Summing It Up Making the extra effort to help foreign workers feel comfortable in their jobs can pay off in many ways. The language barrier should be attacked from both ends—full-time staff should learn Spanish at the same time that part-time workers are helped with English. Teaching course workers to golf can improve job satisfaction and performance. Properties are not [...]
Summing It Up • Mixed signals are being sent about future U.S. immigration policies for temporary-visa workers from Mexico, a primary source of seasonal help. • Many club managers are now looking for new ways to find temporary help from other parts of the world. They are also renewing their efforts to attract more help from domestic demographic segments, such [...]
Summing It Up Open lines of communication between superintendents and club and committee members are essential for effective capital projects planning. Develop a written master plan that identifies short-range and long-range goals. Keep renovation and operations costs within your budget. Earmark about 10 percent of the annual maintenance budget for equipment replacement. Contract out major capital projects to experts, instead [...]
The “Super Super” and his progeny: Pat, Samantha, and Zachary Blum. Like many superintendents (myself included), Pat Blum literally grew up in golf course maintenance. In Pat’s case, he began at age eight helping his father, Paul Blum, while Paul was Superintendent at Wayne Hills CC in the Rochester, N.Y. area. And like many of us “sons of supers,” Pat [...]
Summing It Up Superintendents should fill up their gas tanks and equipment with fuel before a hurricane strikes. Contracts should be in place with reputable companies for generators and cleanup equipment before a storm comes ashore. One of the greatest ironies of catastrophic storms is that they can actually leave courses without water; having backup power and water sources is [...]
Summing It Up Management firms are frequently challenged to fix years of neglect at the courses they seek to add to their portfolios; if they take on the task, course and grounds expertise often holds the key to their ultimate success or failure. Many management companies see environmental responsibility as an emerging, make-or-break issue, and are striving to differentiate themselves [...]
Since its inception a little more than 10 years ago, Pilgrim’s Run Golf Club, in Pierson, Mich., has already earned a ranking by Michigan Golf magazine as a top-10 public facility, as well as accolades from Golf Digest and other publications as one of the country’s best, and most affordable, new public courses. And in 2007, Pilgrim’s Run will host [...]
Summing It Up Few believe that all-organic turfcare yields the same results as traditional methods—but there is still merit to trying to achieve a balance between the two techniques when possible. Pesticides are not organic. To forego them would mean a decline in course appearance. A “soil-first” approach can yield results through a balanced soil ecosystem. Don’t forget that all-organic [...]
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