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Davis
Cup Trivia - Build It and They Will Come!
By: William J. Kellogg
President, La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club
Column #4 - January 18th, 2006
Build
It and They Will Come! I always liked that line in "Field
of Dreams" so I figured: why not do it in real life?! After
the USTA accepted our bid for the 1st Round Davis Cup Match against
Romania, we set out to build a brand new tennis court on our golf
course, adjacent to the Duck Pond (a.k.a. the Wildlife Lagoon
or Swan Lake). We started by marking out the required dimensions
on the golf course and, much to our dismay, discovered that six
palm trees were in the way - they would have ended up right in
the middle of the stands.
I
consulted with Jon Hatch, our Grounds Manager, and he turned out
to be crazy too - he said "No problem. We'll just
move them for the matches and return them after the matches are
over. It's easy to do." As it turned out, he was right. Palm
Trees have very small root-balls and there is a machine that can
scoop them right out of the ground. They have now been transplanted
and seem very happy about the whole thing. Go figure!
With
that, we began grading, brought in 12 inches of gravel, compacted
it and then installed an asphalt overlay over the gravel. This
all happened in the space of three weeks. I have to tell you that
I began sleeping much better once the court actually
existed.
Now
all we had to do was apply the playing surface to the asphalt
base. This seems like an easy enough thing to do, except that
we found out that the USTA wanted the surface to be exactly like
the surface at the US Open in New York. Unfortunately, because
of the extremely damp conditions in La Jolla, we had to use a
different material to surface the court than they use in New York.
This made it difficult to know how to apply the surface. How can
you match the playing speed of a court on the other side of the
country made out of a different material?
Again,
the answer presented itself to us in the form of Patrick
McEnroe, the Captain of the Davis Cup Team. He agreed
to stop off in La Jolla, on his way from New York to the Australian
Open, to do a personal test of the court. Of course, he
picked Friday the 13th to do this, but I was encouraged,
nevertheless.
This
brought up the question: What do you do if the speed of
the court turns out to be wrong? Well, I talked to my
court construction company, C H Cortek, and they
agreed to stand by and watch McEnroe test out the court. As it
turns out, McEnroe felt the court was too slow. The Cortek workers
immediately set to work after he stepped off the court, and only
three hours later, McEnroe was able to retest the court. This
time it turned out to be the correct speed and McEnroe continued
on his way to Australia. Once again I was able to get a good night's
sleep. See below for a picture of the court under construction
- it's beautiful! Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder!
Now
that we built the court, was anybody going to attend the matches?
I'll tell you about that experience in my next column.
*
William J. ("Bill") Kellogg
is President of the La Jolla
Beach & Tennis Club, Inc. He also
chairs the United States Tennis Association's Davis Cup Committee
and in this capacity fosters
community involvement when Ties are held in the United States.
Kellogg currently serves on the
International
Tennis Federation's Seniors Committee, serves as a Vice-President
and Delegate
of the Southern California Tennis Association and is a past President
of the San Diego District
Tennis Association and Youth Tennis San Diego.
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