December 03, 2015
By USGA Green Section
Have you heard the word “sustainable” so often that you sometimes
want to be unsustainable just to buck the trend? We can help. Simply
implement the steps below and in no time your course will find it
necessary to make golf more expensive and less profitable.
Bunkers
Bunkers are virtual money pits when maintained at the level many
golfers have come to expect. The most expensive words in the lexicon of
bunker maintenance are “consistency” and “uniformity”. To make your
bunkers more costly to maintain, do the following:
1) Add more. When doing so, be sure the bunker faces are
extremely steep (more shoveling of sand after rains), and the shape of
the bunker is wildly convoluted (more edging).
2) Rake bunkers on a daily basis. Be sure to rake every bunker whether it needs it or not.
3) Edge all bunkers manually instead of using herbicides.
4) Hand water bunkers to try to keep the moisture of the sand
uniform (it can’t be done, but at least you can spend a lot of time and
money trying).
Trees
1) Plant more. Every tree slows mowing, adds debris and needs trimming.
2) Hand trim around every tree on the course instead of using herbicides.
3) Plant trees near greens to inhibit light and air movement resulting in greater expense on fungicides.
Lakes and Stream Banks
1) Mow and hand trim as close to the water’s edge as possible.
This will also allow more fertilizer to be washed into the water
resulting in more algae and aquatic weed growth which in turn will
require more money for aquatic herbicides and manual weed removal.
Ball washers
1) Be sure to have at least one on every hole. This will
necessitate the constant cleaning and repair of items that are seldom
used and can be effectively replaced by a damp towel carried by the
golfer.
Filling fairway divots
1) Have the maintenance staff fill all fairway divots instead of asking golfers to do so.
2) Be sure to buy expensive green sand to increase further the cost of this step.
Blowing debris from fairways and roughs
1) Make sure this is done on a daily basis to ensure golfers
never have to learn and implement Rule 23 – Loose Impediments (
http://www.usga.org/rules/rules-and-decisions.html#!rule-23).
Have lots of different mowing heights
1) Implement complex mowing patterns with as many different
mowing heights as possible. Each requires different machinery that also
adds to the cost of buying and maintaining equipment.
Walk-mow greens and tees
1) Avoid using labor efficient riding equipment whenever
possible. Surprisingly, a triplex mower is about three times more
efficient than a single cutting unit.
Ornamental flower beds
1) Add flowers everywhere. The constant weeding of the beds and
replacement of annual flowers adds up quickly.The cost and labor can be
increased further by creating elaborate patterns.
Irrigate non-play areas
1) Water as much of the golf course as possible – even those
areas that seldom if ever come into play. Years of scientific research
has proven that if you water grass it is likely to grow which requires
mowing, weeding, etc.
Overseed turf that would normally go dormant
1) Dormant turf is a wonderful playing surface, but no one likes
brown grass. The solution is to overseed the dormant grass with turf
that grows most of the winter. Another extensive scientific study
revealed that green grass is also likely to grow so it will be necessary
to mow all winter.
Make your natural areas unnatural
1) Be sure all “natural” areas are as unnatural looking as
possible by using a large amount of labor to manually remove all plants
except fescue.
Plant the wrong grasses for your area
1) Plant grasses that will be under stress for long periods of
time in your climate. This guarantees huge expenses for water,
fungicides, herbicides and of course, the labor and cost of sod to
periodically replace dead grass.
Edge the cart paths frequently
1) Nothing adds more to the playability of a golf course than a
well-defined cart path edge – right? Edging cart paths with string
trimmers is a great way to increase labor cost and consume labor hours
that might otherwise be wasted on producing better putting greens.
Let your irrigation system get too old
1) Few things consume available labor hours like the constant
repair of an antiquated irrigation system. In addition to the labor
required to fix the system, there is the cost of parts and the
replacement of turf damaged by poor irrigation system performance.
Use plenty of signs, stakes and ropes
1) Make liberal use of signs, stakes and ropes in the attempt to
prevent carts from being driven too close to green and tee complexes.
Courteous golfers don’t need them, and discourteous golfers ignore them,
but at least you will significantly slow down mowing operations by
forcing the staff member to stop mowing to remove and reinstall the
obstacles. The staff will surely appreciate the exercise they get by
constantly getting on and off the mowers. Bonus tip: to slow down
fairway mowing install multiple yardage poles in the fairways for the
last remaining golfer that has not purchased a digital measuring device.
These tips are not offered to criticize high-budget courses but
rather offer advice to those courses that are struggling to remain
economically viable. If nothing else, this list illustrates the
importance of performing a time and labor analysis on every course to
identify accurately where critical resources are expended. It may well
be that these resources can be better used to improve the playing
quality of the course.
