Shop on the Olympic Course known as “The Den.”

The addition of The Den helped lead Gold Mountain to records in our food and beverage department.

Denise is also part of the dining room assistant team and banquet team at Gold Mountain.

Most recently, Denise has been asked to join a third Columbia Hospitality property, Kitsap Conference Center as a banquet server and concierge.

Denise has exhibited continued and unwavering professionalism, dedication, and sincerity throughout her time at Gold Mountain Golf Club.

Her calling is truly hospitality and we are extremely grateful to have Denise on our team.

Her leadership, honesty, and creativity are contagious among guests and team members alike.

I am so proud of Denise Garza and grateful to be a part of her continued growth and success.

Tiffany Schenk
Area Director of Food and Beverage
Columbia Hospitality

 

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Winter Golf and Holiday Gifts

The holidays are steadily approaching but that doesn’t mean golf has to end!

Gold Mountain has always been touted for having excellent conditions during the winter months and this winter will be no exception.

The greens crew has continued to do a fantastic job with the course and now that we have this beautiful weather upon us, the recently aerified greens are healing up nicely!

Looking to stay harp during the winter?

Gold Mountain is one of the few courses that continue to use a grass driving range during the off season.

Along with the various short game areas, Gold Mountain is an awesome place to practice year-round.

Take this time in the off season to refine your game with the Gold Mountain teaching professionals, Travis Cary, John Sitton, Daryl Matheny, and Ted Naff.

All teaching professionals are available for golf lessons and want to help you keep your game fresh during the winter months.

To learn more about private lessons visit goldmountaingolf.com or contact the Golf Shop at 360.415.5432.

During the Month of November we also have a few fun golf tournaments you can participate in. On Friday, November 10 at 10am we have the 2nd Annual Red, White, and Blue Golf Tournament.

This tournament supports the VFW Unmet Needs Program and is a great opportunity for our community to give back to those that have served our country.

For registration and general questions please contact Chris Keough at 360.434.8658 or at chriskeough@windermere.com.

In addition to the Red, White, and Blue tournament Gold Mountain hosts our own Captain’s Cup from November through February.

The Captain’s Cup is a Ryder Cup-style event based on a three-point scoring system.

Visit goldmountaingolf.com or contact the Golf Shop at 360.415.5432 for more information.

Finally, as I mentioned earlier the holidays are approaching, and that means gifts!

The Golf Shop has plenty of great products at the best prices of the year, so make sure to stop in and shop!

Not sure what your friend, spouse, or family member wants?

Not a problem, we offer gift certificates that can be used on anything in the Golf Shop, including green fees!

We hop to see you out at Gold Mountain this winter!

Travis Cary
Assistant Golf Professional

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Gold Mountain’s Tacos

Hello, I would like to tell you all about our delicious house-made chorizo taco appetizer.

For the chorizo we start with whole primal cuts of fresh pork roast that are cut into strips lengthwise across the grain for tenderness, and then cut again into one inch by one inch cubes.

The cubes are then rubbed in our house-made BBQ spice and marinated for 24 hours.

We then grind the marinated meat in-house.

Our tacos consist of a few delicious ingredients that make our guests coming back for more.

Of course the chorizo is grilled to perfection and then stuffed into a charbroiled white corn tortilla.

Then, topped with fresh shaved white onion, pickled mini peppers, cumin crema sauce, freshly grated cojita cheese, shaved Easter radish, and finished with a combination of julienned cilatro, green onion, and house-made salsa verde.

We also offer a taco entrée which consists of the same preparation for the tacos and served with sautéed black beans and house-made Spanish rice.

We offer your choice of chorizo or whitefish for your protein selection.

If you are as hungry as I am after that, come out to Gold Mountain Golf Club and try our tacos and many other tasty options from our menu.

You can enjoy a meal with a view as you overlook the beautiful Olympic Course and Olympic Mountain range outside our restaurant.

Come by and say hi, I can’t wait to see you.

