[Papa_lecki]

Originally Posted by BrianL99

I played golf with a guy today, who's worked in The Villages golf operation, for over 10 years.

He said something to me, that may help explain why some courses are better than others.

He said:

We need maintenance people who actually consider what they're doing, try to do a good job, and "not just check off the boxes on their list".

So what follows is pure speculation. I have no information, either way. Read it or don't.

There are different ways to write contracts and hire sub-contractors. If I were to lump all labor contracts into only 2 categories, I would put them under "Task Based" or "Performance/Results Based".

A) IF the contracts to manage the golf courses in TV are "performance/results based", the task the company was hired to perform, would be to "maintain the golf course using all available means, to insure the course is always in the best possible playing condition and consistent with other similar and/or competing courses in the general area" (some words to that effect). If you don't meet the expectations, you don't get paid.

B) IF the contracts to manage the golf courses in TV are "task based", the contractor is being hired to "1. Mow the fairways every 2 days. 2. Mow all greens, 4 times per week. 3. Apply fertilizer every 90 days. 4. Aerate greens once each season. 5. Mechanically rake all bunkers once per week." (A list of tasks and frequency to perform them).. In which case, as long as you "check off all the boxes", you get paid.

Managing turf at a golf course, is not simply a "task based" operation. The needs change daily. The schedule changes, at the whim of the weather. Sometimes, you don't need to fertilize or kill weeks for 3 months ... sometimes, you need to kill weeds most every day. At Southern Hills Plantation in Brooksville, the greens were punched (small tine) every month. Some courses don't need or want to do that. It's an on the ground, site-specific decision.

There is no "one size fits all" for managing turf at a golf course ... even courses that are located right next to each other, have different needs, based on a myriad of factors.

Supposedly there was an article in today's newspaper, about the conditions of the Executive courses. I'm going to try to find it, now.

Great post - so true.