Maintenance Mondays

Today was a great day and the course improved!  We were able to mow, verticut, topdress, brush, and roll all the greens.  We also got 16 holes treated with pre-emergent weed control and ground close to 30 stumps.  We then opened to a busy tee sheet at 2:00pm for member play.  

Mondays among many superintendents and the USGA  are commonly referred to as "Maintenance Mondays".  As the name implies, it's a great day for maintenance.  Many "must do" tasks can not be performed when the course is open for play or without some delay to the start of play.  These tasks are typically scheduled for Mondays when many private courses are closed for all or much of the day.  For many years and to this day, we rely heavily on Monday golf outings to help provide revenue.  This is a slippery slope because much needed maintenance is deferred to make room for these outings.  It's critical revenue on one hand, but a significant blow to course maintenance on the another hand.  There are expenses incurred in prepping for an outing that would otherwise be allocated to the much needed maintenance that is best done when the course is closed.  For an outing, we allocate 6-10 staff for greens mowing and course set up (shifting hole locations, tee markers, and other details).  Shotgun starts are the norm which means getting all staff off the course between 9:00 and 10:00 usually.  The 5-6 hour round that's typical of an outing takes away 75-90 hours of course maintenance time at average summer staff levels.  Furthermore, the course is occupied with 60-120 golfers, many of whom have a "renters" mentality.  When we get pushed off the course for an outing we focus on tennis courts, clubhouse grounds, practice facility, and other tasks that keep us from disturbing play and/or getting hurt.  We make the most out of these situations to get critical work done, but lost time on the course is never regained and the aftermath of an outing creates additional work for days ahead.  I wish my relationship with Monday outings was better than it is.  It's impossible to quantify the real impact they make to the bottom line when you factor in all the hidden costs.  They may help the bottom line, but course conditions would improve without them (provided any lost revenue could be made up somewhere else).  There are 27 Mondays between May 1 - October 21.  16 of those are outings and 3 of them are holidays when we are open for play.  The other 8 Mondays will be very productive days for us.  

Practicing for next week with our new toy