Fleeting MomentsManaging an entire fleet of golf course maintenance equipmentrequires a new approach for golf courses at all levels.BY TODD GRAY AND LARRY GILHULY

Another dog heading tothe bone yard. Regularequipment replacementcan prevent this typeof situation.

ow many times have you read an articlethat makes you stop and think, "That isexactly what we are facing!"? If you

answer the following five questions with affirm-ative responses, you should continue to read on,as golf courses across the United States are facingnew challenges in how they manage their golfcourse maintenance equipment fleets.

1. Do you need more equipment than yourequest in your annual equipment replacementprogram?

2. Do you believe your golf course is fallingbehind in its equipment replacement program?

3. Is your maintenance and repair budgetincreasing?

4. Are your mechanic and/or staff displeasedwith the condition, reliability, and efficiency ofyour regularly used maintenance equipment?

5. Are you in competition with more golfcourses than you were a decade ago?

The challenges faced by modern golf coursesuperintendents have not changed significantlywhen compared to earlier generations in regardto growing grass and creating playing conditionsfor the game of golf What have changed are1) the expectation level of players on golf coursesat every level, 2) ever-increasing costs to achievethese expectation levels (budget), 3) training andkeeping quality labor (mechanics and operators),and 4) competition for players with other golfcourses that were built during the boom timesof the 1990s.

The equipment fleets on golf courses ofevery type have not been replaced on a regularschedule based on hours of use. The result isspiraling higher costs for maintenance and

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Keeping equipment inyour inventory twice itsrecommended normallife only leads to anincreased maintenanceand repair line item.

repairs, while equipment costs for new units arecertainly not going down. The purpose of thisarticle is to take a critical look at what caused thecurrent situation at most golf courses and whatcan be done to help golf courses get a grip ontheir course equipment fleet management.

HOW DID WE GET WHERE WE ARE?Today, more than at any time in our industry'shistory, more "business conditions" are affectinggolf course conditions than ever before. Arecently received email displays both the needfor addressing this situation and some intro-ductory comments on how to begin the processof addressing this issue:

I attended your presentation at the USGAregional conference and I must say it was thebest time I have ever spent at a conference,hands down. Your presentation did not apply toanyone in that room more than myself or our

course superintendent. I operate two municipalgolf courses and I would dare say that our cur-rent equipment program is a huge drain on ouroperation. We currently lease all of our equip-ment directly from our city fleet department.It is a bad system, and I have been given per-mission by our mayor to explore options outsideof our system that could benefit our operation.I have attached an inventory of the equipmentthat we have at each golf course. The list doesnot have as much detail as you probably need,but I thought I would start with that and seewhere it goes. I would also like to seek inputon a program for golf cars if your company isinvolved with that. Please let me know whatadditional information I can provide so that youand your team can provide us the options thatare currently available.

Response:From our work with several golf courses,municipal fleet reconfiguration is a growingneed for many operations. I am somewhatcertain that traditional "bid" and "balancesheet" ownership type practices remain in placewith your city. These practices are no longerconsistent with the competitive nature of thegolf business or the increasing level of a munici-pal golf course's responsibility inside a city parksand recreation business to become an indepen-dent profit and business center. The practicessimply must change. Successful city operationsare recognizing the need to convert to a consist-ent replacement and properly run golf industryrelevant program. Simply stated, municipaloperations that remain in the transaction-based"bid/quote/own" system are tripping on nickelsand spilling dollars, all while losingcompetitiveness.Bell Nob, an outstanding operation managedin Wyoming as part of Campbell County'smunicipal system, is a recent significant con-verted operation. They have utilized municipalleasing for years, but have recently converted allturf, cars, and a GPS system to a new manage-ment system in order to consolidate, becomemore efficient, and coordinate a plan. I lookforward to furthering this initiative and encour-age you to forward this message to your mayorto keep him abreast of our combined efforts andto pave the path of support in weeks ahead. Itwill be a very easy decision once you see thenumbers and the rationale, but a decision thatwill involve a paradigm shift in your golf coursemanagement system. You are losing and wastingmoney each day, and you should convert as soonas we can do our analysis.

There are several factors that have occurred inthe past decade that have led this golf courseoperator, and many more, to the current situa-tion. Let's look at a few of these factors as theyrelate to your operation:

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• Significant prosperity and overallgrowth during the late 1990s and early2000s. It seems like only yesterday when therewas a widely held recommendation that hun-dreds of golf courses needed to be built annuallyto keep up with the demand of existing and newgolfers. Times were good, with exceptionalamounts of discretionary income available, thusthe game of golf became very popular.• Significant increase in the amount ofproduct, choices, and expectations. High-end private and public golf courses were at theforefront of construction, with green fee modelsthat have proven to be far beyond what golferstoday wish to pay. However, when all the newconstruction was occurring, the economy wasgoing full steam, and $20-30 green fee golfcourses were not even considered. The resultinghigh costs to maintain these high-end courses,combined with the following factor, haveresulted in many golf courses having difficultywith their expensive golf course equipmentinventory .• The golf industry is a lagging economictrailer of the overall national economy.With the disaster in September 2001 and anoverall downturn in our national economyduring the mid-2000s, golf followed as a laggingindustry. In a nutshell, the extra money of thedot. com times was gone, and with it the dis-cretionary income used for pleasure and leisureactivities, such as golf With less money availablein the overall population and a larger number ofgolf courses to choose from, many golf coursesfelt the pinch. This resulted in reduced greenfees and ever-tightening budgets, with far lesscapital available for expensive golf course main-tenance equipment. This was followed by a pro-longed period (four years plus) of economicuncertainty and revenue contraction.• Additional economic challenges (gasprices, fertilizer costs, electric costs, watercosts, etc.). As the cost for fuel continues toclimb, there are many aspects of the golf coursemaintenance operation that severely impact cashflow and the bottom line. Dramatically increasedcosts for gasoline/diesel, fertilizer, water, and theelectricity required for the operation of the irri-gation system have had a major impact.• Competition for golfers - it has changedsignificantly. First, there is more competitionthan ever, in all sectors. The industry experi-enced significant growth in the late 1990s,