Jon Forcier
Executive Chef

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It’s Holiday Season

Gold Mountain Golf Club is getting ready for the holiday season with great specials on golf, beautiful décor, and fun holiday parties.
Every year we host some amazing groups for their holiday parties and this year is shaping up to be no different.
We love the holiday season and would love it even more if we could spend it with you.
There are still dates available for you to host your family, friends, or even corporate holiday party at Gold Mountain Golf Club.
We can host intimate groups of 20 guests or large events up to 200 guests.
There are packages available to fit any budget and every style.
All of our holiday packages are priced per person and include some fantastic food choices as well as room fees, tables, chairs, linens, holiday décor, tax and service charge.
You can actually enjoy your event too, because we provide a friendly and attentive staff member to make sure you and your guests have the best event possible.
Gold Mountain welcomes everything from large business events, close family events, and beautiful winter weddings.
If you are interested in booking your event with us please contact Jesse McGee, Sales and Event Planning Manager, at 360.415.6894.

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Contrary to Popular Belief

Aerification and topdressing are seen as negatives by most golfers but they are vital to maintaining healthy turf and creating the best possible playing conditions.

We will look at what it takes to achieve both of these practices as well as the benefits both provide to the turf.

Aerification can be a time-consuming practice, however, when done the right way we can achieve it with little to no interference with the golfers. We use two Toro Procore 648 machines to aerify our tees, approaches, and greens.

We aerify our tees and approaches once a year with half inch side eject hollow tines.

When aerifing our greens we use multiple sizes of tines depending on the time of year, weather, and what we are trying to accomplish.

In the fall, we use half inch side eject hollow tines as our goal is to remove organic matter from the profile and replace it with sand.

This also helps our greens drain well throughout the winter.

In the spring, we use either three eighths of an inch side eject hollow tines or quarter inch solid needle tines.

The benefit of the smaller tines in the spring is that they allow our greens to heal much quicker and therefore does not disrupt play for an extended period of time.

Throughout the golf season we will vent our greens every four to six weeks depending on weather and play with the quarter inch solid tines.

We follow this venting by rolling the disturbed greens so they are ready for play immediately.

It is necessary to vent the greens regularly to help promote a healthy turf and in return a better playing surface.

A few of the main reasons we aerify are to break up compaction, help with gas exchange, help with drainage, and remove organic matter and thatch from the profile.

Since purchasing our Procore aerifiers, we have noticed a significant improvement in the depth of our roots.

This is extremely important for many reasons, but mainly because now the plant can reach deeper for water.

This allows us to dry the greens out when we need them to be more firm.

Topdressing is often seen as a poor maintenance practice by golfers, as they feel as though it is not allowing them to play on the best possible putting surfaces.

However, this is a very common misconception.

Our fall aerification requires a heavier application of sand to help fill in the larger holes.

Whereas during the peak golf season we will apply a light dusting of sand to our greens every four weeks.

Following the sanding we brush the sand in, then brush mow, and use sand reels to clean everything up.

The benefits of topdressing are not just to fill in the areification holes but to provide a better playing surface for the duration of the year.

The sand will smooth out the playing surface allowing for a smoother roll and will help with consistent and desired green speeds.

So, next time you see our amazing maintenance team out venting or topdressing the greens, thank them for making your Gold Mountain Golf Club your favorite place to golf!

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How Did the Courses Handle the Weather?

As the standard “peak” golf season comes closer to an end on the Kitsap Peninsula, let’s look back at course conditions during this pas season.

This will include green speed, water usage, and overall playability of the Olympic Course and the Cascade Course.

Green speed is always a hot topic when talking about golf courses and there are various factors that affect the speed of a green.

When we watch major golf championships, we hear the commentators discussing the speed of the greens being 12.5 or 13+ on the stimpmeter (a device used to measure the speed of a green).

A USGA official uses a Stimpmeter to measure the speed of a green at Oakmont. Courtesy of PGA.com.

Keep in mind, those greens are being played by the best golfers in the world, and even they struggle with them!

From personal experience working at U.S. Open Championship, those speeds are far too fast for the average golfer.

However, those courses only keep those speeds up for the tournament they are hosting and then everything slows back down after said tournament.

We at Gold Mountain, try to keep our green speed right around a 10.5 on the stimpmeter, we have found this to be a player-friendly pace, while still challenging for our golfers.

Along with that, making sure all our greens are rolling consistently and smoothly is a top priority.

For big tournaments, and when requested for certain events, we can easily get green speeds up to a 12 on the stimpmeter, then our golfers will really be getting a taste of what the professionals experience week in and week out.

