$6 million renovation pays dividends to Sterling Farms

I found this story about how these guys on a public course paid for there renovations without tax payer dollars very interesting read I am hoping to get the super there to do an article for The Golf Course Trades some day.

STAMFORD -- It's a beautiful thing when a plan comes together.

Especially a plan that is 11 years and more than $6 million dollars in the making.

And that is certainly the case at the Sterling Farms golf course in Stamford.

The 40-year-old public golf course that is host to nearly 60,000 rounds per year is in the midst of a renaissance thanks to an incredible amount of foresight, planning and belief.

The golfing public has been the beneficiary of a total renovation involving Sterling Farms' challenging 150-acre layout, which has carried the 6,462-yard, par 72 course into the 21st Century.

The story begins in 1998 and Stamford Golf Authority executive director Paul Grillo -- just a few years into the position -- looks around the 29-year-old golf course/facility and sees a relatively successful operation.

But the nagging question was how to take the golf course and the operation to the next level.

Grillo -- with the approval of the Golf Authority which oversees Sterling Farms --

ultimately turns to Robert McNeil, an architect at Northeast Golf Courses in Rhode Island, to study everything tee box to green.

So McNeil looks and looks and looks. Eventually, Grillo has a book of recommendations on his desk the size of a James Michener novel.

The good news is that Grillo has plenty of ideas, plans, data and costs to show the Stamford Golf Authority, the members of which are appointed by the mayor of Stamford.

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