A low degree of maintenance is placed on difficult to mow, out of the way places. The 15thhole, Brandermill Country Club, Virginia.

The Economy andCourse Playing Qualityby WILLIAM G. BUCHANANDirector, Mid-Atlantic Region, USGA Green Section

THE PINCH OF inflation and thetalk of recession always have an

adverse effect on golf clubs. The budgetand course economy then become ofmore concern to members and to thepeople who earn their living with golf,such as the golf course superintendent,the golf professional, and the clubmanager. Because of member demands,those who are employed by golf clubsmust be involved in decisions concerningbudget tightening. These decisions arenot easily made, but each departmenthead can certainly find areas that canbe streamlined to effect savings in theoverall budget. Changes may be minor

because saving a little in several areasmay be more palatable to the member-ship than trying to make a sizeablesaving in one specific area.

Cutbacks are painful. Members growaccustomed to certain standards andexpect those standards to be main-tained. Although inflation has affectedthe member's home life, it seems incon-ceivable to him that "the club" couldsuffer in the same way. If "the club"needs more money or needs to cut back,surely it is because it is mismanaged,and not because of an inflation rate of18 percent.

Food quality, service, and attractiveinterior furnishings are the main attrac-

tions of the clu bhouse. The old furnish-ings, carpeting, and china can be keptattractive and clean without having tobe replaced whenever some influentialhouse committee member decides itshould be replaced. A somewhat similarsituation occurs in the golf course main-tenance operation. Machines breakdown, parts become worn and needrepair. That is a job for a specialist, atrained mechanic who can repair abroken item. A person who calls himselfa mechanic will simply replace thebroken item. He is a parts changer, nota mechanic, and the cost differential issubstantial. Clubhouse repairs usuallywork the same way. A good mechanic

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1980 1

Contour mowing of fairways can reduce acreage requiring frequent mowing while addingcharacter to the hole. The first hole, Mountain Ridge Country Club, New Jersey.

or repairman is essential to clubeconomy.

When club cut backs are dictated, thegolf course maintenance budget is thefirst to be examined. This is puzzling ifone takes the time to note that the golfcourse maintenance budget comprises10 to 15 percent of the entire cluboperation. The golf course, at themajority of the clubs, is the primeattraction for the members. People canjoin dinner and social clubs for diningand socializing, they can join anynumber of swim or racquet clubs if theywant to swim or play tennis, but thereare only a few places they can join toplay golf. How many situations do youknow of where the dining facilities werebuilt before the golf course? How manyswim or tennis clubs do you know ofthat have added a golf course to theirfacilities because of membershipdemands? I would guess very few, if any.The point is, plenty of areas in a club'soperation can be streamlined beforecuts are made on the golf course. Thecourse maintenance budget should bethe last to be examined - not the first.

2 USGA GREEN SECTION RECORD

Although the golf course operationrequires a significant amount of moneyto maintain a good playing surface,some clubs could definitely economizeif they would place more emphasis onmaintaining a quality playing surfaceas opposed to a vast expanse of mani-cured acreage that is better to look atthan to play over.

To PUT GOLF course maintenancein proper perspective, one need not

look very thoroughly into records ofthe past 60 years to realize that main-tenance of the playing surface hasgreatly intensified. I magine playingtoday on areas maintained with a sicklebar mower, equipment drawn by horses,and playing on courses without theimproved strains of grasses. Going evenfurther back, in July, 1776, when eachclub wrote its own Rules, Rule 12 at theRoyal Burgess Golfing Society, inEdinburgh, Scotland, reads as follows:"When your ball comes within four orfive club lengths from the hole to whichyou are playing, you must not mark, orcause to be marked, the direction of the

hole, nor must any person whateverstand at the hole to point it out or to doany other thing to assist you in playing."If you couldn't see the hole when youwere within five club-lengths of it,playing conditions must have beentough!

Golf course management, with thehelp of the USGA Green Sectionagronomists and the USGA's sponsor-ship of golf course oriented researchprojects, has made tremendous stridesin improving technical knowledge of theplaying surface. These efforts must becontinued, and more effort needs to bemade on conditioning a golf playingsurface rather than manicuring an arealoosely defined as a golf course. Moneycan be saved when this distinction isdrawn.

Maintaining a quality playing surfacerequires a substantial expenditure.Certain procedures must be followed.The greens, tees, fairways and roughshave to be mowed frequently. Basicmaintenance procedures have to befollowed. Greens, tees, and fairwaysshould be aerated each year, some areas

Mowing and spraying greens simultaneously. Regular spray equipment used with extra-longhose. Pine Needles Country Club, North Carolina.

more frequently than others. Equipmentmust be maintained and repaired, forthe golf course cannot be maintained ineven the crudest form without equip-ment. There are no shortcuts!

