Budgets and Bunkers: Budgeting for the Course

Budgeting is an essential part of any business, and the same goes for the golf business. Maintaining and managing a golf course is a costly and time-consuming task, but chances are that the golf professionals helping craft the annual budget are not accountants. Because of this, mistakes and miscalculations are made, some of which are minor, but some may be catastrophic. To familiarize yourself or get a refresher, here are the basics of golf course budgeting. 

The Golf Course Industry Today and Why Budgeting Matters

Following the great recession, some golf courses have prospered, some have changed hands, and some shuttered their doors, but every golf course had to change its business model. When the recession hit, many golf course superintendents had to learn how to do more with less. Unfortunately, as the challenge persisted, it became necessary for superintendents to draft out maintenance budgets and cut expenses for many golf courses. 

The cutbacks came in skipping or avoiding essential processes like aeration or overseeding. Years later, the responsibility for the golf course budget has fallen almost entirely to the superintendent. Some have found their groove as others have struggled to keep up. 

Maintenance & Management

Golf course superintendents all have their own way of doing things, but for budgeting, some fundamentals can not be skipped. For golf course budgets, there are three main expenses, each of which can be manipulated to perfect your costs. However, as each of these are an integral part of golf course maintenance, major cuts or changes in these categories can easily make or break a course. 

Labor

Recruiting maintenance staff is one of the significant challenges golf course superintendents face. If you let go of experienced maintenance employees and replace them with less expensive labor, it can have adverse effects on quality. The key is to keep your most valued employees, provide them an incentive to stay, and create a team you can trust. If you are lucky enough to already trust your team, start looking at how they are scheduled, how many hours they work, and their wage. 

Bunkers

The frequency of bunker maintenance will change because of a reduction in labor. A routine that has been found to work is to reduce the frequency of bunker raking so that workers will only need to rake bunkers twice or even once a week, and only those bunkers that have been disturbed will be raked. With this method, you can use fewer manhours and less labor per shift. 

Chemical Costs

Fertilizers, insecticides, and other chemical applications can run you a pretty penny. However, cutting corners with these applications can end up spending you more in the long run. Limiting your use of a wetting agent will lower your initial costs, but you pay more for the labor of hand watering. Just like the chemicals themselves, altering your application can be dangerous. Rely on results to decide what stays and goes, if you get good results from your agronomy program, maybe leave the chemical expenses alone. 

Better Maintenance Saves You Money

As we discussed the major expenses, you probably noticed a theme. Despite some of your major costs being adjustable, they aren’t avoidable. Whenever you have something that works, you should stick to it. If that isn’t an option, consider the domino effect of changing or adjusting this expense before doing so officially.

When your course is maintained correctly, not only does it show, but it keeps money in your pocket that doesn’t need to be spent on repairs or recruiting. DTE Golf® partners with your maintenance and management professionals and provides them with the resources they need to truly make a difference.

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