creating many more golfing alternatives forprospective golfers. Second, overall economiccontraction in recent years, combined with moreavailable golf courses, has caused revenue con-traction in all sectors. Third, all sectors nowcompete with each other for golfers' discretionarydollars, resulting in competition that has notexisted in the past. Private golf clubs now com-pete with daily-fee courses that offer a very highlevel golfing experience. All daily-fee golfcourses compete with each other. Municipalcourses must have higher standards than ever, asthey, too, are facing a more discerning golfingpublic with more available alternatives.

In 2008, the simple fact is that if a golf coursedoes not compete favorably on course conditions,that course will lose the revenue to anothercourse. One of the single biggest factors affectingcourse conditions is the golf course maintenanceequipment that is used on the golf course. Thegolf course equipment fleet is the single largestrecurring expense relative to the overall golfoperation, and regardless of the equipmentmanufacturer, this equipment expense nevergoes away.

WHAT CAN BE DONE? THERE IS ALIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNELBecause of the economic conditions that governthe industry, the importance of cash flow man-agement has become the critical issue at golfcourses in all sectors. Private clubs, in general,do not have the influx of new members to pro-vide the financial offset to all of the capital needsthat their facilities require on an ongoing basis.Daily-fee, resort, and municipal operations arealready cash-flow-driven businesses. Golf courseoperators must realize these economic realities,as they impact every course's ability to invest inthe golf course maintenance equipment that isrequired to deliver a quality product. Since theseeconomic conditions are not likely to change inthe foreseeable future, there is a bridge betweengolf course maintenance and the business ofrunning the course that needs to be understoodand strengthened.

The first step is to realize that the equipmentfleet is just that - a fleet, composed of 20-40 ormaybe even more individual component parts,all of which do a specific maintenance job. It isnot 30 or 40 individual pieces of equipment. Thegolf course superintendent is called upon tomanage the fleet. Part of that job includes a

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Fleet managementincludes every unit used

for the maintenance ofyour golf course, witheach piece requiring a

proper replacementschedule.

replacement schedule, control of the golf coursemaintenance budget, the creation of a year-over-year plan, and a responsibility to stay within abudget. That means that a plan must be in placefor all 30 or 40 pieces at all times - not themore typical 1-3 or 5 pieces of turf equipmentthat are in greatest need of replacement.

Once you have made the jump to fleet vs.individual piece equipment management, it willbe easier to look at the plan for each individualpiece. In this step, in most cases, golf courseoperators will easily identify the differences in

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useful life between the different pieces in theirfleet. A tractor, for example, has a much longeruseful life than a utility vehicle, even thoughboth pieces are part of their fleet. Attaching auseful life to each piece is important.

N ext, use your own records to prove theuseful life of the equipment. Some pieces last fora long time without requiring much mainte-nance, yet still deliver quality results. Otherswear out sooner, causing course conditions todeteriorate, draining staff resources, and requir-ing expensive repairs. In most cases there will be

a clear optimal rotation that emerges, which isconsistent with the intuition that course man-agers feel would be the optimal replacementcycle.

The next step is to bridge the gap between theoptimal replacement schedule and the businessreality oflimited financial resources. This ismore complicated because it involves more levelsof club management than just the golf coursesuperintendent. If golf courses accept that 1) theeconomic landscape of our industry has changed,2) cash flow is more important than ever, and3) every aspect of a golf course operation mustbe examined, then this step may be easier totake. This step will challenge a golf course'spractices. Importantly, it will address what acourse's true goals are relative to equipment. Invirtually all cases, it is not a golf course's goal toown equipment. The truth is that the goal ofvirtually every golf course in the industry is tooperate each piece if equipment as inexpensively aspossible over its useJullife and then dispose if it.

If a golf course can establish a comprehensiveplan for its entire course maintenance fleet, witha specific replacement schedule for each com-ponent piece, and where that replacement issensitive to the growing importance of businesscash flow, it is likely that most, if not all, golfcourse equipment will end up being managedunder one big plan. Equipment fleets are a largeoperating expense that is ongoing. They are nolonger a mix of some owned (tractors) and some

financed (higher use) individual pieces. If golfcourse managers and operators realize that thegoal is to manage this overall expense as one,there is a high likelihood that they will be ableto transition to a better overall solution.

SUMMARYThe outlined observations and recommendationsare very important because they apply universallyto this industry. Literally no golf course or clubis exempt from the need to improve in some areaof golf course fleet management. If golf courseconditions can improve, it is likely that economicefficiency and staff efficiencies can be recognized.If golf courses fall behind on equipment replace-ment, a look at the overall plan is warranted.The choice is yours. Look at your overall golfcourse equipment inventory as a long-range andcritical portion of the golf course operation, orjust give it a review once a year for a fleetingmoment.

TODD GRAY, VP, Golf & Turf Division, WellsFargo Financial, has provided more than two decadesiffinancial assistance to golf courses in North Americaregarding their management if equipment. LARRY

GILHULY, director, Northwest Region, USGA GreenSection, has observed golf courses in the Western U. S.and British Columbia struggle to keep up with therising costs if equipment. The perspective if the authorscomesfrom two different directions, yet both agree thatthis subject is the key to effective golf coursemanagement.

Fairway topdressingis just one exampleof equipment needsbrought on by greatergolfer expectations.

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