BUNKER-TO-BUNKER… Inside Golf writers have their say!
By David Newbery
NO, I don’t think that abolishing the role of a greens’ committee/director is the answer although I’m sure there are many superintendents and/or greenkeepers who would answer the question in the affirmative.
Most golf clubs, not all, employ skilled individuals who have the knowledge and qualifications required, but superintendents are often weighed down by someone who doesn’t know the first thing about agronomy and what’s needed to maintain a golf course.
I once had a course super tell me he didn’t want a schoolteacher or an electrician telling him how to ‘suck eggs’.
“I mean you wouldn’t allow a child to run the school tuckshop, would you,” he said. “Just give me the equipment, a budget and the responsibility to do the work.”
Of course, no one enjoys being micromanaged. That fear-based management-style doesn’t motivate anyone.
Also, a superintendent/greenkeeper doesn’t want pedantic club members complaining about the condition of the course, which happens a lot.
Then again, anyone who runs a successful business understands the value of customer feedback. It can be difficult to balance the expectations of a pennant player versus a casual player in regards of what makes a great golf experience. And that’s the rub of the issue.
A greens’ director’s role should be the link between the members and the superintendent and vice versa.
An astute golf club will hire the best candidate available and then let that person, within reason, get on with the job … and that’s exactly the way it should be.
By Peter Owen
A friend once told me the best committee he’d ever been on was made up of just two people. And it worked even better when the other one was away. The point he was making seems lost on many golf clubs, where the size of the board often matches that of ASX Top 100 companies.
Golf clubs, generally, shouldn’t need a lot of governance and oversight, particularly those with a team of professional officers, whose expertise in the field is usually far greater than any of the board members.
So I’m not averse to a suggestion that the number of golf directors be reduced. Just not greens directors!
A golf club’s most important and most costly asset is its golf course. Without it, there would be no golf club. And the better it is, chances are the more successful the club will be. A good course attracts not only members, but also visiting social players whose dollars are always welcome.
I’m not suggesting that a greens director should have much of a say – if any – in determining the number of bunkers on a course, the height that grass is cut on the greens or fairways, or the purchase of fertilizer. That’s not their role.
But a good greens director can act as an essential liaison between the course superintendent and the board, can provide feedback to greens staff from members about the playability of the course and, when appropriate, can be a champion for the greenkeepers at board level when decisions are made about spending additional money on equipment, staff or course reconstruction.
By Michael Court
IF you’re on a committee, it is nigh on impossible to enjoy your regular weekly round of golf anyway.
There’s bound to be some ‘nark’ there wanting to ‘buttonhole’ you to tell you what they think should be happening and to complain about the bunkers and the lack of sand in them . . . or politely ask you to actually get rid of that bunker before their next game.
Seriously! That happens.
Most golf clubs members want to have a whinge about something . . . so why not their greens’ committee?
There are more 20-plus markers in our golf club than single figure markers, so I guess we have to listen to them . . . occasionally.
You can almost tell which greenkeeper has decided on the pin placements at our club and sometimes it is definitely someone who doesn’t play the game – and maybe never has.
Frankly, a lot of courses only have four, and sometimes less, places where they can put the pins on Medal days on each green anyway; so occasionally they are in a spot where it absolutely impossible to lag the putt even close to the hole.
If there are enough complaints, it never goes there again (remember that day they put the hole in the front right of the seventh? Impossible!) You never forget that and mention it every single time you play that hole.
No, I think there is definitely a place for greens’ committees. They just need to ensure they play the same course everybody else does.
Our course superintendent tries to have a regular Saturday game with members. It can’t be to improve his golf because they drive him mad with suggestions on what he should be doing to the course.
He’s been doing the job for 30-plus years; so if he doesn’t know what he’s doing by now, well, he’s probably gone deaf.
By Michael Davis
I never cease to be amazed how much ‘hand’, perceived or otherwise, members of greens’ committee have at the vast majority of golf clubs.
It also baffles me that in retirement, someone who might have had a good (maybe even stellar) career as a doctor, lawyer, accountant or business man, suddenly becomes an expert on turf management.
It seems they instantly know better than the course superintendent who is professionally trained, ‘lives and breathes’ the golf course and, more often than not, works ridiculously long hours seven days a week.
Yet he has to hanker to every whim and wish of the greens committee, most of whom cannot even keep their own front lawns looking reasonable.
Seriously, it is a joke and absolutely absurd that green committees wield so much power. I would sack them all immediately.
Let the experts do their jobs. The course superintendent would never walk into their professional environment and begin to lecture them on how to audit a set of books, treat a patient or advise a client on his legal options.
It would be preposterous. But when the roles are reversed the poor old course ‘super’ just has to grin and bear it. And if anything goes wrong it is always the course ‘super who cops it in the neck – not the pea brains on the greens’ committee.
Let’s face it. At best, greens committee are little more than groups of enthusiastic amateurs telling a technically qualified and experienced professional how to do his job.
What do you think? Email comments to rob@insidegolf.com.au
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