A day in the life...

Grass Clippings

Brian J. Stiehler, CGCS, MG

Golf course maintenance and Landscape are two departments that require a background of science, art, communication skills and a little bit of luck at times.  We’ve learned to take nothing for granted because we know things can change at moment’s notice.  The departments largely go unappreciated because the work, for the most part, is done behind the scenes and we’re comfortable with that.  There is no questioning the importance of our department because it is these 25 men who can most impact your experience on the golf course each day and the same folks trusted with the care and protection of the Club’s largest asset.  If you were curious about how one of our days is scheduled, this will give you some insight and I hope you find it interesting.

Everyone knows it’s an early start to the day.  If you aren’t an early riser, maintaining a golf course isn’t for you.  The team starts arriving to the Club at 6:00AM.  At 6:25AM, we start the daily meeting/briefing.  At this meeting, Assistant Superintendent Chad Stockton, confirms attendance and walks the team through their morning job tasks.  It’s also a time to mention anything unique about the day and review necessary safety standards if required.  No later than 6:35AM, it’s out the door to Mow like a Champion!  Our 6:30AM start time was determined over the years as the time that allows us to stay ahead of 8:00AM tee times but also not wake up the neighbors too early.  I am also not a proponent of mowing at night, when it’s avoidable, because it presents numerous safety concerns, both for members of the team and the turf.  A prime example would be if one of our triplex mowers had a hydraulic leak, there would be no way for the operator to spot it, resulting in a lot of dead turf.  However, when we have early morning shotgun starts, we can start as early at 4:30AM if needed.  From our perspective, 8:00AM shotgun starts are far from ideal because it doesn’t give us enough time to prepare the golf course the way we’d like to see it presented.  It’s also important to keep in mind that we have team players who drive as much as one hour to get to work each day.  This means that for an 8:00AM shotgun, they get essentially no sleep. 

This is our take from the famous Notre Dame football locker room sign, 'Play like a Champion Today,' that I had made locally.

As I said, mornings are reserved for those jobs that cannot be done around play or need to be done to present the golf course for play that day.  Green and tee mowing, course set-up (moving hole locations), fairway mowing, greens rolling, any kind of spraying and approach mowing are all examples of jobs done before golfers tee off.  The first set of jobs, on average, take from 6:30AM until 10:45AM.  When finished, the team comes back to the shop, where they clean up their equipment and look at our daily job board to see what their afternoon job task will be.  Before lunch, they will fuel up their morning equipment (so it’s ready to go the next morning without delay) and load up what they will need for the afternoon.  At 11:00AM, we’ll take a 45-minute lunch break until 11:45AM, when it is back out on the golf course.  At this time, our mechanic team checks every single mower that went out that morning and makes any needed adjustments to be sure reels and blades are sharp for the following day.  Earlier that morning, they checked all the equipment that is to go out that afternoon.

This simple white board in our break room serves as a place we plan the day and communicate job tasks. 

In a perfect world with unlimited staff, all jobs would be completed in the morning.  Working around golfers is the most unproductive time to accomplish objectives. For every half-hour of work that gets done, we’ll spend the same amount of time waiting on golfers.  We always appreciate those who wave us on, not bothered by the noise.  But we understand the reality and do our best to be productive, while staying out of the way of play.  Sometimes, however, it’s unavoidable.  There are some facilities that do a great job of managing this.  For example, at a prominent Atlanta Club, tee times are blocked from 12 noon until 1:00PM.  This gives maintenance a 1-hour gap to work in.  At this Club, there is no excuse for golfers and the maintenance staff coming in contact with each other.  At Highlands CC, the afternoon is saved for jobs that can be done in and around golf.  Some examples include rough mowing, filling divots, flymowing, pushmowing, edging yardage markers and sprinkler heads and so on.  When we do afternoon work, we always start on hole #18 and work our way backwards.  This prevents the feeling that maintenance workers are “following” one group.  It means you will only encounter workers on a particular job task, once.  However, different job tasks require varying amounts of time.  This means the guy mowing rough will be slower than the pushmow crew.  Therefore, even though each started on #18, you may encounter the pushmow crew on #14 and then the rough mower, who’s moving slower on #16.  This makes it seem like there is more staff out there than there really is.  This is a very hard thing to manage without working in a tee time gap, like mentioned above.  On top of that, Highlands CC is a very compact piece of property, making if feel like there are more workers than there really are.  On weekends and tournament days, we do not work on the golf course those afternoons, leaving it for the members and their guests.

Your maintenance team will work until 3:00PM each day unless there is something that requires overtime.  This could be something like hand watering on a hot, dry day or working late to take something off the table for the next morning.  Or, mowing roughs so we accomplish our goal of making it around the golf course twice each week.   Once the afternoon tasks are completed, the team returns to the maintenance facility, fuels, and washes their equipment so it is ready for another day. 

To cover weekends, the maintenance team is divided into two groups.  Each group works every other weekend.  This means that each member of the team works 12 days in a row and then gets 2 days off during the season.  However, weekends only require morning job tasks and not afternoon job tasks.  It’s best on these busy days to give the golf course to you, the golfers, without any afternoon disruption. So, while it sounds like a lot of days to work in a row, the team is usually sent home by 11:00AM on weekends.

At the practice facility, under the leadership of James Paschall, he or Sam will work from 6:00AM until 4:30PM or 5:00PM.  As the department leader, I do my best to limit the amount of overtime that is worked because it can have a major impact on the budget. This area that is my responsibility operates slightly different than the golf maintenance department.

As you can see, experience has shaped the way we operate after 24 seasons at Highlands CC.  That doesn’t mean we have it figured out.  We are always looking for ways to improve and the primary way of doing that, is receiving candid feedback from you.  Maybe you have observed a way we could operate more efficiently or have a way of handling this at your other clubs.  If that’s the case, I’d love to hear from you!  My door is always open and I’m always excited to hear your thoughts.  Never hesitate to stop by, pick up the phone or drop me an email!  That’s why I am here.