The average size of the maintenance team at a golf course is around 28 people (9 full-time, 16 part-time, 3 other).
Maintaining an average 18-hole golf course – which is larger than 70 football fields – takes work and lots of it. The average 18-hole course may also have dozens of bunkers, a few miles of cart paths and many other course features. As you can imagine, it takes a lot of work to maintain all the different components.
What Is Golf Course Maintenance? Golf course maintenance refers to maintenance activities done to keep course resources in good working condition. It includes repairing and replacing club assets, mowing and chemically treating turf, eliminating ball marks, improving playing conditions, and more.
Profitable golf courses are generally selling for six to eight times EBITDA, while courses that aren't profitable tend to sell at 0.8 to 1.4 times revenue.
Greens typically need to be mown at least once every three days. Without that regular tending, they become overgrown. Getting them back up to speed is tough. Sometimes it's impossible, and the entire putting surface has to be reseeded, and you're looking at least two months before they're ready for play again.
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According to the United States Golf Association, at least 8-10 walking greens mowers are recommended for 18-hole facilities. Advanced mowers are recommended for larger operations.
Proper mowing includes daily mowing, daily changing of mowing patterns, mowing at the correct height, precise adjustment of mowers, daily cleaning and sharpening of mowers, training of mower operators and visual inspection of results. Mowing is the single most important practice in greens maintenance.
Golf course superintendents would much prefer to complete fairway and rough mowing ahead of play because mowing during play can be very inefficient. Unfortunately, fairway mowing often requires three to four units mowing for three to four hours to complete the process.
According to the National Golf Foundation's 2010 Operating & Financial Performance Profiles of 18-hole golf facilities in the U.S., private 18-hole golf clubs had average total revenue of $3,277,000 in 2009, but with total expenses of $3,204,500.
“This means an 18-hole course of all short par 3s could be built on as little as 30 acres, while an intermediate length or executive course of 18 holes of par 3s and 4s would require 75-100 acres, and a full size par 72 course would need 120-200 acres.
Golf is on the decline in America. That reality has finally smacked us in the face like a two-by-four. The number of core American golfers (those playing eight rounds or more per year) has fallen between three and 4.5 percent every year since 2006.
Golf course superintendents would much prefer to complete fairway and rough mowing ahead of play because mowing during play can be very inefficient. Unfortunately, fairway mowing often requires three to four units mowing for three to four hours to complete the process.
Proper mowing includes daily mowing, daily changing of mowing patterns, mowing at the correct height, precise adjustment of mowers, daily cleaning and sharpening of mowers, training of mower operators and visual inspection of results. Mowing is the single most important practice in greens maintenance.
No matter where they are located, most golf course designs incorporate water features. When used well, water features influence golf strategy, provide for irrigation reservoirs, drainage containment and flood detention areas, while providing aesthetic value.
Fairways maintenance entails: Keeping a dense and contiguous cushion of turfgrass at a general height between 0.38 and 0.5 inches. Mowing multiple times every week. Suppress the growth rate of turfgrass with growth regulators and consequently reduce mowing frequency.
On average, it takes about three to four and a half hours to complete an 18-hole of golf. Besides, a group of professional golfers will take around 10 minutes to play a normal golf hole. However, it will take a group of average amateurs around 15 minutes to play the same hole. In terms of time, the time of day can also impact the length of a round of golf. It will be faster to finish a round of golf if you’re one of the first groups to play on the course. You’re most likely to complete a round of golf in four hours or less. However, the time required to finish a round of golf will be elongated as many groups get onto the course, most especially on busy weekend days. We’ve seen people taking as long as five hours to finish a round on hectic weekend days.
To finish 9 holes of golf, it will take two players about 75 minutes. Nonetheless, it is quite important to know that this stipulated time depends on whether the players will be riding with a golf cart or just walking. Also, the age of the golfers might be another influencing factor. On the other hand, it might take up to three hours to finish a 9-hole of golf on a busy course.
