Spring 2025 Update From Lakewood Shores

Increased staff, new equipment, and more.

I want to thank all of our customers for their support over the years, it has been a pleasure serving you all. As you all know Lakewood is very near and dear to my heart as I have a lot of personal sweat and blood in the resort having designed and built the Gailes, Blackheath and the Wee Links as well as work on the condos. I have spent a lot of time there and have great memories of doing so. In 2002 I left the golf part of our family business to run our other ventures that I really enjoyed, but now I am back running our golf business and could not be more excited.

Most of you know we also own Indianwood Golf and Country Club in Lake Orion. I have put most of my focus on this property over the past three years. For those of you in the Detroit area the improvements that I have implemented at Indianwood are well known. I have spent significant dollars on capital, conditioning and employee improvements, Indianwood is well on its way to be once again one of Michigan’s top private clubs.

Now my attention has turned to Lakewood. I will be using the same playbook that I used at Indianwood so look for some marketable improvements over the next few years. Some of the non-sexy stuff that have already been implemented are an increase to the number of maintenance staff, the addition of an assistant superintendent, purchase of new utility vehicles, a new greens roller and several mowers. We have installed a new roof on the clubhouse and have upgraded the carts.  We are for the first time in a very long time retiring our oldest carts in the fleet this year. We have spent significant money on new batteries and cart maintenance and have all but eliminated dead cart issues.

Last year, most of you know all three of our pump stations failed within 24 hours of each other the week it was 90+ conveniently. We have rebuilt all three pump stations and rebuilt all of our central irrigation controllers. We have been doing extensive aerification on all courses; tees, fairways and greens, something that has not been done in many years. I am looking for green speeds to be way up this year as a result. Our fairway and tees will take some time to get dialed in but they are well on the way. None of you will readily see any of this but be aware it is going on and know our staff now has a basis to build on.

On to more exciting things:

The Gailes: we have rebuilt the steps on #2 tee box and have done a limited amount of tree clearing. We will be rebuilding many steps on the course as well as eliminating all the trees that have sprung up over the decades. We have also fixed the bridge on #3 and on #5 fairways and again will continue to do the others in the fall. As mentioned above we did a very aggressive aerification of the entire course. Greens are in very good shape and will be hand watered this year. Couple this with the addition of the new roller and have fun with the above the hole putts. For those that remember how hard and fast these greens were when we opened get ready that is where they are going. For those of you that are too young to remember, expect them to be some of the fastest greens you will putt on all year. We will start rebuilding the bunkers this year as well, building a huge sod nursery next to #9 fairway. Please be patient, the damn golf course architect put in 138 bunkers so it will take some time, just wait until I see that guy…

Blackshire: We fixed the bridge on #16 and will be working diligently on getting the rocks out of the bunkers all year. Please be cognizant of crew members. Greens are in much better shape, but we still have some issues on #18 and #14 that will require some plugging this spring. We will be topdressing these greens quite a bit this year. They should roll nicely but will look a bit off color while we get them back in shape.

Serradella: We are redoing a lot of heads around the greens. There was a lot of irrigation work throughout the entire course. We will be doing extensive verti-cutting of the fairways throughout the year.

Wee Links: we are reseeding the green on #18 and #16 so look for a complete 18 this year. It will take a few months to grow in but they should be ready for fall use. Conditioning on the Wee in general will be much better this year. We now have a dedicated greens mower and staff just for it.

Again, thank you for supporting the resort and please know that I am committed to getting things back to proper conditions.

Kevin Aldridge

President

Lakewood Shores Resort