1967 Maintenance Budget

[JMEvensky]

Someone sent me a 1967 aerial photo of my club(we moved in 1971).The club would have owned ~150 acres.The golf course,in Memphis, was all common bermuda and maintained to the same extent as most others at that time.IMMSC,there wouldn't have been any extraordinary maintenance issues.

A friend asked me to guess at the budget.I put the over/under at $75,000,all in.We're trying to find the records to see for certain.Anybody want to take a stab?

[Sam Morrow]

I think that might be a little high 40 years ago. Maybe more like 30-40k?

[J_ Crisham]

Memphis 1967:25-30K sounds possible when one considers rather low labor costs in this locale. Also this is prior to the era of heavy chemical applications. It would surprise me if this club would operate in a nonspartan fashion.

[Sean Remington (SBR)]

   I think you are in the ball park. Would be interesting to find out and see the line items. If your course was bermuda it would have kept the number lower still.

   I worked at a very highly though of private club near Washington, D.C. for 17 years. In 1983 the budget for maintenance was approximately $350,000. In 1999 the budget was approximately $1,100,000.

[Michael_Stachowicz]

I have a copy of the mid 60's budget and it is in the mid $40k's.  I wonder if there was a point (50's and 60's) where all maintenance budgets were close and then as the Augusta syndrome hit and the science of greenkeeping took off that the budgets began to differentiate depending on each club's desire for perfection.

[JMEvensky]

That's kind of what I was thinking.Unless one travelled,the only frame of reference was the course(s) down the street.Widespread TV coverage begets the maintenance arms race.

As an aside,a member asked me about the old course.I told him it was,among other things,maintained as every other course in town-frequently brown in the summer(unless it rained),very firm,and scruffy in places;probably identical to ANGC in 1967.He thought I was kidding.