Frustratingly evolving process

When I sat down to write this article, the goal was to impart my “veteran superintendent” wisdom regarding what I’ve learned over a couple decades of budgeting. However, I must be honest. I know that even before I sit down to complete the 2024 budget, it’s not going to be like any budget I’ve done in the past. I’m not sure my “wisdom” is worth much in this ever-changing arena of golf course maintenance.

I may have said this very same thing last year — and, in fact, I think I did — that this is the most unusual budget experience I was ever going to have. Even though this was quite true a year ago, that doesn’t make the statement any less true this year.

Why the unusual budgeting lately? And why am I feeling so much trepidation entering the 2024 budget experience?

I think the answer to the first question (and maybe part of the answer to the second question as well) comes down to the number of rounds played, how those rounds and golfers have affected so many of us in charge of golf course conditions, and how we’ve attempted to adapt to the increased play.

Packed golf courses have equated to labor issues and turf recovery problems. Through it all, we’re trying to maintain playability. All these things are majorly impacting our budgets.

The busiest three years on this golf course — as well as many golf courses around the region and, to a generalized extent, the rest of North America — have been the last three years. But that isn’t the whole story as to why the budgeting process has become so convoluted. We must dig a little deeper.

Let’s look at the factors impacting our 2024 budgeting process as well as our mindsets.

Overly crowded golf courses

Perhaps the biggest impact of heavy play has been the detrimental impact to turf. Golf courses are getting beat up. Both human and cart traffic are taking their toll on the long-term health of our turfgrass. Turf recovery has become a huge issue for many of us. Putting a dollar figure on turf restoration and recovery is not simple. Seed, fertilizers, biostimulants and a host of other things, including labor that will need to be added to our normal maintenance, must be considered for turf restoration and the cost of that restoration.

In addition, busy golf courses and longer golf seasons (the wonderful added joy of global warming) make restoring turf more challenging to accomplish. Our down seasons are shrinking. The months many of us devote to projects, restoration and even personal rejuvenation are also becoming busier.

When budgeting, we need to place a dollar figure on reviving our stressed-out turf. Lots of moving parts here. Determining what needs to be done, what that might actually cost and when the heck it can be accomplished can be a hair-pulling exercise.

Rising costs and inflation

This is the easiest factor to put a number to, but the simplicity of that fact disappears rather quickly when the number you need to put in is simply too large to fit into the budget. This too can be a round-peg-in-a-square-hole experience.

For the most part, budgets have increased in recent years. But they often aren’t increasing enough to account for the incredible spike in costs. If we haven’t raised our budgets accordingly to mirror price increases, we are selling ourselves short and making our jobs so much harder throughout the year trying to stay within an unrealistic budget.

Don’t sell yourself short. Make sure that number is a number that actually works.

The labor pool

Multiple factors are at play here: affording, finding and retaining required labor.

We’re all in the same situation. The labor pool is a beast. Even if you’ve come to a number that may work for the labor line item, that number doesn’t matter if you can’t hire and keep people.

The last two years have been extraordinarily challenging in keeping seasonal employees, especially 2023. Although more challenging than I can remember, I’ve managed to hire people. But keeping those folks from jumping ship one, two or three weeks into the summer has proved to be difficult. The workforce — and the mindset of that workforce — is changing before our eyes. Try one job for a bit and, if it’s not exactly what you had in mind or is a little too much actual work, well, try another.

The biggest tool we have in our arsenals as superintendents is offering a high enough wage so that we not only draw people to us but can keep them as well. Offering a competitive wage in comparison to other industries is crucial in this battle.

The difficulty of inventory

It’s one thing to reach your dollar figures in the budget for all the things you’ll need and are planning to purchase in the upcoming year. It’s something else if those things are simply unavailable or available at a date so far beyond when you might need them. This means you sometimes must get creative and find new solutions on the fly despite the cost.

