Sectional Management

A couple difficult growing seasons in a row are great for exposing the weaknesses in your management programs on the golf course.  Whether it is a re-evaluation of agronomic programs, confirmation that you are doing things right, or exposing the need to completely re-think your approach, many times there are changes that are needed.

This winter we are doing just that, tweaking some agronomic programs, tree root pruning in areas that turf suffers from tree root competition, and changing our philosophy in how we attack the management of our golf course.

For years,  our crew has been spread throughout the golf course.  Often times our crew has been assigned jobs that "start on #1 and finish on #18" encompassing one small element of the entire golf course.  This approach works, and is widely used, but has it's weaknesses.  Pride in work and ownership have been two areas that I have seen slip recently and I think it has its root in the fact that most of my staff does everything everywhere!  In many cases I have five or six people doing the same repeated task throughout the week and when something goes wrong, it becomes the norm to just blame one of the other guys!  Frustrating for sure, and with the recent difficult growing seasons it has come to a head.

To address this problem we are going to tackle the golf course a little differently this year.  We are going to a "Sectional Management" philosophy that will hopefully inspire our staff to take ownership in their work and at the very least create some accountability that will help in the efficiency of our management of the staff.  Here's how it will work...

We have broken the golf course up into four sections, and have included the clubhouse grounds and practice range as the fifth.  Each section will be the responsibility of two staff members (one for the clubhouse section).  This "sectional team" will have the responsibility of everything in their section, with the exception of large area mowing (fairways and rough), and chemical applications.  All of the green and tee mowing will be their responsibility.  They will tend to their bunkers and fix edges that need to be repaired.  They will be responsible for all of the "detail work" in their section.  Expectations will be thoroughly spelled out and will be constantly checked for quality.  The trade off for the employee is that, provided they are keeping up with their expected duties, they will have a great deal of freedom in how they go about meeting those expectations.  Autonomy and a sense of accomplishment will be their reward for doing their job well.  As a manager, the sectional approach will drastically improve my ability to efficiently manage our staff.  I will always have a "go to guy" for things I see on the golf course.

Training will be critical, along with establishing and enforcing our expectations.  If Ben and I do our jobs, the net result will be a more engaged, more efficient staff who provide consistantly better conditions on the golf course!

Because of this new philosophy and other off season changes, I am more excited about the upcoming year than I have been in a long while!!