This golf season has seen a pretty remarkable drought of over 50 days in a row with no precipitation and over 70 days with moisture accumulations only reaching 0.10 inches.

We have a weather station at our maintenance shop that measures a number of different things, but one key measurement it gives us in our evapotranspiration (ETs), which is the amount of water lost by a plant every day.

The weather station then relays the ET information to our irrigation system, which then calibrates how long each sprinkler head on the course needs to run each night.

We also can go in and manually adjust run times for certain areas of each golf course.

Watering, however, is like walking a tight rope.

It we over water, the course becomes saturated and playing conditions are not optimized.

If we under water we can lose turf, and if not treated, those desiccated areas are likely to fill in the next season with weeds.

No irrigation system gives perfect coverage, only nature can take care of that; however, we are very fortunate that our irrigation system can keep up with our ever-changing climate.

Considering the record rainfall, snow, and ice we had this last winter, and then the record drought we are still having this summer, both courses are performing very well.

Gold Mountain Golf Club

We had several greens buried under ice for up to six weeks last winter and have had extremely good success recovering them back to championship conditions in a relatively brief period of time.

Then add on all the heat from this summer…needless to say we have invested a lot of time into trying to keep the course firm and fast by hand watering hot spots, or localized dry spots (LDS).

This allows us to not over water or under water in certain areas, while still providing a championship caliber product.

Overall, all areas of both courses are handling the crazy Pacific Northwest weather well.

Our fairways are very firm, allowing golf balls to bounce and roll out nicely, giving you those extra few yards off the tea.

Our greens are also firm, and provide a bit of a challenge with the way they receive and hold a ball on an approach shot.

Both the Cascade Course and the Olympic Course are in great shape and will continue to be in this condition, now we just wait for some much-needed rain to liven up the courses!

Ed Faulk
Gold Mountain Golf Club Superintendent

 

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Gold Mountain Taco Truck

We had the pleasure of showcasing our portable “Taco Truck” stand in August at our beautiful sister property, Kitsap Conference Center.

It was a picturesque day at the Bremerton Harborside Marina, with the sun shining and over 700 guests in attendance.

The fountains added the perfect backdrop to our booth.

Guests enjoyed many different local wineries as well as a few local breweries.

Live music from The Tones kept the vibe fun and exciting!

Almost every guest had one of our chorizo taco’s in hand as they made their way through the crowd.

Executive Chef Jon Forcier, prepped our spicy chorizo, cotija cheese, pickled peppers, onions and cilantro; enough to fulfill the demand of 1,000 tacos.

Cook, Chris Mitchell, along with Restaurant Supervisor, Jennifer Couch, fed the hungry guests for over four hours.

Taco Tuesdays at Gold Mountain

The line to our booth was never less than 15 guests deep.

Jennifer and I had a great time conversing with the lively crowd, inviting them to come try our street tacos, and handing out coupons for those who wanted to come join us outside of the festival.

The chatter over our “Taco Tuesday” promotion could be heard amongst the guests waiting in line, and was quite exciting to hear.

Every Tuesday from 11am to close we offer a rack of five chorizo street tacos for $8, as well as margaritas and bottled corona for just $3.

Golfers keep your eyes open for our Gold Mountain Taco Truck to be added as a menu option for on course food stations during golf tournaments in 2018!

Our robust menu is still an exciting feature here at Gold Mountain and we welcome all to come join us in our public restaurant seven days a week.

Thank you for being a part of our culinary excellence!

Tiffany Schenk
Director of Food and Beverage

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Can it Really Be August Already?

It is hard to believe that we have already raced into the month of August, considering how long it took the weather to make it to spring!

Our guests and members have made it a priority to get in as much golf as possible to make up for the lost time earlier in the year.

Tee times will continue to be available to book 30 days in advance, so take advantage of the best golfing conditions in the Northwest and book your tee time online now.

Book your tee time directly on the website!

We have seen tremendous results with our online booking engine and automatic green fee discounts at check-in, and we will continue that practice throughout August.

When you reserve your tee time online, you can see exactly what we see in the Golf Shop, showing our guests tournaments, large groups, and how busy the course is in general.

This function helps our golfers decide the best possible tee time and day to play to fit their schedule.

As we move from the long days of summer to the crisper mornings of the early fall, keep a look out for our group specials on our website.

Foursome fun on the Olympic Course.