THE MOST CRITICAL of all theplaying areas is the putting surface.

No matter how much the economicsituation dictates cutbacks or control,the putting surfaces are not the places tosave money. In a regulation round, theputting surfaces will provide the areafor about half of a player's strokes. Theputting surface actually participatesmore since it is the target area forapproach shots and therefore comesinto play for approximately 75 percentof the strokes played in a regulationround of golf. Therefore, since approxi-mately 50 percent ofthe strokes are usedfor putting and approximately 25 per-cent of the shots are approach shots, itis essential that the green be conditionedas a putting surface, not merely as alanding area for approach shots.

Putting surfaces generally occupytwo to four acres of area on an IS-holegolf course. When they are well con-ditioned to provide a quality playingsurface, greens can be largely respon-

sible for the reputation of any course.A putting surface that is firm andprovides a keen, close-cropped sward ofgrass and a free, true ball roll can justifya reasonable amount of money beingspent.

To achieve quality putting surfaces,some of the procedures are:1. A close height of cut. To ensure a

close height of cut, championshipor thin bed knives are necessary ongreens mowers. These bed knives donot last as long as the thicker, regularbed knives. Because more frequentreplacement is necessary, the use ofthin bed knives is costlier than regularbed knives.

2. Frequent mowing is necessary. For-tunately, because of the relativelysmall area involved, mowing is notexpensive. Roughly three gallons offuel and six man-hours are involvedwith each mowing. This time varieswith the use of single or triplexmowing units. Daily mowing willprovide the best playing surfaces.Although more expensive, alternat-ing between walking single units andtriplex units can be done. Manytimes walkers are used on weekdayswhile triplex mowers are used on

weekends and, especially, in springand fall when labor is in short supply.

3. Vertical mowing is essential in con-trolling grain and thatch accumula-tion on the putting surfaces. Light,frequent vertical mowings areadvised. The triplex greens moweris an example of a multi-purposemachine when it is converted to avertical mower. It reduces substan-tially the time required to verticalmow. Most courses can verti-cutgreens in approximately the sametime the greens can be mowed. If thetriplex machine is used exclusively tomow the greens, then the light verticalmowing should be done at leastbiweekly.

4. Topdressing costs money! Buyingthe material or mixing your own andstockpiling it to age, or using a sandmaterial with no topsoil or organicmatter additive is expensive. Theavailability and cost of thesematerials will vary with location,supply and demand, and shippingcosts.

Topdressing is a critical operationin making a quality putting surface.A program of light, frequent top-dressings can improve an alreadygood putting surface. Many coursesuperintendents use a program ofapplying a light dusting of materialon greens every three weeks duringthe spring and fall, with great success.Some extend the program well intothe summer, if weather permits.

This program is not expensive,because the same amount of materialcan be used lightly five to six timesor twice a year applied more heavily.The real expense comes in labor -having the proper fXJuipment toapply the material, buying extrabedknives which wear rather quicklywhen frequent topdressings areapplied, and the time spent by themechanic in backlapping the mowingunits to keep them sharp. A programof this nature can only be carried outif the topdressing material can bekept dry. This may require a newshelter for storing the topdressingmaterial. The shed need not beextravagant; just good enough toprotect the material from theweather.

5. Aeration. The main expense inaeration is time and labor. This is anecessary expenditure. The onlytime aeration becomes extremelyexpensive is when it is not done. Byneglecting to aerate on certain soils,conditions could deteriorate to the

SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 1980 3

point where it is impossible to grow ahealthy plant. When plants are nothealthy and strong, more chemicalsand more labor are required tomaintain the grasses.

6. Chemicals are necessary for healthyplant grass growth, but their overusecan be expensive and detrimental toa good playing surface. In myopinion, many golf courses dependtoo much on chemicals. Some turfmanagers have begun to believe inthem as cure-aIls for their problems,and they overlook the basic opera-tions listed above. Preemergentcrabgrass control programs are acase in point. People become so con-cerned with the potential problemthat they forget that the main objec-tive is to provide a quality playingsurface. Because they fear crabgrass,they neglect aeration. Long beforepreemergent weed controls wereavailable, turfgrass specialists knewthat the best approach to weed con-trol is to grow healthy turf.

The preemergent dilemma hasbecome worse because some of thesematerials also control Poa annua.Therefore, when late summer pre-emerge applications are made to stopPoa annua germination in the fall,the fall aeration and overseeding iscancelled and two more importantbasic operations are omitted. Theoveruse of chemicals is wasteful andcostly. Pre-emerge herbicides re-portedly shorten the root system ofpermanent grasses, thereby makingthe area more susceptible to weedinvasion. Preemergence weed controlchemicals may cost clubs more thanthe prices indicate.

