Wake-up call?

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As you might imagine, over four decades in this business, I’ve worked out of and visited hundreds of maintenance facilities. When evaluating them for a club or a fellow superintendent, I cover the usual essentials: space, cleanliness, organization, comfort, utility, redesign and efficiency. But there is one qualification I’ve never shared until now.

The coffee.

Like fuel in the equipment, course maintenance can’t happen without coffee. My first cup of coffee was from a maintenance building. Every day, my first order of business in the morning is to find a steaming cup of joe.

You agronomic javaphiles know what I’m talking about.

There is nothing better than a freshly brewed cup of maintenance coffee. And just like at Starbucks, there are distinctive types and brews — both regionally and even within your own facility — depending on different ways of preparing it, different tastes, varying ingredients. But maintenance coffee is always the best at the club, particularly since the people in the clubhouse come in late enough that they can stop on their way to work for their first cup, which means “clubhouse coffee” is their second (and third) cup. Sorry, it’s just not as good as these super-special blends.

Office Original

Put it on the pot or pop in the pod. It’s there, it’s fresh, it’s the perfect first cup. And yes, I’ll have a second.

Breakroom Best

A required stop on my tour, I’m hoping for fresh, hot and abundant. Usually, it’s brewed in a hurry and the ingredients are strewn all over the counter. That’s OK. And it’s also OK if this is what I consider the “caramelized” version of coffee: that baked-on-the-inside-of-the-pot “local tank-mix” that fuels the crew.

Mechanics’ Magic

For the local specialty blend, find the technician. But do not pour without first asking permission. And don’t ask what they put in there. If you’re fortunate enough to be offered a cup, say thank you and enjoy.

As noted, my first cup of coffee was when I first worked on a crew. It was at Pinehurst, I was young, and it was early in the morning, so I made it palatable by adding milk and sugar. That’s how I used to take it, and I can trace the trajectory of my turf career through the coffee I drank.

When I was on the crew at TPC Sawgrass, coffee detail was assigned to Rags, our irrigation tech. His job was to make sure there was coffee available through the day, dawn to dusk, and to make sure it was made with potable water!

I really started enjoying the coffee “experience” while at Las Colinas in Dallas. I was more senior, which made the coffee taste better, but it really was because the best time of day to ride your course is what Bruce Springsteen calls the “lonely cool before dawn.” Armed with my first cup of the day, driving the course in the dark, then watching the sun come up over the fairways and greens was the perfect preparation for what was sure to be a busy, but rewarding, day.

Hands down, no argument, the best coffee of all was in Miami. Most of my crew were Cuban, and to them, coffee was a religion. A “demitasse” (think Dixie cup) of espresso — a single shot of Cuban coffee — was an inexplicable taste sensation. Even better, alongside one of the maintenance facilities was a small stand of sugar cane. We’d cut a stalk, stir it in the cup to sweeten the shot, then suck and savor the sharp mix of coffee and sweetness.

When I moved to the Northeast, it was coffee “regular” (it varies around the country, but I was back to milk and sugar), with a plain bagel and a schmear. I was never a big donut guy but appreciated the guys who stopped at Dunkin’ to shock the system with a hot cup and a bomb of sugar.

Like water to a fish, crews can’t live without coffee. What better fuel to handle the green committee meeting or prepare for the Senior Women’s Weekly Four-Ball? And when there was a big tournament, I’d order a “Black Eye” — a cup of black coffee with two shots of espresso, sugar to taste. The effects wore off about the time we got the course back to normal.

To the aspiring young assistants out there, learn how to make and savor a good pot of coffee, and keep it coming all day long. To you bosses, it’s part of your job to teach the newbies the secrets of your “barn’s” specific brew.

Just don’t let me catch you using my special mug.

Tim Moraghan, principal, ASPIRE Golf (tmoraghan@aspire-golf.com). Follow Tim online at Golf Course Confidential at www.aspire-golf.com/ or on X at @TimMoraghan.