Editor’s notebook: Turf tech gawking

Want another reason to feel bullish about the future of golf course maintenance?

Ask a superintendent to show you their phone screen, computer desktop or digital job board. We promise you won’t get removed from the club grounds! We also promise it will be as enlightening as studying hole strategy, mowing lines or disease pressure.

While I toured Augusta Country Club for this month’s Enduring Greatness feature, the conversations with director of grounds Josh Dunaway and superintendent Dillon Scheer shifted to the digital platforms their team uses to produce elite playing surfaces in a Transition Zone growing environment. Dunaway and Scheer then enthusiastically showed me what a modern operation should resemble.

The Augusta Country Club turf management team uses digital maps and job boards to get employees to the right places, fleet management platforms to document the costs of operating expensive machines, and handheld soil moisture sensors and a software program to ensure no water is wasted. A different software program helps set hole locations, eliminating the angst of cutting a cup in the wrong spot. Organizing temperature readings and precipitation data into readable spreadsheets and charts educates members about what happens to playing conditions as warm-season turf species attempt to fully awaken.

Numbers resonate with the club’s leaders, as the department has added the bodies, minds and equipment required to satisfy lofty expectations. Talented people operating modern tools elevate Augusta Country Club to levels Hill Course architect Donald Ross and the Georgia club’s founders never envisioned.

“I think they would be shocked at the amount of money people spend on golf at this point,” Dunaway jokes. “I would probably say when I’m dead and gone 150 years from now, I’ll probably be equally as shocked.”

The average American course is projected to spend $1.137 million on non-capital maintenance in 2024, according to our annual Numbers to Know survey. The average was $651,392 when we started collecting industry financial data in 2012.

Rising costs mean increased pressure to maximize every labor hour, equipment usage and product application. A superintendent might be a trained turf maintenance expert, but that doesn’t mean owners, general managers, boards and committees will — and should — believe everything one tells them. Good luck selling stakeholders on the need for six-figure mowers without showing them why their current mowers are no longer worth the money and human hassle to keep them running. Technology helps superintendents concisely explain the cost of golf course maintenance.

Integrating technology into an operation also means understanding what technology is available in the current marketplace. We’re here to help with this task.

The second Golf Course Industry Turf Technology Showcase is Thursday, July 18. The event begins at 1 p.m. EDT and features eight 30-minute discussions featuring representatives from leading industry companies. Discussions will introduce and describe tech-focused solutions designed to help golf maintenance teams meet expectations and handle the demands of the heavy-play, tight-labor, exorbitant-cost era. The event is free and open to all. CLICK HEREto register. Can’t make the live broadcast? Replays will be available via our website, social media feeds and newsletters.

Technology doesn’t discriminate by budget. In fact, superintendents leading operations with meager budgets might have the most to gain from viewing digital solutions with an open mind. Consider the device in your hand or pocket. Smartphones allow amateur photographers to capture images once unimaginable without spending tens of thousands on photo equipment. Technology makes daunting progress possible.

We’re going to keep learning what’s on superintendents’ screens. We’re going to keep helping them learn what should be on their screens next.

Guy Cipriano is Golf Course Industry's editor-in-chief.