Course Expectations What Do Golfers Demand? |
| Why is Augusta so great? Why doesn’t our course look like that? Is the grass really greener on the other side of the fence? |
| Golf course superintendents hear these questions with surprising regularity because golfers who watch events such as the U.S. Open, or the Masters want to know why their own courses just don’t look as good, or why someone else’s course “appears” to be better. It’s like comparison shopping! |
| These meticulously manicured courses are spectacular aesthetically, and for playing professionals. But they are courses, so far as golf course superintendents are concerned, that often raise unrealistic expectations. |
| Clubs hosting these major events have months, if not years, to prepare. And in the end, the championship conditions are temporary. So what’s realistic, and what do golf course superintendents think? |
| “Golfers’ expectations are often not realistic, but they are understandable given the examples seen weekly on tour or during other televised events,” says P. Stan George CGCS, of Prairie Dunes Country Club, Hutchinson, KS. |
| The expectations come from golfers with a wide range of handicaps, who represent clubs at the high and low ends economically says George, who hosted the 2002 U.S. Women ‘s Open. |
| “The membership understandably and predictably now expects similar playing conditions on a daily basis. Our fairway, green and bunker maintenance programs have been elevated this year to accommodate these expectations. I agree that the membership that pays the bills on a daily basis should be provided with a golf course comparable (within economic means) to that provided for players of a tournament that lasts only a few days,” he suggested. |
| George does this by bridging “the gap by hiring and retaining quality staff, rearranging staff to increase levels of maintenance prior to the first group in the morning, by intelligent equipment purchases, by member education through newsletters and one on one communication, and by understanding that Mother Nature makes possible some expectations and renders unreasonable other expectations.” |
|
But
dealing with unrealistic expectations often takes a seasonal twist. |
| “In the spring and fall here in the Midwest, I often hear compliments about course conditions and some members wonder why the golf course cannot be in this condition throughout the summer. Education again plays an important part in my position as superintendent. If the summer had the 78-degree days and 50-degree nights that are prominent in the spring and fall, I could certainly deliver those conditions year round. Unfortunately, 95 degree days, 72 degree nights and a double digit wind average equal adequate playing conditions, to be sure, but not the premium conditions found during the remainder of the year,” he asserted. |
| In Ken Mangum’s opinion, it takes several visits to a course before you are familiar with it and the first few times, you just don’t notice all the things that may not be right. |
| “Often you are a gracious guest and are just happy to be there and have fun. When you invite a guest to ‘your club’ you naturally want everything to be perfect and impress your guest. Many golfers travel the ‘member-guest’ circuit and see other courses at their best. The same thing happens with televised golf events that travel around the country and play at the best times of the year at each course,” said Mangum, CGCS, director of golf courses and grounds, Atlanta Athletic Club. |
| “Augusta is no different. We see it in its prime each spring. If you could see it in June-August, you would come away with a very different impression. It has great history and closes when conditions are bad. I love it when a member says ‘why can’t we be like Augusta’? He doesn’t understand that this means closing in the spring and opening up after overseeding in the fall.” |
| However, Mangum agrees, golfers’ expectations continue to rise. “Somehow they seem to think that a ‘perfect’ golf course will improve their game. They tend to blame every bad shot on the course. Others just want to come to the course and see nothing but beauty, serenity and impress the guest they entertain. As long as they will provide the money, time and resources, we are happy to provide these enhanced conditions. I think we have just about reached the limit on conditioning.” |
| Dave Fearis, CGCS, who has spent 30 years as a golf course superintendent, is now a turf and ornamental product specialist with PBI/Gordon. He too, doesn’t think golfers’ expectations are realistic. |
| “Probably a decade ago, golfers expected good greens. Then it progressed to good tees, then good fairways, and now good rough. Maybe the word ‘perfect’ would be a better description than ‘good,’” he suggested. |
| “A high budget country club in the Kansas City area had given the golf course superintendent extra money to spray the rough (one to two passes) with fungicides. Then the golfers decided that wasn’t good enough and they expected the rest of the rough to be perfect. Remember this is a predominantly bluegrass rough in Kansas City where summer time temperatures often reach the mid-upper 90’s. The golfer’s perception is that money can control Mother Nature.” |
| There are differing opinions. Jim Moore, USGA director of green construction education, says “although many might disagree with me, I believe most golfers today are much more aware than they used to be of the tremendous effort that goes into preparing a course for a major championship. |
| “As a result, I believe most golfers realize it is unreasonable to expect their own course to offer conditions on a daily basis that rival what they see on television on the weekend,” Moore stated. |
