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Just a few weeks into the New Year, Callippe Preserve has a new general manager and another award to add to its collection.

Mike Ash, a PGA Class "A" golf pro, took over the city golf course Dec. 17. Ash, who has more than 22 years of experience in the golf industry, has worked with Club Corporation, one of the largest golf course management companies in the country, for more than 20 years. Most recently, he was the golf pro at The Bridges Golf Club in San Ramon for the past six months. Ash has also been general manager at Chardonnay Golf Club in Napa, Teal Bend in Sacramento and Rancho Solano in Fairfield.

This won't be Ash's first foray into managing a city-owned golf course. He has also managed courses in the cities of San Francisco, Fairfield, Healdsburg and Eureka.

Some goals he said he's working on include an ongoing effort to bring new people to the course as well as offer educational tours.

"Really, the goal is to provide a well-maintained golf course for residents of Pleasanton," Ash said. "We also want to get non-golfers of Pleasanton to get involved by doing lunches and dinners. We want to bring in women and children."

There are currently two female golf groups that play at Callippe and the golf course also offers youth golf lessons, Ash said.

Educational tours will teach youth groups about endangered species that co-exist with Callippe and the course's effort to preserve them.

Ash replaces former General Manager John Renslow, who has taken a similar position at Alta Sierra Country Club in Grass Valley, according to city spokeswoman Joanne Hall.

Among the responsibilities Ash is inheriting as head of the two-year-old golf course is accepting accolades. Since opening in November 2005, Callippe Preserve has earned recognition for its attention to the environment and as a top-rated golf course.

Golf Digest magazine named Callippe as one of America's Best New Courses, Golf Week magazine ranked Callippe as the sixth best public access course in California, and it achieved the designation of a "Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary" by the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary System (ACSS), the educational division of Audubon International.

Most recently, Callippe has earned another award to add to its mantle--recipient of a 2007 Environmental Leader in Golf Award (ELGA). The distinction was made by the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America and Golf Digest magazine. D. Cord Ozment, supervisor at Callippe, was one of three chapter winners for the ELGA award in the category of public facilities.

Ozment said he is proud of the award, calling it the "Super Bowl" of environmental achievement.

"It gives us the opportunity to show off what we're doing on a regular basis in the environmental sense," he said, adding that it was a group effort including Ryan Hess, assistant superintendent, Julie Foster, environmental manager and Jim Woelfl, irrigation Manager.

This is the first time Callippe has applied for the award. Ozment works for CourseCo Inc., which is contracted by the city for management of the course.

When Callippe first opened in 2005, there was some criticism over the $34.5-million cost to build the course, but Ozment said the money has been well spent.

"When the city of Pleasanton built this golf course, they really focused on making it environmentally sensitive," he said.

One of those features includes expanded drainage areas off the golf course which absorb nutrients out of water running across the course.

Ozment said the city "spent over $5 million in permits alone and we have 24 different management plans on this property to make sure we protect what was here before us and what will be here long after us."

Three endangered species call the area home: the Callippe Silverspot Butterfly (which the course is named after), the red-legged frog and the California tiger salamander.

The butterfly habitat is between the course and the Koopman Ranch property on land owned by the city, Ozment said.

"The salamander has its own unique site on the opposite side of the property," Ozment added.

Right now, it is breeding season for the tiger salamander.

Ozment said the salamander lives in the bottom of water channels and is pretty reclusive, but Callippe has taken steps to ensure that golfers don't travel off path and risk stepping on one.

"That's one of the most important reasons on why we keep golfers out of those environmental areas," he said. "When they're playing golf, they're not allowed to go in that area if they hit their ball there."

Callippe has also funded a plan to protect the red-legged frogs from being overrun by bullfrogs, a predator.

"During mating season, we build dams in our drainage channel and we dam up the water and pump it back into our irrigation lakes," Ozment said. "It takes away the breeding ground for the bullfrogs so that they can't breed and develop and later come back and eat the red-legged frogs."

And to educate others on such environmental efforts, as General Manager Ash mentioned, Callippe will begin giving tours to youth groups.

Since Callippe opened, "we got a lot of golf played here and made a lot of money for the city here for the first two years, and now its time for our company, CourseCo., to take the next step and that's to start doing the community outreach," Ozment said. "The theme is going to be that the city built it right. They spent a lot of money on it and they got criticized for the money they spent but they did it for our future, not just for the immediate return on investment."

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