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 try and put 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 cost. 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 proven 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 devise 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.