| “However, there are three areas of every course that golfers do expect to be at least near-tournament quality all the time – greens, bunkers, and the way they are treated by the course staff. As a result, these are the areas every course should focus on, even at the expense of other areas of the course if necessary. Although the greens might not be hand-mowed and the bunkers might not be hand-raked, smooth, healthy greens and manicured bunkers will please golfers of all caliber. Combine this effort with a genuinely courteous staff and even the lowest budget course will attract plenty of players.” |
| So where do all the pressures come from for a heightened level of maintenance? The board? The general manager? The members? Our experts agree, it varies. |
| “Most of our ‘enhanced conditioning’ is driven by our mission statement and our board. I would not call it pressure. We have made a conscious decision to achieve these higher standards and are aware of the cost. You always have some members that have different levels of expectations, some higher and some lower,” Mangum says of the Atlanta Athletic Club. |
| “From strictly a standpoint of playing quality, low-handicap players are the most demanding,” Moore suggested. “From the standpoint of overall course appearance, most of the pressure comes from upper management including committees. And, it should be remembered that a great deal of pressure comes from the superintendent. |
| “In many, many cases, the superintendent’s goals for the course in terms of both playing quality and overall appearance are inexorably linked to the superintendent’s personal and professional goals. Many times these goals exceed what the superintendent’s employers are willing or able to fund which in turn can result in a great deal of friction and job dissatisfaction,” Moore explained. |
| And as we know, money isn’t always the answer. |
| “It has been my experience that a relatively few vocal members, mostly well intentioned, create the greatest pressure to meet a heightened level of maintenance,” says George. “The general managers I have worked for, by and large, have been a voice of reason and moderation regarding member expectations. The greatest danger, I believe, is for the membership, or a portion of a membership to believe that money can fix any problem (perceived or otherwise) that exists on the golf course. Money is not always a sure answer to challenges involving people, nature, equipment and living plants.” |
| Sometimes, personal crusades override everything else as the expectations rise through the chain of command from members to committees, to the board, to the general manager and ultimately the course superintendent. |
| “For example, it might be that the green speed is too slow,” outlined Fearis. “Usually this complaint comes from the lower handicapped players. Even though in most clubs, these players represent a very small percentage of the total golfers, they seem to carry a lot of weight, mainly because of their golfing ability. Other complaints could be about height of rough, course design features like tree and/or bunker placement, color of tee markers and/or ball washers, etc. |
| “Other problems arise when discussing the structure of the green committee. |
| Unfortunately, committees think that they are the final decision-makers when in actuality they should only make recommendations to the board. Also, their composition should be made up of golfers that represent the entire golfing membership. Unfortunately, they end up being a group of golfers that represent special interest groups that want faster green speeds, new cart paths, more water features, lower fairway mowing heights, more trees, etc. As a rule most of their requests center around these heightened maintenance levels,” Fearis asserted. |
| “When the member’s request or complaint, which has gone through the green committee, reaches the board level, you have another problem. The boards don’t want to say, ‘No’ to any member or group of members that have a request. They are afraid of losing members and thus losing dollars. Because there are too many golf courses and not enough golfers, golf has become very competitive. Country clubs that once had waiting lists are now struggling. The competition for outside events has reached a new height. In Kansas City, one of the Catholic church’s charitable events was held at a Jewish country club.” |
| Ah, the vicious cycle…members expecting perfect conditions that require heightened maintenance with budgets being lowered or frozen because of dwindling funds. The problem is that many who advocate heightened maintenance don’t realize what that requires…or sometimes even means. |
| “Many times, advocates of heightened maintenance have very little information of what it would take, for instance, to increase green speed by one or two feet,” George suggests. |
| “I am in wheat country, and demanding heightened levels of maintenance with little regard for economics, or agronomic consequences is a little like the land owner demanding that the tenant grow a wheat crop that will yield 70 bushels of wheat per acre every single year (70 is an exceptional crop, a more realistic average is between 30 and 50 bushels per acre). |
| “It doesn’t matter about disease, insects, lack of rain, too much rain, unusually low temperatures, unusually high temperatures, equipment issues, personnel issues, etc., the demand is 70 bushels per acre,” he opined. |
| “In such cases, the superintendent must educate the membership or members as to the possibilities of accomplishing such goals over the long term, and help establish whether the end justifies the means,” he concluded. |
| In Dave Fearis’ mind, much of it hinges on how well the course superintendent has educated members. This, Fearis says, includes: |
|
Taking
the green committee chairman, club president, board members, general
