Tom:
"Maintenance Meld" is really important and forwarding the concept particularly stressing the "unique" aspect would benefit many clubs and take the handcuffs off the beleaguered superintendents out there!
The "keep up with the Joneses" mentality of private clubs and upscale CCFAD creates a cookie cutter approach to maintenence that is counter productive to a sound "tailored for the property" maintenence paradigm. This is fostered by the equipment companies as well, when one area club buys the "newest, light weight, full floating head laser fairway mowers," and another clubs President plays in the member-guest he runs back to his own club to tell the board he has "the secret"! "We need the new Toro full floaters and our fairway problems are over"! It couldn't possibly be that the club that has the new mowers, has a great agronomy program and a budget that the superintendent has utilized to its maximum efficency.
If there is one thing I have learned from 20 years of involvement on Green committees there are 5 absolute dynamics that dictate the health and playability of a golf course, they are, in no particular order of magnitude;the weather, the playing schedule,adequate budget,compatible superintendent,a BOG with enough balls to support the superintendent.
The weather... one "lucky growing season" will extend the supers career by 5 years. The talent of the Superintendent is universally under appreciated by the membership.When the weather is favorable, the weather gets the credit for great course conditions, when it is not, "its the supers fault." A golf course is the most unnatural area in nature.Every maintenence task performed has a quantifyable life before it must be repeated to keep Mother Nature from reclaiming the space as her own. The growth rate of the turf varies with the weather conditions, so does cutting schedules,hand maintenence at the treelines,weed and pest control applications, ad infenitum.
Adequate budget... Given the variables that the weather creates, there must be enough 'cushion' in the budget to allow for the extra labor and chemicals needed when the weather throws the super a curve ball. A good policy is to over fund the labor budget on an annual basis and any unspent funds from a particular year can be moved to capital reserves for the next. New stairs,cart path repair,boundary fences,tree removal, root pruning,irrigation upgrades, the capital list is always endless. It is senseless to create a budget that causes the Super to worry more about spreadsheets than agronomy.
Playing Schedule... If there are endless outings on Monday, a tournament every other week, and 30,000 member rounds, then the Superintendent is being asked to be a magician,not a Superintendent. The interval betwwen tournaments, number of hours available weekly without golfers for "full metal jacket" maintenence is extremely important to the overall health of the golf course and the cummulative effect is enormous.
Compatible Superintendent..... His/her personal "snapshot" of the course is compatible with the history,design intent,and condition expectation of the membership. There is no point in the superintendent having an Augusta snap shot with a fescue membership or vice-versa.Personality is also vitally important, many clubs want a "yes" man in theory,but a "take charge" guy in the field. The most succesful Superintendents are as polished in the board room as they are knowlegable in the field.They can "fit" what they know is right for the golf course to the politics dujour, they are powerful lobbyists and recognize and enlist member allies with some clout.
Ballsey BOG..... If the previously mentioned dynamics are in harmony the last element is Board support. Waffling,nonconfrontational boards,meander through their tenures creating terrible long term problems for the club. Unpopular financial decisions are inevitable and the death of many maintenence programs is the "not on my watch" mentality, creating a mountain of deferred maintainence issues that eventually cost the club more than it should and sometimes frustrating a talented and compatible Superintendent to leave. Very dangerous dynamic.
All of these elements are part and parcel of successful "maintainence meld," while commonsensical in theory, it is really quite complex in practice.