I don’t know how many times this year I’ve had to scrap the initial plan to purchase something because it wasn’t available when we needed it and devised a Plan B. And trust me, Plan B always costs more.

How do you confidently budget for products that you don’t know will be available — or, if they are, when they will be available? Or, the other layer, what the price will be when you finally do get them? As quickly as prices seem to be rising throughout a given year, the cost of something when you are budgeting in November is unlikely to be the same when you go to buy it the following July or August.

Equipment repair has been particularly challenging for budgeting. Skyrocketing prices for parts and low inventory seem to be widespread throughout the industry. This doesn’t seem to matter if your equipment is red, green, orange or some other color. When something breaks and you cannot replace the part that broke, what are you supposed to do?

We have found ourselves in a situation this year several times where we had to have a piece of equipment picked up by the distributor because we simply didn’t have the means to order a part and fix it. The cost of this solution can be astronomical.

I hope I’m not offering too bleak of an outlook on the budgeting process. I’m just trying to be realistic and show some of the challenges we all face. In the end, you will have your dollar number and all you can do is piece together the puzzle as best you can.

Know the landscape. Know the pitfalls. Do your best.

Turn in the budget and get some sleep.

Winter is coming.

Ron Furlong is the superintendent at Avalon Golf Club in Burlington, Washington, and a frequent Golf Course Industry contributor.

Tartan Talks 87

The Yellow Pages. College spring break. One interesting story to describe the beginning of a golf course architecture career.

Kipp Schulties joined the Tartan Talks podcast to describe how an Indiana native established a successful golf course architecture firm that has flourished for more than two decades in the competitive South Florida market. His golf career journey begins with a college spring break trip to Florida while studying engineering at Purdue University. We promise there isn’t any partying in the story. We also promise you’ll likely recognize some of the names Schulties mentions.

Business is especially good these days as Schulties’s adopted home region has become the most active golf course renovation market in the world.

“Every golf club that I work at — and they are primarily all private clubs — they are all full, they all have a waiting list and they all have initiation fees now going through the roof,” he says. “They are making a ton of money and because they are making a ton of money, they are all trying to do projects. And there just aren’t enough contractors and resources to go around to support the desired amount of work.”

To learn about the whims and intricacies of executing projects in South Florida and hear the spring break story in Schulties’s words, download the podcast on the Superintendent Radio Network page of popular distribution platforms.

Course news

Cantigny Golf in Wheaton, Illinois, announced major renovation plans for its 27 holes. Construction at the 34-year-old facility will begin in June 2024, with nine holes scheduled for each of the next three years and all renovations projected to finish by summer 2027. Guided by architect Todd Quitno, work on the Roger Packard design will involve rebuilding and regrassing greens and tees, redesigning and renovating bunkers, replacing irrigation systems, and expanding the practice putting green. Quitno described Cantigny as “some of the finest public access golf in the country.” … Hunters Run Country Club membership in Boynton Beach, Florida, approved a $9.58 million renovation of its East Course. Construction is set to start in March. Kipp Schulties Golf Designs, Ragan Technical Solutions and Flynn Engineering are assisting with the project, which is expected to conclude ahead of the 2024-25 season. The East Course was most recently renovated in 2008. … Architect Chris Wilczynski returns to Forest Lake Country Club in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, to oversee a major facelift highlighted by a new driving range grass tee, a new 7,500-square-foot practice putting green, a new No. 1 tee complex, a new location for No. 6 green, and rebuilding and repositioning all fairway and greenside bunkers on Nos. 9-18. Wilczynski also has started a multi-year bunker renovation at the Country Club of Jackson in the Wolverine State. … Pebble Beach Company announced a partnership with Gil Hanse and Jim Wagner to redesign The Links at Spanish Bay. … Long Bay Golf Club reopened in August following three months of greens restorations. The Myrtle Beach Jack Nicklaus design now features TifEagle Bermudagrass and almost 110,000 square feet of putting area — up from 70,000. … Pawleys Plantation Golf & Country Club, another Myrtle Beach Nicklaus design is scheduled to reopen this month after a four-month restoration focused on greens and bunkers. … Tom Doak will design the La Zagleta Group golf project in Castellar in Spain — his first design in the country and second in continental Europe. … Another Doak design, Pinehurst No. 10, is expected to open April 3, 2024 — less than 15 months after construction started on Pinehurst Resort’s first original course in almost three decades. … Trout National-The Reserve in southern New Jersey unveiled routing established by Tiger Woods’ TGR Design. The course is a collaboration between Woods and MLB star Mike Trout. … Troon is now managing Salgados Golf Course in Albufeira, Algarve, Portugal, along the country’s Atlantic Ocean coast, as well as Starr Pass Golf Club, a 27-hole resort facility in Tucson, Arizona. … KemperSports is now managing Tidewater Golf Club in North Myrtle Beach — its first course in South Carolina — and Tanglewood Golf Club in South Lyon, Michigan. ... Black Desert Resort, a new golf course development in St. George, Utah, received Audubon International Signature Sanctuary Program designation.