Fungicides are necessary on putt-ing surfaces, and the cost of a sound,efficient fungicide program is wellworth the investment. This itemshould not be cut to the point whereonly a curative program can befollowed.

7. Fertilizer and water. These itemshave been placed together for a veryimportant reason. They are bothessential to planned plant growth.For a quality putting surface, applyonly enough fertilizer to provide agrowth rate of the grass to keepapace of the traffic imposed upon it.Only enough water is necessary tokeep the grass alive - any more is awaste of money..

Improper use of water and fertilizeris mostly responsible for the declineof playing surfaces in the past 20years. Clubs that believe in the

4 USGA GREEN SECTION RECORD

philosophies that "dark green isgood" or "the greens must be softenough to hold a shot upon impact"are the clubs that could quite possiblyrealize a substantial saving in greensmaintenance by reevaluating theirpriorities. Should greens be beautifulin color but mediocre in playingquality or merely good-looking andof very good playing quality? If cut-backs are necessary, costs can be cuton portions of the golf course otherthan the putting surface. The areas"through the green" and "hazards,"as the Rules of Golf define them,bear close examination. The area ofthe course that is second to theputting surface on the priority listwould be the fairway. Fairwaygrasses should be closely mowed,lightly fed, and sparingly watered.

SOME CLUBS, in an economy move,'are greatly reducing the fungicide

program on fairways. They apply cura-tive rather than preventive fungicides,the rationale being that it is less expen-sive in the long run to overseed severelydamaged areas in the fall than to treatregularly with fungicides during theyear. One club dropped a $25,000 fungi-cide program in favor of a $6,000 seedbill. This, however, is not recommended.Studied fungicide applications arenecessary in a well-rounded manage-ment program.

Mowing large expanses of fairwayscan be very costly over a season. It ispossible that savings can be made bychecking with widths of your fairways.In my view, a landing area over 40 yardswide is generous, but there is littlereason for the entire fairway to be thiswide. The landing areas for the high-handicap players could be this wide,but fairways in the 225- to 275-yardrange could be narrowed so the low-handicap golfers have to work to bettercontrol their shots. Fairways may alsobe narrowed at the greens, and therough can be brought in tighter aroundthe greens. By eliminating areas pres-ently mowed as fairway, savings can berealized in fuel, labor, seed, fertilizer,irrigation, and equipment. The fairwayacreage reduction can be significantand the mowing requirement reducedwhen areas are mowed as rough once aweek or less as opposed to being mowedthree to five times a week, if they aremaintained as fairways.

In some cases, roughs can be main-tained at a slightly higher height of cutand mowed as needed. Several clubsreport savings when out-of-play areas

and areas that rarely come into playhave been completely removed from themaintenance schedule.

TEES ARE THE next priority item.They should be firm, level, and

closely mowed. Other than that, theycan be treated much the same as fair-ways. The frequency of mowing andheight of cut will be the most noticeditems on the teeing area. Fungicides andherbicides are good programs if budgetis adequate, but overseeding andmoderate amounts of fertilizer andwater should be budgeted annually.

Bunker manicuring is a tremendousexpense at some courses. This is adevelopment in the last two decadesthat came along at the same time as the"grass must be a dark, lush green to begood" philosophy. Many man-hourshave reportedly been saved on bunkermanagement by allowing the grassaround the bunker to grow to roughheight, by creating and maintaining alip as a result of moving sand down andaway from the bunker edge as opposedto frequent mechanical edging. Reduc-ing the raking schedule of bunkers toonce a week can help save money. Con-sider placing the burden of maintain-ing the bunkers on the players. Byreducing required maintenance inbunkers, savings could be significant.Complaints about not having a perfectlie in the sand should not carry muchweight if the club is pressed into cuttingmaintenance costs.

Off the playing surface, a tremendoussaving can be realized by purchasinggood, reliable, multi-purpose equip-ment that can save labor. Good equip-ment requires good care. A well-paid,well-trained mechanic who operateswith a good repair parts inventory canhelp save money for the maintenancebudget.

GOLF COURSES are notorious forusing part-time or seasonal help.

This is false economy because the golfcourse superintendent is forced to hireand retrain new workers annually. Ittakes several months to train a worker.Worker pride can save the club a con-siderable amount of money. Pride stemsfrom permanent employment.

The economy no doubt has had itseffect on golf course budgets. Allphases of the club's operations are beingscrutinized very carefully. For the sakeof the game of golf, we can only hopethat the flowers and extra manicuringwill go before the playing conditionsare sacrificed.