E is for essentialism

Operations change every season due to product and equipment availability, staffing, resource allocation and goals for the organization. What do you need more of? What can you do without?

In 2014, Greg McKeown wrote a book titled “Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less” and it became a New York Times bestseller. With more than 2 million copies sold, people are seeking to understand what is necessary and what is not, and how to act on that understanding.

Every day, superintendents and the staff try to run operations in the best way possible. Bouncing through the “everyday” is great but it is essential to evaluate the big picture. What are the long-term ways the team can save time, money and energy?

Cody Sander, superintendent for the North Course at Wilmington Country Club in Wilmington, Delaware, put a brushstroke on what many people in the industry need — more support. “Whether that be from membership, or your management company or a single owner, support in what we do is essential,” Sander says.

Critically, that support starts with the superintendent. How?

“Support comes from good communication: being able to explain your needs, your wants and how they are going to make things better,” Sander adds. “Support from your team and your family is essential, too. It’s long hours and tough days and it’s very hard to do it by yourself.”

One superintendent told Sander that everything in this industry comes down to time, money and people. “If you have the time to do it, can you afford to do it and do you have enough people to do it?” Sander says. “You need people that believe in what you are doing and who are going to help you do it.”

Jake Scharmann works as assistant director of golf course maintenance at Sun City Summerlin in Las Vegas, Nevada. It’s a public facility with three 18-hole courses owned by a nonprofit homeowner’s association. “What we need most is mainly one simple thing —time,” he says.

Tee times are prioritized over uninterrupted hours for maintenance. “We are blessed to have an ample crew and operating budget,” says Scharmann, “but our first tee time is typically 20 minutes before sunrise and golfers are on the course until 20 minutes after sundown. The course is only closed on Christmas Day and for three weeks for overseeding in October. We could use more time to execute the many cultural practices that are very hard to complete when golfers are on the course.”

Damon Hitti, superintendent at Weissinger Hills Golf Course in Shelbyville, Kentucky, could use more time. Specialty equipment would be helpful at the popular municipal facility, too. “We do a lot of tree-cutting. If we had a stump grinder, we don’t have to hire someone and we can do it when we’re ready,” Hitti says. “It’s more time because it gives us a more flexible maintenance schedule.”

When Hitti moved away from the private sector, he was determined to maintain Weissinger Hills to the same high standard but with different resources. For example, he oversees a much smaller crew. He saves labor by rolling more and not changing cups as often. “If they are not wore out,” Hitti says, “we are not going to spend the time when we could do something else.”

Weissinger Hills also had to move to electric mowers. The units, though, can’t get through the tees for all 18 holes without being charged. Mowing tees became a two-day job that developed into a blessing.

Hitti has an employee with communication challenges, but she does an excellent job taking care of the tees. The surfaces are now her responsibility. This helped Hitti realize something else he could do with less of — control.

He took it further. Discussing the details of a task with an assistant, he told him, “I want to give you responsibility,” Hitti says. “You don’t have to ask me about making a job more efficient. I trust you to make the best decision to use whatever equipment we have to get the job done well.”

Communication, trust and development are essential. Hitti communicates with the general manager and they cooperate. Trust in the training, safety lessons and the camaraderie of the staff to support each other. Find that sweet balance between influence and autonomy. “That was a step for me to let go of some control,” Hitti says. “I am giving the staff more responsibility to make decisions. I am working on that. I have to quit being a control freak.”

Hitti has been at Weissinger Hills for 10 seasons and knows there is an element of risk to making changes, depending on circumstances and owner expectations, even if the operation will be better in the long term. “If we know what the expectations are, we have to do that,” he says. “If it is something new, something we are driving, then the risk is higher. We calculate the risks and keep our eyes on the goal.”

Taking risks

Scharmann took a risk that worked out when he reorganized the crew. The maintenance department fields calls to address issues that are on the course property but adjacent to backyards. “We created a separate crew that only works on landscape,” Scharmann says. “This has reduced the strain on the golf course crew and lets them focus on the grass instead of shrubs.”

There’s a good tradeoff to caring for the property in this way. “Since the homeowners own the courses and live here, they are keenly invested,” Scharmann adds. “I enjoy working for a company that thinks about more than the bottom line. For me, it’s not about prestige or finding the highest-paying job. It’s about working where I feel comfortable about why things are done.”

Aligned values are a tremendous benefit and even more essential during difficult times. At Wilmington Country Club, a full-service, 36-hole private club — complete with a historic orchard where the members can pick fruit! — Sander and the team continually refine their work practices.

They hosted the BMW Championship in 2022 after a tornado caused damage in 2020, toppling 300 trees in a matter of minutes. That resulted in abundant renovation work to prepare for the tournament when staffing was already low due to the pandemic. In addition to the cost of labor, equipment and products currently cost more, but Wilmington Country Club has been focusing on essentialism for years.

Some of the changes are due to sustainability efforts, as the property is an Audubon Certified Cooperative Sanctuary. Specifically, they reduced push mowing by acquiring a smaller riding mower to navigate tight spots around the clubhouse and they began triplexing greens. They also stretched the life of older equipment, partially due to supply-chain issues.

For labor, Wilmington Country Club emphasizes quality over quantity and takes good care of its employees. They invest heavily in interns and contact them when openings arise. Data drives many of the club’s maintenance decisions.

“To decide what we are going to do for our aerifications, we perform different tests for organic matter,” Sander says. “When levels of organic matter are pretty low, we don’t need to be as aggressive as when the numbers are high. We have the evidence to support that.”

Wilmington Country Club was an early adopter of the USGA’s GS3 smart golf ball, collecting greens data and reviewing it to guide practices moving forward. “We have a grounds standards document,” says Sander, and they use that as a discussion point for expectations and the metrics where people are happy. “We are not just guessing with what we think is going to be best.”

The team discovered they were hitting their numbers relatively easily. “It used to be that we would mow and roll the greens every day,” Sander says. “Now, we see when they are running fast so we change our rolling and mowing schedule. That’s less stress on the plant and extra hands that we put somewhere else.”

That’s doing what is essential and maintaining standards.

“Have an open mind. You may not have enough people to do things like you did 10 years ago, but that may not necessarily be bad. You may not need as many products or the same cultural practices,” Sander adds. “I don’t want to say it is 100 percent adapt or die, but I don’t think anything is ever going back to how it was.”

Superintendents are also becoming more creative with how they fill positions, understanding that formal education is something that is not entirely essential.

“Most of us are natural problem-solvers, it’s our personality,” Sander says. “People are doing a great job, and a lot of new ideas and practices will come out of the shift this industry is going through. It takes intention, it takes commitment, but if you are willing to be supportive of these changes, you can be positive about anything.”

And when you figure out what you really need, please share your thoughts — write a book! It can become a bestseller.

Lee Carr is a northeast Ohio-based writer and senior Golf Course Industry contributor.