2025 Numbers to Know: Making the shift

Briggs Ranch (Texas) director of agronomy Bill Weller has been around the game of golf his entire life.

He played in high school and college and has worked in golf maintenance since the beginning. Weller graduated from Rhodes College and attended law school. After passing the bar exam, his interests changed, and he returned to golf.

Similarly to how Weller’s passions shifted, so will the golf maintenance industry shift from manual-driven to tech-driven labor. 

Weller believes the industry will see advances in equipment, equipment monitoring, labor efficiencies, data and beyond. “That’s going to be a big one with GPS monitoring, some of this other stuff, our labor should become more efficient,” he says. “Tracking labor will be more efficient in finding ways to improve our day-to-day operations.”

With technology, superintendents will be made aware of issues on the course before they see them with their own eyes. “Some of these new systems can tell you when something’s going wrong before you’ve even visually seen something on the golf course,” Weller adds.

One challenge associated with technology includes initial costs and learning. 

“The upfront cost of multiple weather stations, satellite imaging, a lot of that stuff is very expensive,” Weller says. “I think initially it’s going to be kind of hard. It depends on how it all shakes out. But some of this new equipment, some of this new more electrically based, more computer chips … I think there is going to be a learning curve with that. So, I think, there will be challenges.”

As technology evolves in the industry, Weller says he believes the ideal employee will change and staff numbers will drop 25 to 30 percent. “We’re shifting more to finding the personalities that can be successful in your system, the way you run things, and trying to help them excel and move on,” he says. 

At the San Antonio-area course, Weller and his crew have performed demos with multiple autonomous mowing units. They plan to implement robot usage soon. 

Weller is excited about the future. He spends his free time and winter months learning about trending technology to prepare himself.

“Do some classes,” Weller suggests. “I’ll check out research, usually in the winter when we’re a little slower, I’ll get a little bit more time to go through and do agronomic planning, do some research. When I get periodicals, I’ll scan through them, and if there’s something pertinent, I’ll read it. I think the most important way is to stay in touch with your fellow superintendents, even if it’s someone that has a totally different point of view than you. I think that’s also important. You don’t always want to hear the same opinion every single time.”

Kelsie Horner