Maintenance budgets for ranked courses

[Anthony_Nysse]

I think we would be shocked if we knew how many of the courses in the second 100 have maintenance budgets that are or exceed $1.5 million.

Similar to the rounds of golf thread, location plays a MAJOR role in budget numbers. AZ, CA, PA, CT, NY, FL, TX would have much higher budgets than other areas of the country.

Anthony - what is unique about those states, and why are PA, NY and CT mentioned but not other nearby states like NJ or MA?  Is it labor costs?

Labor & cost of good, yes but also golfer expectations. The consistency, presentation & expectations I dare say are higher than any place in the country.

[Daryl David]

Back in the mid-oughts I did an annual survey of the member clubs of the Western PAnGolf Association. We asked about budgets and the like.  We left Oakmont out of the final report on maintenance budget because it would have skewed the averages and everyone would have known how much they were spending.  The number was well over $1M back then.

I remember that it was reported in the golf press in 1982 or 83 that Grand Cypress Resort in Orlando was the first course in the USA to have a $1 million maintenance budget.  Of course, it's highly likely that places like Augusta National were ahead of the curve, but they don't send out press releases to tell you about it.

Sounds about right. With inflation, that number now would be $3.25 million. Probably close to where they are at now. If they are not at the number, not sure they could compete with the other resorts.

[Thomas Dai]

Is it correct that due to low wages it's difficult to recruit lower level greenkeeping staff and if so to what extent is this envisaged to affect maintenance budgets in the future?
atb

[RKoehn]

There are a number of factors to be considered when comparing maintenance budgets between different courses.
- Acreage?
- Is equipment leased or owned/depreciated?
- Are areas around the club/course included, or golf course only?
- How many bunkers are there?


Here in Florida and around the country, the best courses have raised the bar in attention to detail:
- Walk mowing tees (walk mowing greens themselves is a given at top clubs)
- Walk mowing green surrounds, often 10-20 yards out to the fairway
- Daily rolling of greens, additional rolling of tees and green surrounds
- Edging tees and greens to maintain mow lines and limit grass encroachment
- Triplexing fairways (e.g. TPC Sawgrass, Seminole, several others), otherwise 5-reel mowers
- Mowing fairways 5x+ per week
- "Australian-style" bunker maintenance
- Heavy topdressing and/or sandcapping (sand is not cheap, but worth it)