Winterkill and summer damage left behind a little present for superintendents: weeds. The impact was most severe in the transition zone and central U.S., where goosegrass exploded early and often, particularly where turf was thinner due to Mother Nature being in a lousy mood during the first half of the year. Label changes for reliable preemergence solutions like Ronstar also had many superintendents scrambling to find alternatives. The USGA Green Section article “A Guide to Goosegrass Control” proved to be a timely resource this year, and goosegrass doesn’t seem like a problem that’s going away. As was noted in the article: “Changing weather patterns are already impacting goosegrass’ life-cycle and may create bigger challenges in the future. Short-lived perennial goosegrass already exists in Florida, and reports of perennial goosegrass ecotypes have been made in the Carolinas as well. Goosegrass emergence also continues to shift earlier into the spring and later in the summer, and perhaps even into the early fall.”

Of course, rotten weather years are simply part and parcel of golf course maintenance and, in my experience, these “gotcha” seasons come around every 7-10 years. But, when they do strike, they sometimes become the straw that breaks the camel’s back for superintendent jobs. A lot has changed about golf in the past few years, but one thing that hasn’t is that some clubs will hold superintendents accountable for dead grass whether it was preventable or not – particularly when tensions have been building already. High expectations are great until they become unachievable, and the people who make hiring and firing decisions at golf courses can be very quick to forget the good years when a bad one rears its ugly head.

A Few Other Interesting Trends

From 2013 to 2024, the average maintenance budget for U.S. golf courses (public and private together) increased by more than 50% according to research conducted by the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America. Their findings show that the average maintenance budget grew from $688,821 in 2013 to $1,068,511 in 2024. By the way, that doesn’t include capital improvements. What drove this decade of big-time budget growth? Labor costs and rising equipment prices are two major culprits. Commodities like chemicals, fertilizer and seed obviously increased in price over that same time, but not nearly as much as people and equipment.

So, operational spending and budgets have grown but everything is cool because revenues are still through the roof, right? As Lee Corso would say, not so fast my friend! Courses have other spending priorities and not every maintenance program is growing aggressively. There are still plenty of veteran superintendents out there who are laughing hysterically at the idea of their budget growing by more than half over the past decade. The smart money says that golf revenues will continue to grow for the foreseeable future, but don’t be surprised if club leaders and general managers don’t start pushing back on turf spending because “everything seems fine out on the course.”

One of the best trends I’m seeing is a boom in new maintenance facility construction. The vast majority of “barns” out there are awful, in my opinion. The decision-makers at a golf course need to understand that the maintenance facility is a workplace and no one wants to come toil away in a dark, cold, dirty or dangerous building. You don’t want valuable staff time spent searching for tools or struggling to get machines out of the back of the shop, and you certainly don’t want valuable equipment getting stored outside in the elements – but I see these issues all the time. Oh, and very few older maintenance buildings have appropriate accommodations for our growing number of female turf pros. If you need a new facility, start planning for it and selling the idea to your board now. 

We’re also seeing a continued focus on developing and retaining the staff that makes golf course maintenance possible. You can make a case that the humble mechanic is the second most important employee in a lot of maintenance operations, and it is nearly impossible to hire one quickly and effectively, so retention is critical. These key members of the maintenance team are starting to get the recognition they deserve and we’re seeing more effort going into training and certification programs to build stronger pathways into the profession.

Attracting, and hopefully retaining, interns and apprentices has become a top priority at many courses as well. Superintendents are putting a lot of effort into creating terrific internship experiences that increasingly include broader exposure to the key elements of managing a golf facility beyond course maintenance. Spending a little time with the general manager, membership director or finance department at a golf course adds value to an internship and also highlights the type of collaboration that is necessary for modern supers to master. I also love that some courses are partnering with other facilities in different regions to allow interns to work in different climates under different mentors. There’s no better way for up-and-coming turf pros to learn what they like and what they don’t than by experiencing it all firsthand.

So, what’s ahead in 2026? Will we find a way to screw up the greatest golf economy I’ve ever seen? Well, I’m pessimistically optimistic we can avoid it ... at least for now.