Ask Thad: What’s your favorite part of opening the golf course every spring?
(Graphic: Golfdom Staff)
What’s your favorite part of opening the golf course every spring?
Bringing on a limited staff early in the season gives me the opportunity to do numerous jobs that I don’t get to do as the superintendent throughout the golf season. Some tasks are physically easier than others while others require some heavy lifting.
I love getting back to the reason I fell in love with the golf course maintenance business in the first place: hard work and a daily sense of accomplishment.
I love being on a mower. It doesn’t matter if it’s greens, tees, fairways or rough. This is the time I get to think about life and about planning my day. I can literally look in front of me and see all I must do, but still get to glance behind me and see all that I’ve accomplished. It’s the best metaphor for life I can possibly think of.
I still love cutting cups. Strategically laying out fair but challenging pin placements is a thinking person’s job. I enjoy the challenge and the continuity that comes from setting up a golf course. I plan easy, hard and “middle of the green” pin placements that are designed to make a golfer think their way around the golf course, kind of like a pitcher throwing different pitches that a batter must anticipate.
This is why I get so pissed off when a golfer takes a divot on a green. It’s disrespectful to the golf course and disrespectful to my daily planning.
My favorite part of the spring is when I get my full crew back. We have around 20 employees for our 27 holes. Returning crew members, new hires and full-timers that have worked all winter intermingling, getting to know each other and working toward a common goal is truly inspirational.
We work together like a family and all that entails, good and bad. Communication, teamwork and clear goals keep the maintenance machine running as smooth as possible. Here’s to the 2024 season, cheers!
The post Ask Thad: What’s your favorite part of opening the golf course every spring? first appeared on Golfdom.