Conventional wisdom might say golfers will cut you some slack if your golf course looks a tad ragged, considering that your maintenance budget was probably slashed. It would be a nice and polite gesture for golfers to sympathize with superintendents over this matter, especially in this time of financial upheaval. I had a recent conversation about this topic with veteran certified superintendent John Miller, who also happens to be the LPGA tour agronomist. But Miller says if a course’s maintenance budget has been cut to $700,000 from $1 million, the golfers playing that course still expect it to look and play like a million bucks.
They don’t care that a superintendent had to cut his maintenance budget.
What do you think? Do golfers still expect the best conditions — event though you don't have the money to pay for those conditions?
— Larry Aylward
3 comments:
I think Miller is correct. Golfers' expectations will not change. If they paid to play a course that has had a million dollar budget in the past they will expect that same level of maintenance when they play it again.
Some will understand, some will still expect flawless courses. The X factor here is are the fees to play going down, staying flat or going up. If they are up I would expect the course to be flawless.
Unfortunately, YES! I think that most golfers have no idea what a Superintendent's maintenance budget is. Then if they were to ask, the "My maintenance budget has been cut" answer would only sound like excuses to them. I really hate to sound so pessimistic, but that's the way I see it. Can anybody out there brighten my outlook?
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