manager, golf pro, etc. to superintendent meetings where a subject like
green speed is discussed. |
| Making sure that all the board and green committee members receive trade publications like Boardroom Magazine, U.S.G.A. Green Record and G.C.S.A.A. Golf Course Maintenance. |
| Taking your green chairman and/or green committee member, board member to the G.C.S.A.A. International Conference and Show. This would enable them to better understand the golf course superintendent’s job. If any of these individuals go to that conference with their golf course superintendent their registration is free. |
| Constant communication by the golf course superintendent to the golfing membership through the club newsletter, club website and postings in the men’s and lady’s locker rooms, pro shop, bulletin boards, etc. about golf course maintenance practices. |
| A golf course maintenance building open house. Most golfers have only been in the golf course maintenance building in order to get out of the rain. Send out invitations to all the golfers about the open house. Bring a portable bar down to the maintenance building and have a brief description of what each piece of equipment does, the equipment’s date of purchase and its cost. |
| Have a lawn seminar presented by the golf course superintendent. Tie it in with a lunch or dinner at the club at a reduced price. Structure the lawn seminar to tie in the golf course’s maintenance practices to golfers’ lawns. |
| Education definitely is a factor, so too is money and the fact that many people think that with enough money, anything is possible. Listening to Jim Moore, it’s not. |
| “Even the wealthiest course will experience disease problems, suffer from climatic extremes, and impact the environment. In fact, since the wealthiest courses are most likely to ‘push’their courses the hardest agronomically, they are often the ones that will suffer the most during extreme climatic conditions,” Moore suggested. |
| “In other words, while those that want the higher levels of maintenance might well be aware such programs are expensive to implement, they are often unaware that money can only push nature so far, and sometimes She gets even in spite of the maintenance budget and superintendent’s best efforts.” |
| So there are many issues superintendents face everyday – environmental quality and requirements, dwindling budgets, finding quality staff, equipment needs and course architecture. |
| Will the expectations change in the future? Good question! |
| “For 15 years, I have been saying that higher expectations will surely change, and maintenance practices will swing back toward the more reasonable category, largely due to economic necessity,” said George. |
| “However, I have yet to see these changes. Expectations at all levels of clubs continue to increase. I still believe that, eventually, the economics of maintaining courses at such a high level will make it more and more impractical to do so on a large scale, resulting in a very acceptable level of playability but without the anticipation of perfection.” |
| Fearis doesn’t believe the expectations will change unless the “economic conditions continue to deteriorate. |
| “Many golfers think that money can buy or change Mother Nature. Only if these golfers either spend all their inheritance or lose the money that they made in the stock market when it was booming, will they realize that they can’t afford these heightened levels of maintenance. In my travels, I see many golf courses, private and public, experiencing difficult times. Rounds of golf are down, and country clubs are losing members. Every week I read in trade magazines about country clubs going bankrupt and/or being sold for development. The only golf courses I see not suffering in the private sector are those that are the very upper end ones. The rest of them reflect that saying that you hear used repeatedly in the country club industry, “If that board of directors managed their businesses like they manage this country club, they would be bankrupt,” Fearis commented. |
| “The cost could be significant if golf courses fail to meet heightened expectations. Decreasing revenue for golf courses and the consequential and necessary lowering of budgets is obvious, creating the inevitable downward spiral. From a superintendent’s view, it sometimes seems like a rock and a hard place – increase maintenance but do not increase expenditures accordingly. If you don’t find a way to do it, someone else will,” George added. |
| “The golfers will go to a course that meets their needs,” Fearis asserted. “This might be another country club or an up-scale public course. There are too many courses and not enough golfers. The golf business (including country clubs) has become very competitive. You can have a golf operation that has a good pro and pro shop, a good restaurant, but if the course is not in excellent condition, the golfer will go elsewhere.” |
| Publisher's final thoughts |
| It’s a catch 22. The competition for golfers is tremendous while clubs have to meet their demands to maintain or grow their membership. As we’ve seen, the issues superintendents face are many and there’s little indication the expectations of golfers is going to change much, at least in the near future. |
| Competition among golf courses is but one of the many issues private club face today. In the second part of this three part series, we’ll address “green speed” and what that means for golfers, course superintendents and of course, private clubs. As we’ll learn, speedy greens mean as much to golf, as speed does to the Indy 500. |
| At least, that's the way I see it! |
| What's your opinion. If you wish to respond to the Publisher's Perspective, or other BoardRoom articles, contact Publisher John G. Fornaro by email at john@pcma.net. |
| John Fornaro Publisher |