With owners and operators facing rising costs in the face of falling revenues, it’s more critical than ever that courses look at the way they do business. One of the largest expenditures for any course is maintenance. Here’s how ValleyCrest Golf Course Maintenance Director of Business Development John Crowder, speaking at the recent Golf Inc. Conference at the Camelback Inn & Resort in Scottsdale, Ariz., looks at the changing role of the superintendent in controlling costs.
We’ve elected to go the superstar model. We pay our superintendents much more than the GCSAA average for an 18-hole superintendent. But we’re extremely demanding.
We learned the hard way that a superintendent is really not in the grass-growing business. He’s in the customer business. He’s in the member business.
When that mind-set clicks over — and some get it, but some don’t — he becomes much more valuable. He becomes a member of your management team, one of those four superstars running the property and he becomes a guy you can afford to pay more. But until that happens, he’s still part of the old way of doing things.
In terms of looking at the traditional model, what we have in our industry grown accustomed to requiring of superintendents and what we have allowed superintendents to say they need to do the job, there’s a disconnect there.
Another speaker, Don Rea, owner of Augusta Ranch Golf Club in Mesa, Ariz., urged operators to reward superintendents who work to hold down costs.
The best thing you can do is to involve the superintendent with whoever is running the facility, build a friendship with them. How many golf courses actually incentivize the superintendent by giving him a bonus if the golf course makes a profit?
The superintendent has the biggest budget, so if he’s under budget maybe he should get something. But does he also get something when the golf course makes money? Is he fully vested in the property? Because if he is, then he’s going to make different decisions, and he’s going to save money without you watching, because he cares about the facility.
That doesn’t happen by edict. That doesn’t happen because you tell him to do it, it happens because you’ve built a relationship. You know the names of his kids and you’ve driven the course with him three times a week. He knows when you’re telling him and you look him in the eye and you say, “We’re struggling right now.” So he saves a little bit more. Just subconsciously, because he knows it hurts you. Then he knows also that when the good times come, you’re going to give him a little extra money.
The relationship between you and your superintendent, if you’re the operator of that facility, is the most important relationship. Ultimately you will save money if he’s vested in it.
What’s your opinion? What kind of relationship is necessary between the owner or operator and the superintendent? Should a superintendent be rewarded for holding down costs?
