Lehigh University Athletics
Lehigh students show range
7/19/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Golf
Of the Morning Call
With 75 acres of farmland and a team of engineering, architecture and finance students at its disposal,
The university last month broke ground on a driving range and practice facility designed by and for students (and the Lehigh community). The facility is scheduled to open this fall and, if successful, could lead to an executive golf course also designed by students.
It's a project that was 10 years in the making — a timeline shortened by the availability of its designers.
''I'm not saying this wouldn't have happened without the students,'' Lehigh athletic director Joe Sterrett said. ''But it definitely would not have happened as quickly. We had comparatively inexpensive and remarkably capable minds to work on this.''
Lehigh's new project will cover approximately 75 acres of leased farmland that straddles
Lehigh's men's and women's golf teams will benefit from the range, which will give them a designated place to practice. The teams play rounds at Saucon Valley Country Club but use ranges at
Sterrett said that, with the available land on the Goodman campus, the university has envisioned a practice complex for several years. But design and financing were factors.
Then came the Integrated Learning Experience, in which upperclass students from various disciplines work together on a single project. The university has had success with student-designed facilities before. A similar group designed the Ulrich Sports Complex and redesigned the cross country course.
Sterrett and economics professor Vincent Munley last year convened a team of engineering, architecture, business and journalism majors to market-test the golf project on campus and design the facility. With an endowment from an anonymous donor (a Lehigh graduate), the golf facility is scheduled to be built without money from the school's athletic budget. Sterrett hopes the project will be self-operating and won't require university investment.
Two different sets of students compiled reports (one on the range, one on a projected executive golf course) and presented them in public forums. The feasibility studies included surveys of students and faculty and detailed production-cost breakdowns.
The study found enough interest in the Lehigh community that an executive course was designed as an addition. Sterrett said the school has no timetable when (or even if) the course would be built. That will hinge on the interest in, and successful operation of, the driving range.
Nevertheless, the student team made a detailed analysis, determining costs of leaf removal, ball washers, even ball-washer towels.
''We didn't want to be in the golf course business,'' Sterrett said, ''but we are in the education business. To have a place where people can learn to play the game will be enormously valuable to a community like this."