These specials have been enormously popular and we look forward to making them available to everyone again this year!

With the start of fall comes our annual Dave Williams Best Ball Tournament, Saturday, September 30 and Sunday, October 1.

This is one of the most enjoyable tournaments of the year and signup sheets will be available in the Golf Shop beginning this month.

Following the first round we will have College Football playing on our large projector so that our tournament players can cheer on their alma mater as they enjoy our complimentary post-round meal.

On Sunday, as everyone is watching the scoreboard to see who places in the money, our large screen projector will be displaying NFL Football (usually the Seahawks)!

And for those wishing to see how the PGA Tour is finishing up, our flat screens in the bar will be showing the 2017 Presidents Cup.

Finally, I would like to share exciting news as Gold Mountain will be hosting the Mountain West Conference Championship next April!

We are beginning the process of gathering tournament volunteers and captains for this fun event, so please keep your eye out for signup sheets or swing by the Golf Shop to inquire with myself or our General Manager, Daryl Matheny.

We would love to hear from you and get you on our team!

We can’t wait to see you at the course for the final stretch of summer!

All of us at Gold Mountain Golf Club want to thank you for coming out this year and making 2017 a great success after what can modestly be described as the most challenging winter and spring for golf.

John Sitton
Golf Operations Manager
Gold Mountain Golf Club

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Keep the Summer Activities Going

For most people August marks the end of the summer and the start of the school year, which means you may be thinking your fun summer activities are coming to an end.

But why not keep golf going as one of the top activities on your list?

Whether you are just playing for fun, hitting the course with your family, or looking to improve your game, golf is something that can be enjoyable for everyone!

With tournaments, leagues, clinics, and demo days, there are many opportunities to fit golf into your busy summer and fall plans.

Planning is always an important part of any activity and as the merchandiser and buyer for Gold Mountain, let me help you get ready for the season.

Essentials for the complete golf bag: a driver, fairway wood, hybrid, irons, wedges, putter, golf balls, tees, and a glove.

If you notice you are missing anything on that list, well you know where to find it…the Gold Mountain Golf Shop!

With the brutal winter we had, you may be looking to brush up on your golf game a little, there are group clinics or private lessons you can start off with to help you feel ready to hit the links.

If you are wanting to really kick it up a notch with your game take a look at our membership opportunities, and the amazing benefits that come along with being a member.

Outside of the basic necessities to fit your golf game, regardless of your skill level, we have some fun items in our Golf Shop to really enhance your experience on the course.

Try out the new soft feel or colored golf balls to help keep your eye on the ball.

Or upgrade to our golf bags that have a cooler pocket to keep your snacks and drinks fresh throughout your round.

And looking the part is always half the battle, so make sure to check out the latest gear all the top players are wearing each week.

We loved seeing everyone on the course all summer long and can’t wait to keep the moment going into the fall.

Suzanne Mehlert
Merchandiser & Buyer, Gold Mountain Golf Club

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A Beautiful Summer for Golf

Fellow Northwest Golfers!

It has been a beautiful summer in Kitsap County and Gold Mountain has flourished along with it.

Both the Cascade and Olympic courses are currently in great playing shape and there has never been a better time to come out and play some golf!

Interested in coming out to play?

Visit www.goldmountaingolf.com and book your tee time online, any day in July, and receive the following discounts on your green fee(s)!

Hole #17, Par 3

Before 8 AM: 30% off
8-11 AM: 5% off
11-1 PM: 25% off
1-3 PM: 35% off

As we roll into the latter half of summer, Gold Mountain will continue to bustle with various events.

We will be having multiple fitting days with the biggest brands in golf such as Srixon, Cleveland, Titleist, TaylorMade, and PING.

Interested in trying some of the newest equipment in preparation for a new purchase?

Make sure to call the Golf Shop at 360.415.5432 for more information on dates and to reserve your spot at the fittings.

Don’t forget our second annual Red, White and Blue Golf Tournament will be held on Friday, November 10, with a 10am shotgun.

Last year’s inaugural event was a big hit and benefits a great cause by supporting our military through the VFW Unmet Needs Program.

If you are interested, please contact Chris Keough at 360.434.8658 or at chriskeough@windermere.com.

That’s it for now, we will see you on the links!

Travis Cary
Assistant Golf Professional

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