Generally, tee time intervals generally range anywhere from 8 minutes to 15 minutes. The thing is that most golf course managements are focused on generating more revenue through many rounds especially when the course is flooded with a lot of golfers. We’ve prepared some examples of typical tee time intervals to help you understand better.
And when the course is dried up, you’ll find it difficult to hit the greens and fairways. When the fairway is dry, your well-placed driver could run off through the fairway into a water hazard, a bunker, or the rough. Greens are also less receptive to golf shots when they are dry out. This might result cause your ball to roll over the back of some greens.
There’s less to what you can do to avoid it. Factors like tee time intervals, course set up, and weather conditions are out of your control and they all affect the time it takes to finish 18 holes of golf.
Round of golf average four hours and a half on weekends and average three to four hours on weekdays according to a study commissioned by the United States Golf Association (USGA). In this blog post, we’ll talk about the average time for playing 18 holes of golf, factors affecting the time, and some other important things.
1. 7 Minutes and 8 Minutes Intervals: This type of interval gives room for up to 8 tee times within an hour, with about thirty-two participants on the course.
Putting greens are the most frequently mowed area of golf courses and the associated costs are significant. Mower technology has improved to the point where triplex units can produce a quality of cut equivalent to that of walk-behind mowers.
Out of necessity, many courses in the Southwest removed maintained rough in peripheral areas to cut down on water usage and save money. For years, golf courses have also replaced mown rough with naturalized or unmown rough.
This pattern reduces mowing time and reduces labor , fuel consumption and equipment wear. Many also feel that the more traditional appearance of the classic cut pattern is an improvement over complex stripe patterns.
Understandably, some courses cut back or altered the timing of aeration programs in an effort to minimize golfer disruption and reduce costs during the recession. This strategy achieved mixed results. In situations where organic matter levels are optimal, a slight reduction in core aeration can be tolerated if an effective topdressing program is in place. Conversely, even with a very aggressive aeration program, significantly reducing the topdressing amount or frequency is likely to cause problems. Ultimately, cutting back on putting green aeration and topdressing programs is rarely a good strategy to reduce maintenance spending.
Golf course superintendents are accustomed to budget cuts. Recent rounds of belt tightening, however, were accompanied by pressure to reduce costs and course closures by avoiding disruptive maintenance practices. Convenient changes to maintenance practices, such as skipping or rescheduling aeration and topdressing, took precedence over more sensible ways to reduce costs such as reducing the intensity of bunker maintenance or scaling back unnecessary landscaping. Golf facilities also wanted to achieve budget cuts without a noticeable change in course conditioning. Unfortunately, cutbacks were noticed by golfers at many facilities.
Additionally, there are many hidden costs associated with hiring and training new maintenance employees. It often takes several weeks to train a motivated individual to perform multiple maintenance tasks with a consistent level of competency. However, it may take several years for new employees to become as efficient as experienced staff. Eliminating experienced, dependable and highly skilled staff that are paid more than new hires can save money in the short term; but replacing them with new employees to reduce payroll expenses often results in more mistakes, reduced efficiency and generally more wear and tear on turf and equipment.
On the other hand, courses with available capital during the recent economic downturn were able to negotiate better prices for irrigation systems and course improvement projects. Despite rising costs associated with daily maintenance, golf course contractors were hungry for business. Some courses obtained terrific deals on capital expenditures during the worst of the recession.
played golf – both on-course and off-course – in 2020. This includes 24.8 million people who played on a golf course and another 12.1 million who participated exclusively in off-course golf activities at places like driving ranges, indoor golf simulators or golf entertainment venues like Topgolf and Drive Shack.
Golf participation is a core measure of golf’s vitality. NGF closely tracks how many people play the game, as well as the demographic composition of golfing America.
0 %. of on-course golfers are women. Females represent a disproportionately higher percentage of juniors (34%), beginners (36%) and off-course participants (45%) than they do in the overall golf population. Latent Demand.