[BrianL99]

I know, we don't need another thread to complain about golf course conditions.

Maybe a thread dedicated to solving, instead of complaining would be productive?

Here's my contribution:

Dear Mr. Craig and Mr. Leininger,

I'll admit to being a complainer about golf course conditions. It's not fair to just complain, without offering potential solutions.

Personally, I think we need ONE central umbrella for maintenance … or perhaps 2, one for Championship and one for Executive courses. I understand the complications of changing CDD operations and putting them in an entirely new business, so the challenge is to find an alternate approach, that's likely to produce the similar, if not better results, with a minimum of change to the existing infrastructure or responsibilities.

In the construction contracting world, we have "hold back" on most every sub-contractor's agreement. The Drywall company gets paid only 90% of their contract price, until we're sure everything is done properly and per code. They get enough of their contract paid to insure employees and suppliers are paid, but have to wait for some of their "profit", until the General Contractor is sure the work was properly completed.

With golf course maintenance, this is a tough approach, as a determination of "complete and proper" is a subjective conclusion.

So what to do and how do we fund the solution?

Herewith my "Fantasy" Golf Improvement Plan suggestion. It will cost the Championship course owners, zero dollars. It will cost the CDD's, zero dollars. It will cost golfers a mere pittance.

Beginning on July 1st and ending on June 30, a "bonus" structure is put into place, along with a "golf surcharge". The surcharge is $1/round on Championship courses and 50¢ on the trail fee/round on Executive courses. Total yearly revenue from the surcharge, will be approximately $1.2M for Championship courses and $1.5M for Executive courses.

What do you do with the money?

You pay BONUSES! $500,000 to the Championship golf course contractor who maintains the BEST course conditions, throughout the year. $300,000 for 2nd place, $200,000 for 3rd place.

In the Executive division, $150,000 for #1 and moving on down the line, to pay the Top 10, a significant bonus.

Or make it a $2 & $1 surcharge and double the payouts.

One of the critical components, is the plan has to run from July 1 to June 30th. That puts the contractors intent on winning a bonus, in the position of needing to work extra hard during the last 6 months of the program (January-June), if they want to win. Why do we want them to work harder during those months? Those months are high season, with heavy play and sometimes challenging weather conditions.

Be prepare to allow the contractors some discretion, if a course needs to be closed for a few days or a couple of greens need to be replaced with "temporaries", while specific problems are addressed.

Wait, you might say. We're back to a "subjective conclusion or rating system", aren't we?

No, there's a solution for that too and functionally, it's almost in place already. We use the online golf reservation system to quantify the quality of experience at the various courses.

Every time someone books a Tee Time, a "window" pops up and asks them to "rate" their golf experience and course conditions, the last time they played golf. The system already knows where they played, so it's simple to collate the data. Are there some logistical issues to work out with the "rating system"? Sure, but nothing insurmountable. (I haven't yet figured out how to use the "rating system", when one person books a large group of players.)

The other way to do it, might be to require Contractors to maintain at least a 75% "approval rating" in order to get paid their full contract amount, but I've always found that "bonus programs" are more motivating than "punishment schemes".

So when you're ready, just let me know and I'm ready and willing to help with the details and implementation.


Thank you

[Keefelane66]

What?

[fdpaq0580]

Gotcha!
So, how many courses, and how many courses per contractor? Let them provide and maintain their own equipment? Let them decide on treatments and provide products of their choosing?
Like having Massey cut and maintain 1/2 of my lawn while Dean's does the other 1/2. Best looking 1/2 gets a bonus.
Let me sleep on this. Something just doesn't feel right but I can't put my finger on it. ☺️

[BrianL99]

Originally Posted by fdpaq0580

Gotcha!
So, how many courses, and how many courses per contractor? Let them provide and maintain their own equipment? Let them decide on treatments and provide products of their choosing?
Like having Massey cut and maintain 1/2 of my lawn while Dean's does the other 1/2. Best looking 1/2 gets a bonus.
Let me sleep on this. Something just doesn't feel right but I can't put my finger on it. ☺️

Not exactly. I think overall, the contracts should contain "standards" that mirror USGA recommendations as to products, processes, equipment, etc.