People news

Ron Kirby died Aug. 17 in Copenhagen. He was 90. A onetime caddie, caddie master and maintenance crew member, Kirby became one of the most widely traveled architects of his time. The ASGCA Fellow’s golf course portfolio includes designs in the United States, Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, and South Africa. He founded his own design firm in 1970 with consulting partner Gary Player. He then partnered with Jack Nicklaus, overseeing all European projects for Nicklaus Design Services. Over his career, he also worked with Dick Wilson and Robert Trent Jones Sr., among others. … Longtime Florida turf pro Clay Batson is the first director of grounds at the new Soleta Golf Club in Myakka City, near Sarasota and Bradenton. A former scholarship golfer at Kennesaw State University and a passionate competitive fisherman, Batson worked previously at The Ritz-Carlton Golf Club & Spa Jupiter. The Nick Price design is expected to open in late 2024. ... The GCSAA announced the 40 turfgrass professionals selected to be part of the inaugural Women’s Leadership Academy. The event will be held Nov. 7-9 at the association’s headquarters in Lawrence, Kansas. … DJ Flanders, a 24-year Troon veteran, is the company’s new international division EVP. He takes over for Mark Chapleski, who retired in July. … Chad Hauth is the new sales manager for Advanced Turf Solutions. ... Linda Satter is the new key account manager at AMGUARD. The company also promoted Larry Lennert from regional sales manager to U.S. Turf & Landscape technical solutions manager.

Industry buzz

Corteva Agriscience added Floxcor specialty fungicide for turf and ornamental professionals in the United States. … Quali-Pro launched Prodoxaben, a pre-emergent selective herbicide featuring prodiamine and isoxaben as active ingredients. The company also now provides a 2(ee) recommendation of its Suprado insecticide for Bermudagrass mites control. … Prime Source rebranded and is now called Albaugh Specialty Products. The company also announced EPA registration of Ethofumesate 4SC Select herbicide for pre- and post-emergent control of Poa annua, plus broad-spectrum control of grass and broadleaf weeds. … SiteOne Landscape Supply acquired Pioneer Landscape Centers, a wholesale distributor with 35 branches across Colorado and Arizona — SiteOne’s eighth acquisition this year. SiteOne also introduced LESCO Three-Way LO, a low-odor, post-emergent selective herbicide. … Family-owned Stotz Equipment will now be the John Deere distributor in the Idaho, Montana and Nevada territories previously covered by C&B Equipment. … Syngenta announced the release of Acelepryn Xtra insecticide. ... Previously only available for online sales, Back Nine Boys, LLC, makers of Spray Caddie Golf Cup Covers, announced an agreement with Mattison Turf Works to distribute the Spray Caddie product line to golf course customers in Oregon.