"Why golf's toughest job is growing harder"

[David_Tepper]

From Brad Klein:

 https://www.firstcallgolf.com/columns/feature/2021-08-18/why-golfs-toughest-job-is-growing-harder

[John Kavanaugh]

Those of us who have been blessed to work outside ain’t bitching. Or are they?

[Tom Bacsanyi]

It would be the best job in the world if not for the golfers.

[Wayne_Kozun]

It would be the best job in the world if not for the golfers.

[John Emerson]

It would be the best job in the world if not for the golfers.

To piggy back off Tom. 


All superintendents…”the best golf course in the world is one without golfers”

[Scott Warren]

I played Robin Hiseman’s Czech Casa Serena course in 2010 for the media day of the Euro senior tour event it was hosting.


This is a course on the grounds of a 17th Century chateau painstakingly renovated by the owners of the Chinese technology company Foxcon. They fancied a golf course to play when they were staying there, so they hired EGD to build them one.


Suffice to say, this course might get less play than anything other than Gwest.


After the round, Robin, Adam Lawrence and I played an extra nine with the super and one of his crew. I remember them in the same breath as they enthused about how amazing it was to be able to maintain such an impeccable course, lamenting the futility they sometimes felt in their mission.


I can understand the crew at a course that does 40,000 rounds a year lamenting the issues of so much play just as I can imagine mowing a green that no one has played on since you last mowed it maybe lacking some purpose.


Ultimately, humans are programmed for problem-solving. So whatever situation we find ourselves in, if we can’t find an immediate problem to identify and solve, our brains will create one for us.

[Tommy Williamsen]

I have only respect for supers. Many places they are asked to work miracles with a small crew and low budget. Other places they have huge budgets and huge expectations.

[Tom Bacsanyi]

I have only respect for supers. Many places they are asked to work miracles with a small crew and low budget. Other places they have huge budgets and huge expectations.

I think one of the overlooked challenges among maintenance crews is access. Your budget is irrelevant if you have 200 golfers on the tee sheet. It's a huge rush to get the course set up, then maybe a rushed second job just ahead of play, then a bunch of busy work once play gets all the way around. No one wants to work split shifts or 5-6 hour shifts (thus missing out on hours) which would be optimal.

[Dave McCollum]

Thanks for posting, David.  I don't recall ever reading a more spot on golf course article.  I had my BS antennae elevated for every sentence and the buzzer never went off.  I'm not a Brad Klein fanboy, although I think I've read most of his books and journalism.  I think I'll reconsider.  That was great about an obscure topic.  And, BTW, the next time I'm in your corner of the woods. could we have a drink or a round, whatever is appropriate for for geezers like us.  I'd still like to play that Lincoln place.  Maybe with my son, or one of yours, who doesn't know shit about golf, but can hit an 8 iron 185.    [size=78%]       [/size]

[John Kavanaugh]

Do you guys realize that this is an article about how difficult the pandemic was on golf course superintendents?

[Tom Bacsanyi]

Do you guys realize that this is an article about how difficult the pandemic was on golf course superintendents?

That's a terrible summary of what the article is actually about. Read it again please.

[Alan FitzGerald CGCS MG]

It would be the best job in the world if not for the golfers.

To piggy back off Tom. 


All superintendents…”the best golf course in the world is one without golfers”

But then we'd bitch that we're bored as nothing is getting messed up, so theres no challenges.

[Kalen Braley]

Do you guys realize that this is an article about how difficult the pandemic was on golf course superintendents?

That's a terrible summary of what the article is actually about. Read it again please.

Tom,

I initially thought this was JK trolling again, but then I read the article after seeing your post, and what did he miss?

It was a very difficult job before...and got crazy tough with the pandemic for a variety of reasons, that I won't regurgitate here.

So what did I miss?

[Tom Bacsanyi]

Do you guys realize that this is an article about how difficult the pandemic was on golf course superintendents?

That's a terrible summary of what the article is actually about. Read it again please.

Tom,

I initially thought this was JK trolling again, but then I read the article after seeing your post, and what did he miss?

It was a very difficult job before...and got crazy tough with the pandemic for a variety of reasons, that I won't regurgitate here.

So what did I miss?

I felt the gist of the article is that COVID is just another layer on top of other structural issues. Anyway, the comment seemed like a drive-by troll job, thus my reaction.

[John Kavanaugh]

Kalen and Tom,


If I was trolling I would have mentioned the 600,000 lives that have been lost in the pandemic. Or the millions of occupations and businesses that may never return. If I was trolling I would have asked what if the worm was turned. If the virus forced people indoors instead of outdoors. Golf was strictly forbidden just like restaurants and movie theaters. Where would golf superintendents be then? Not reading Chef Boyardee whining because he might have to work 150 days this year.

[Tom Bacsanyi]

Kalen and Tom,


If I was trolling I would have mentioned the 600,000 lives that have been lost in the pandemic. Or the millions of occupations and businesses that may never return. If I was trolling I would have asked what if the worm was turned. If the virus forced people indoors instead of outdoors. Golf was strictly forbidden just like restaurants and movie theaters. Where would golf superintendents be then? Not reading Chef Boyardee whining because he might have to work 150 days this year.

Your concerns regarding the pandemic are valid, but I'm not sure why you had to drag Chef Boyardee into this. He's done absolutely nothing wrong. He's also a heck of a guy, a 4 handicap who prefers off-the-radar, untarnished northeastern Ross courses.

[John Kavanaugh]

Boiardi was a real chef who didn’t whine when he had to run his factory 24hrs a day during WWII.

[jeffwarne]

Boiardi was a real chef who didn’t whine when he had to run his factory 24hrs a day during WWII.

and sold his business for the equivalent of $85 million after the War ended.