The summer of 2020 marked a golf resurgence. Long-forgotten golfers dusted off their clubs and droves of beginners decided to pick up the game. Memberships at private clubs swelled to the point where many have reinstituted initiation fees and some even have a long waitlist to get in. Not surprisingly, this renewed interest in golf is translating to not only more players but significantly more rounds. This shot in the arm for the industry has been a blessing for many courses that have struggled in recent years.
Increased rounds was not just an isolated event of 2020, the trend has spilled over into 2021. Many golf courses are on pace to match, and in some cases exceed, the enormous amount of play from last year. But when is too much of a good thing a bad thing?
Increases in play are great, but it can also expose weaknesses in your golf course and maintenance operation. Some golf courses are struggling to accommodate the increase in rounds and are seeing negative impacts on course conditions as a result. Tees that are unable to recover from all the divots is a common sight. As are thin and weak turf areas from the added golf cart traffic.
The increase in play has also negatively impacted maintenance operations. Superintendents are struggling to perform necessary agronomic practices like applying sand topdressing because there are no breaks from play. Just keeping up with basic practices like mowing can be difficult.
With so much demand, now is the time to reassess and make changes. Does your course need to expand the amount of tee surface? Do you have enough employees to prepare the course each morning prior to play? Could the maintenance team benefit from more-efficient equipment, such as triplex mowers that can prepare the greens more rapidly? Does the course maintenance team have any time with unfettered access to the golf course so that they can do what they need to without interruptions?
The time issue might be the most important of all, if the course is too busy there are important tasks that simply cannot get done – especially with maintenance teams short-staffed as it is. Full or partial maintenance days are invaluable for the maintenance team. No play until noon on Mondays or Tuesdays is a good approach that many courses use, but with excessive play there might be a need to have an additional one- or two-hour gap later in the week as well. Finally, many private clubs have begun, or are strongly considering, scaling back the number of outside events they host in order to prevent course conditions from becoming worn out for their primary customers – the membership.
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