Quakertown, Pennsylvania-based Jim Blaukovitch Associates Golf Course and Irrigation Design created Keystone State courses such as Old Homestead Golf Club in New Tripoli; Island Green Country Club in Philadelphia; Honeybrook Golf Club in Honey Brook; and Stone Hedge Country Club in Tunkhannonck. Blaukovitch also designed Deerwood Country Club in Westhampton, New Jersey. Early in his career, while working with Killian & Nugent, Blaukovitch assisted in the construction of Kemper Lakes Golf Course near Chicago, the site of the 1989 PGA Championship.

While doing some preliminary site investigation for a new project, the golf course superintendent and I decided to dig some test holes. We started to dig in the area of a proposed pond to test for the presence of rock that might impede construction. As we were digging, someone from a neighboring property started waving his hands and signaling for us to stop.

“What’s wrong with that guy?” we asked each other.

We motioned back that we were on our own property and kept digging. But the neighbor was relentless and kept yelling to us to stop.

“We’re on our own property,” we yelled to him.

This time he came running over towards us. We braced ourselves for a confrontation.

When he got close enough, however, we understood his urgency. Turns out, we’d been digging on top of a high-pressure gas transmission line!