Golf Course Maintenance Staff In Action

The picture above captures the golf course maintenance staff in action on a beautiful day while preparing the course for Men's District play on June 22. For special events such as this, the entire maintenance staff is put into action in order to prepare the course prior to the event or tournament. Since Men's District is comprised of tee times, the maintenance staff prepares all holes in consecutive order to stay ahead of play. While taking this picture I could not be impressed by the amount of manpower required to prepare the golf course for play on a daily basis. Since the maintenance staff does its best to work behind the scenes in order to not adversely affect play, most golfers are not able to appreciate the scope of the golf course operation. At times, the organization of all the equipment and personnel can be a daunting task. This can be especially true at a 27 hole golf course where shotgun starts and multiple starting nines are the norm. This picture only represents a portion of the entire maintenance operations. Seen in this picture are tee mowers, fairway mowers, rough mowers, green mowers, approach mowers, and bunker rakes. Not seen are green rollers, course set-up personell, intermediate rough mowers, aerifiers, sprayers, sand topdressers, sweepers, and various other seasonal pieces of equipment. The successful completion of these tasks requires significant training, scheduling, and detail-oriented equipment and cutting unit maintenance. When these actions are coordinated successfully, a wonderfully maintained golf course is produced. I snapped the serene picture below while looking back to the fairway from 7 White green.