Golf Course Maintenance Best Practices
In the past few months we have been working with a few golf courses on their grounds/ golf course best practices. We have learned a lot and one of the key messages, as the business of golf is going through some tough times, has been that we have to change the way we do things. This includes the way we manage and preform our maintenance practices.

Changing Golf Course Maintenance Habits
It’s been interesting working with different golf course Superintendents and interacting with them on a regular basis. While, we are typically asked to lead the discussions about sales and marketing more common discussions lately has become about budgeting and golf course maintenance.

For most golf courses the biggest expense is in golf course maintenance. Our focus has been asking the question “why”, as in why do you do it this way? What if you did it another way? Think about these examples:

  • One golf course we work with was cutting rough at approximately 1.5″, to keep at that height they were cutting twice per week. We asked what the implications would be to cut at 2″, once per week. So we tried it at that course. The results… 25 – 30 hours per week in labour savings. Now in this case the budget wasn’t cut but what it did do was allow us to use the labour saved for other golf course projects! Oh… and the Board of Directors and Members didn’t even notice, there was zero change to the golfer experience.
  • Do you hate the tight lie shot for 20 or 30 yards short of a par 3 green? We do! Would you rather have the shot from the rough to the right or left of the green? We would! So why are we mowing the greens in front of the Par 3’s 20 – 30 yards in front of the green? We get the argument that it makes it easier to “run the ball up” but what if it doesn’t? It leaves a much harder shot and takes wedge out of play for most golfers, leaving a bump and run as the only option for most of your players. Plus… if you leave the cut higher it saves time from cutting 2 – 3 times per week only cutting that area once per week (it’s rough now). Approximate savings in labour – 6 hours per week if you reduce the fringe or collar cut in front of greens to 10 yards as opposed to what you do now.

There are many other examples of golf course maintenance practices. If you would like to chat more about this please call Jeff at 604-506-2226.

 

We, Jeff & Tara Ciecko of CK Golf Solutions write two blogs, one is our 19th Hole Blog where we share personal experiences and the other a Biz Blog where we comment on business best practices and give golf industry related opinions. Our 19th hole blog is the places we visit and the things we do because we want to. When we say that we like or dislike something or have a good or bad experience this is our opinion and the truth as we see it. We do not get paid for the blogs on our website. We are affiliates of a select few products listed on our resources page. If you have any questions or comments feel free to contact us anytime.

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