As I've said before, I would prefer to see ONE entity, in full control, under the supervision of real professional agronomists. As TV has a long tradition of sub-contracting course maintenance to a number of contractors, I doubt that's about to change. I was simply looking for a suggestion that would maintain the existing infrastructure/process, yet provide a financial incentive for the good sub-contractors to excel and the poorer performing sub-contractors to become obvious.

At the end of the day, "customer/user satisfaction" should be the controlling standard ... I think? Instead of judging the playability/condition of the golf courses by what we see and read on Facebook or TOTV, let's run a community-wide Consumer Satisfaction Index (CSI), like hotels, automobile manufacturers and most every other business does these days.

We make it or manage it and you the consumer, tells us how we're doing and let us know where we need to improve.

It applies to most every other business in the USA, why not to golf courses in TV?

[Jayhawk]

Originally Posted by brianl99

i know, we don't need another thread to complain about golf course conditions.

Maybe a thread dedicated to solving, instead of complaining would be productive?

Here's my contribution:

Dear mr. Craig and mr. Leininger,

i'll admit to being a complainer about golf course conditions. It's not fair to just complain, without offering potential solutions.

Personally, i think we need one central umbrella for maintenance … or perhaps 2, one for championship and one for executive courses. I understand the complications of changing cdd operations and putting them in an entirely new business, so the challenge is to find an alternate approach, that's likely to produce the similar, if not better results, with a minimum of change to the existing infrastructure or responsibilities.

In the construction contracting world, we have "hold back" on most every sub-contractor's agreement. The drywall company gets paid only 90% of their contract price, until we're sure everything is done properly and per code. They get enough of their contract paid to insure employees and suppliers are paid, but have to wait for some of their "profit", until the general contractor is sure the work was properly completed.

With golf course maintenance, this is a tough approach, as a determination of "complete and proper" is a subjective conclusion.

So what to do and how do we fund the solution?

Herewith my "fantasy" golf improvement plan suggestion. It will cost the championship course owners, zero dollars. It will cost the cdd's, zero dollars. It will cost golfers a mere pittance.

Beginning on july 1st and ending on june 30, a "bonus" structure is put into place, along with a "golf surcharge". The surcharge is $1/round on championship courses and 50¢ on the trail fee/round on executive courses. Total yearly revenue from the surcharge, will be approximately $1.2m for championship courses and $1.5m for executive courses.

What do you do with the money?

You pay bonuses! $500,000 to the championship golf course contractor who maintains the best course conditions, throughout the year. $300,000 for 2nd place, $200,000 for 3rd place.

In the executive division, $150,000 for #1 and moving on down the line, to pay the top 10, a significant bonus.

Or make it a $2 & $1 surcharge and double the payouts.

One of the critical components, is the plan has to run from july 1 to june 30th. That puts the contractors intent on winning a bonus, in the position of needing to work extra hard during the last 6 months of the program (january-june), if they want to win. Why do we want them to work harder during those months? Those months are high season, with heavy play and sometimes challenging weather conditions.

Be prepare to allow the contractors some discretion, if a course needs to be closed for a few days or a couple of greens need to be replaced with "temporaries", while specific problems are addressed.

Wait, you might say. We're back to a "subjective conclusion or rating system", aren't we?

No, there's a solution for that too and functionally, it's almost in place already. We use the online golf reservation system to quantify the quality of experience at the various courses.

Every time someone books a tee time, a "window" pops up and asks them to "rate" their golf experience and course conditions, the last time they played golf. The system already knows where they played, so it's simple to collate the data. Are there some logistical issues to work out with the "rating system"? Sure, but nothing insurmountable. (i haven't yet figured out how to use the "rating system", when one person books a large group of players.)

the other way to do it, might be to require contractors to maintain at least a 75% "approval rating" in order to get paid their full contract amount, but i've always found that "bonus programs" are more motivating than "punishment schemes".

So when you're ready, just let me know and i'm ready and willing to help with the details and implementation.


Thank you

[P A Paul]

How much of the solution is monetary vs talent vs weather vs equipment vs know-how vs attitude?

Throwing money at ineptness is a governmental solution. Rewarding real success is capitalism at its finest.