Tag: greenskeeper

Budgeting Must Go On

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In the wake of COVID-19 business must go on, so too must budgets be developed and approved to give clubs and their managers a roadmap for next year’s operations. Here are five important steps to consider when preparing your 2021 budget. This article was authored by Henry DeLozier for Golf Course Industry magazine.

Budget preparation, even with its strict adherence to unvarnished numbers, is always an inexact and fluid exercise. It’s an amalgam of recent and projected performance in the context of long-range and short-term goals and objectives, all of which could be influenced by internal factions guided by self-interest. And that’s in the best and most predictable of times. Not exactly what budget preparers at clubs are currently facing.

In the wake of COVID-19, if you ask managers, directors and owners to forecast how their club will perform next year, you’re likely to get a range of answers, including what may be the most honest: “I haven’t the foggiest idea.” But as business must go on, so must budgets be developed and approved to give clubs and their managers a roadmap for next year’s operations.

How do you plan for the unknown? Here are five important steps to consider when preparing your 2021 budget:

1. Rely on a sound agronomic plan.

Savvy superintendents use their agronomic plans as a pilot uses a flight plan. The agronomic plan includes the superintendent’s clearly stated outcomes or objectives (destination) along with clearly defined processes, systems and procedures (altitude, speed and course).

The contents of a thorough agronomic plan include goals and objectives, a staffing plan and organization of management, fertility, arboreal and irrigation plans, and line-item budget analysis and descriptions of the financial components of the plan.

Describe the results you intend to achieve. Your plan paints a vivid picture of what you believe is possible and what results will be contingent on factors beyond your control.

2. Review the budget with your accounting manager.

Making sure your accounting manager fully understands the agronomic plan and gaining his or her support for your plans and how you intend to achieve them is essential to a successful budget any year. But current circumstances that may limit resources, disrupt supply chains and affect how your team operates on a day-to-day basis make this understanding and support even more critical.

Mix in members’ expectations for course conditions and there is every reason to think your 2021 budget will require more specific collaboration than most golf course maintenance budgets normally receive. Your accounting department allies are critical to a successful agronomic plan and its approval.

3. Use a decision tree to clarify options.

When faced with challenging problems in an environment where the unknown competes with the known, many managers rely on a process known as a decision tree to map the various risks and potential outcomes and ultimately predict their chances for success. Because of the uncertain times, superintendents need to show stakeholders what is needed and intended within the 2021 budget.

A note of guidance: a GGA Partners global study of members’ expectations amid the pandemic found that members are unsupportive of diminished or deteriorating standards of care and upkeep for their clubs’ facilities. Members and golfers will continue to pay dues provided that established standards of excellence are maintained.

4. Estimate operational costs based on historic norms.

Sound budgeting normally relies on a zero-based approach. However, multiple uncertainties require that superintendents use established norms for budget assumptions. From these historic patterns, one is wise to contemplate — and budget — line-by-line variances from established norms. Among the wild-card projections for 2021 costs will be labor, fuel, chemicals and pesticides.

Labor costs will remain uncertain as access to workers who want to work and whose medical conditions allow them to will influence the labor pool and one’s access to it. Chemicals and pesticides will likely show volatile swings subject to supply-chain influences and may require superintendents to rely less on just-in-time deliveries and maintain larger than normal on-site inventories.

5. Keep stakeholders informed.

Quarterly budget updates that identify aspects of the budget in need of a mid-course correction are recommended. Proactively gather and inform decisionmakers where changes are occurring and where adjustments are needed. Keep ahead of rapidly changing — and changeable — circumstances. All involved will appreciate your ahead-of-the-curve approach and make better decisions as a result.

Practice Areas and the Pandemic

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If you’re thinking about adding or enhancing a practice area at your course, here are some things to keep in mind. This article was authored by Henry DeLozier for Golf Course Industry magazine.

Searching for a silver lining to a pandemic is mostly a fool’s errand. But many golf courses fortunate enough to stay open during the last five months have found something for which to be thankful: Thousands of golfers and would-be golfers are discovering (and rediscovering) a love for the game.

In many places, their affection is being stoked by short-game practice areas that are introducing new players to golf and giving more experienced players a place to hone their games, all the while boosting incremental revenues.

Bradley Klein, a veteran golf travel, history and architecture journalist and Golf Course Industry columnist, observes that the role of short-game practice areas is evolving. “Time constraints were the initial impetus, but that’s changed of late.” He says the trend is toward “more fun, family-friendly” areas that also provide practice opportunities for serious golfers. “They also constitute efficient use of land.”

What’s more, in this era of social distancing, short game areas are a safe space for youngsters to learn the game while socializing and exercising, according to Jan Bel Jan, president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects. She believes the trend will continue to gain momentum. “Short game improvement areas provide benefits to seasoned golfers, promote a welcoming introduction to golf for adult beginners and help courses remain competitive with other area facilities,” she says.

Pinehurst Resort injected new credibility for areas dedicated to the short game and demonstrated its revenue potential when it opened The Cradle — nine holes, all par threes, measuring 789 yards and covering 10 acres — in September 2017. In the last three years, The Cradle has hosted more than 100,000 rounds while becoming one of Pinehurst’s most popular courses.

If you’re thinking about adding or enhancing a practice area at your course, here are some things to keep in mind.

