Getting a Handle on Golf Course Agronomy
In our experience, agronomy present some of the biggest opportunities for cost containment and delivery of immediate value to our clients – without sacrificing customer experience.
Golf course agronomy typically presents some of the biggest opportunities for cost containment without sacrificing customer experience.
Staffing Insights & Misconceptions
Work to ensure that appropriate staff is hired and trained in each of the critical areas necessary for maintaining golf course conditions, practice facilities and club grounds.
The golf course and superintendent is often the most revered person in the club.
This rock star status is certainly warranted because these professionals arguably work harder than anyone else on the team.
On the other hand, there can be serious misconceptions about golf course maintenance practices that lead decision-makers astray. Golf Course Agronomy is a complex subject matter about which many board members, golf course owners and operators do not have deep understanding.
Because of this fact, they are often resigned to “taking the superintendent’s word for it”. When courses of action are outlined, or problems arise, the superintendent is assumed to be correct by default. Many people in the room just don’t understand what she is talking about – certainly not enough to push back.
Of course, this fallacy can be dangerous for golf clubs – particularly those that are focused on optimizing their maintenance and agronomy spend.
When we investigate golf club agronomy practices, our team of expert practitioners often find that maintenance practice are indeed not optimal. Whether it’s chemical application schedules, overseeding and aerification timetables, staffing levels and payroll, and most of all procurement.
Our aim is to bring the superintendent and golf club leadership together onto the same page. Everyone needs to understand all sides of every decision, as well as all available options before costly or impactful decisions are made.
Factual understanding makes for better decisions and allows leadership to hold staff members accountable more realistically.
Cost Containment & Buying Power
Containing costs in agronomy is historically a virtual certainty when KPI begins managing a golf course. Between operational efficiency and improved buying power, year 1 gains push well into 6-figures.
From a buying perspective, the simple fact is that standalone golf courses cannot negotiate with as much leverage as a golf management company striking deals on behalf of dozens of clubs.
KPI Golf Management simply represents a much larger book of business to vendors.
Additionally, procurement processes can always be improved – especially for higher cost items.
- Is your Agronomy staff getting multiple bids from different vendors for all significant purchases?
- Are they shopping prices and products diligently, or are they going with the company they’ve “always used”?
- Are planning processes proactive enough to give buyers enough lead time to negotiate the best possible terms?
Agronomy and golf course maintenance represents a huge chunk of every club’s operating budget. An expertly conducted deep dive into this department alone always yields incredible results.
Golf Course Agronomy Resources
