External solution

It’s the end of another season. The irrigation system is winterized, snow mold protection has been applied, leaf collection is complete, and the seasonal staff has gone home. You finally have time to catch your breath and reflect on the successes and challenges of the past growing season.

What comes to mind? Was there a project that you started but weren’t able to finish? Did you find your to-do list longer than expected the week before the member-guest? Did turf loss or injury occur on a tee, fairway or green due to faulty irrigation that was only recognized after it was too late?

If you can relate to any of these scenarios, you’re not alone. During my tenure as a golf course superintendent, I personally encountered each of these situations.

After feeling defeated on multiple occasions, it left me wondering if there was another approach to course maintenance. Week after week, I watched the linen company, among other providers, service the needs of the clubhouse. This piqued my interest and led me to the use of contract services to help meet the needs of the property.

One early success story includes the use of a contractor to install and maintain the landscape plants around the clubhouse and throughout the golf course. For a rather affordable cost, the club secured a maintenance contract with an area landscape company. Curb appeal greatly increased, our maintenance team stayed focused on daily conditioning and member satisfaction increased with these more manicured spaces. Contract services are a potential way to benefit the budgetary bottom line while also helping fill the gap between labor supply and demand.

Throughout 2022, I often heard of maintenance operations with positions that went unfilled because of the difficult labor market. This creates a significant challenge when we approach laborious tasks such as aerification. Plus, aerification often must be completed during a defined period of time and cause the least amount of impact to the event calendar. Combined with unexpected weather events, this can be a tremendous undertaking.

On multiple occasions, I found myself lacking the necessary equipment and personnel to work most efficiently. Fortunately, I was able to borrow a few key pieces, but that might not always be the case.

It might be best to contract all, or at least part, of the services pertaining to aerification. The coring and cleanup can be completed by a hired professional, leaving the maintenance staff available for topdressing, brushing and rolling. In the end, you can still achieve a high-quality product under the constraints of a shrinking labor pool.

I don’t envision the labor situation changing any time soon. This presents a challenge that few of us have seen before. Perhaps now more than ever we need to rely on our allied partners.

As you plan for the year ahead, I’d encourage you to consider the use of contract services to help lighten the load of your operation. While not every service may apply or be available in your market, I think you’ll find benefit employing one or more of those listed below. In some instances, a club might be willing to exchange membership dues with a member-owned business for services provided. At times, discounts can apply if a contractor can perform like-services among multiple golf courses in one city or region. This can be a good opportunity for collaboration among your colleagues.

Services for consideration:

• Cultural practices
• Liquid and granular product applications
• Aquatic treatments
• Irrigation repair
• Tree removal and stump grinding
• Landscape maintenance
• Pool maintenance
• Snow removal
• Building maintenance
• Custodial services

When approaching this subject with an owner, a general manager or another club official, I’d encourage you to do your homework and come prepared with justification for each recommendation. For example, a $5,000 irrigation repair might sound expensive, but if your team doesn’t have the bandwidth to take on such a repair, it could become the best money spent all year if your turf health is in jeopardy.