The labor shortage affecting golf courses, and now permeating nearly every industry, has changed how many courses conduct daily maintenance. Faced with not having enough employees to maintain the course according to expectations, superintendents looked to high school and college students to fill those gaps this year more than many years recently. While those young men and women helped tremendously while they were able, it is time for them to return to school. Consequently, already short-staffed maintenance teams are going to see another (significant) reduction in available labor.
With several months of good golf weather coming, superintendents are still tasked with maintaining the best possible conditions, regardless of external factors like the labor market. Challenging, no doubt, but possible with some changes to how the course is maintained. Some of these changes could require facility buy-in and others can be done without much fanfare:
1. Triplex putting greens and tees if they are currently walk mowed. Many courses could triplex greens and maintain comparable quality with one or two people instead of the four or more people required to walk mow them. The same holds true for tees.
2. Use a mechanical rake for the bunkers if they are currently hand raked. Like triplexing greens and tees, using a mechanical rake for bunkers requires one or two people compared to many more to hand rake them. If you already mechanically rake, do so less often or be more selective if staff time is limited. Send one person out to rake greenside bunkers, or only those that were played from, and leave the rest. This will speed up the process with hardly any impact on playability and get that person onto another job quicker.
3. Prioritize rough mowing. Instead of trying to mow all the rough at once, perhaps make a few laps around fairways, where most balls land, and save the outer rough for weekly mowing only. This maintains good playability in the primary corridor and speeds up the mowing process. I have also seen courses stop mowing intermediate rough and walk paths with a plan to reestablish them next year.
4. Change holes less often. Many courses change holes daily to spread traffic and give players a different experience. With fewer employees, changing holes every other day or skipping certain days with minimal play will save time and the impact on wear and the golf experience should be minimal.
5. Mow fairways in the most efficient pattern possible. Striping fairways is a look some courses like, but it requires extra time. Conversely, mowing in a light-dark pattern, or with the fairway contours, can save time while maintaining good playability.
These are just a few examples from a nearly endless list of ideas to improve efficiency while continuing to maintain the course at an acceptable standard. Yes, there could be visual changes to mowing patterns, rough mowing and detail work but none of them affect playability on the primary surfaces. When staffing is limited, it is important for courses to put ego aside and allow superintendents to manage resources in the way they feel is best for the facility.
Northeast Region Agronomists:
Adam Moeller, director, Green Section Education – amoeller@usga.org
Darin Bevard, director, Championship Agronomy – dbevard@usga.org
Elliott Dowling, agronomist – edowling@usga.org
John Daniels, agronomist – jdaniels@usga.org