Know your customer.

New practice, training and game-improvement facilities require planning, which starts with understanding the type of player you want to attract. What skill levels will you prioritize? What will be the hours of operation? How will you price access? Member surveys and information exchange sessions with golfers will help you better understand your target audience’s needs and expectations.

Don’t get sloppy.

“Serious design, with interesting greens contours and variety of tee shots” are keys to effective planning, Klein says. “It has to be run like a real golf course and not like a sloppy afterthought.”

Make it fun.

Jim Wyffels, director of operations at Spirit Hollow Golf Club in Burlington, Iowa, is an innovative thinker when it comes to making golf fun. Spirit Hollow’s Shankopotamus Golf Academy, which features TopTracer technologies, was designed with two goals in mind, Wyffels says. “The first was to create an additional amenity for our stay-and-play guests in the evening and during inclement weather. The second was to create a new revenue stream in the evening and during winter months that would target our local market. Our plan was to create a fun, game-like family atmosphere where all age groups and skill levels, including non-golfers, could be entertained.”

Keep your superintendent in the loop.

How will the golf course superintendent maintain the short-game area? Engage the superintendent to ensure design characteristics that can be efficiently and cost-effectively maintained. Concerns such as adequate turning radii, slopes that can be consistently cut and safely navigated by staff, and shapes that match existing terrain on the adjacent golf course are planning priorities. Bel Jan advises planners to be mindful of optimizing drainage, building putting surfaces to established standards and minimizing shade impacts to enable turf recovery.

COVID-19 really has no upside; it has wreaked havoc in unprecedented ways. But if a crisis of its proportions has encouraged more people to take to the course, and prompted golf managers and leaders to think more innovatively about amenities like short courses and practice areas, then it has left something of value in its wake.

Measure Twice, Cut Once

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Experts in the fields of economics, demographics and climatology tell us that recessions, housing booms, population shifts and catastrophic hurricanes are coming. They just don’t know precisely when any of their predictions will come true, exactly where they will occur or who among us will be affected.

Closer to home, in the business of golf course and club management, it’s also likely we will see irrigation system breakdowns, fertilization miscalculations and budget shortfalls. That’s why it’s wise to plan for what may well be the inevitable as well as the unknown.

Warren Buffett once observed, “Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.” In other words, before the benefits come foresight, a plan and action. With the optimism of the new year now beginning to blend with reality, it’s time to make sure we have our most critical plans in place.

Irrigation plans are fundamental building blocks for every golf facility manager concerned about course conditions. Sound irrigation planning ties directly to the standards of excellence that are part of the overarching agronomic plan. Irrigation philosophy, methods and frequency must support and be consistent with the intended turf conditions for the course. Through attentive practices in most jurisdictions, golf has become an even more diligent user of water as many facilities now rely entirely on recycled water. A sound irrigation plan provides for three important factors: matching water consumption to expected results, measuring water consumption to ensure under-usage whenever possible, and seeking new options for further efficiency where sensible.

Rain Bird’s Bryan Stromme encourages managers to establish realistic expectations for what the superintendent wishes to accomplish. Stromme emphasizes that the system infrastructure and the intended outcomes – turf conditions – must be aligned. He adds that “having individual sprinkler control is critical. The faster you can water, the more efficient your system will be for energy and irrigation effectiveness.”

Fertility plans are mission critical for most golf courses considering the high standards of care and upkeep demanded, as well as the advancing requirements of sophisticated hybrid grasses. The first step in developing a fertility plan is to determine the desired level of course conditions and the corresponding turf standard. While there is no “perfect” fertility plan, the key to the planning process is nitrogen supported by phosphorous. The best plan for each facility also prioritizes environmental impacts to the site.

Nick Kearns, director of greens and grounds at The Oaks Club in Osprey, Florida, says he begins with a review of the prior year’s results and executes biannual soil and tissue sampling on each of his two courses. “Our two golf courses react differently,” he says. “The Heron, the Bermudagrass course, requires routine nitrogen applications. When applying we try to use the BMP rule of thumb of a 50 percent slow-release blend. With the Eagle, the paspalum course, we very rarely apply a granular nitrogen product because it can lead to an increase in disease pressure. The products that we apply to the entire course are 99 percent potassium based with minor elements blended in.”

Capital asset plans are a top priority for golf course and turf and facility managers because of life cycle demands and the time required to sequester and reserve needed funding. Craig Johnston, a partner at Global Golf Advisors in Toronto, says, “Clubs with golf courses and sports fields have an enormous appetite for capital.” He points to three key steps for asset replacement planning.

“First, planners must identify every asset that requires replacement, from the water fountain to the irrigation system,” he says. “One should have a depreciation schedule that lists all current fixed assets, the initial cost of the asset and the life of the asset. Start with this list to take a current inventory of your assets.  Make sure that all assets owned by the organization are included on the list and any assets the organization has sold or disposed of are removed from the list.

“Next, establish the replacement dates required for each asset. Use the depreciation schedule to set a target date for replacing each asset.  Finally, identify the financial resources that will pay for the assets that must be replaced. These days that’s often a hybrid of capital dues, capital reserves, short-term debt and capital calls on the membership.”

This article with authored by Henry DeLozier for Golf Course Industry magazine.

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