What do you do in the Winter?

16th Hole, looking towards tee, Jan 29th

Winter is a strange time for people who work at golf courses in our climate, especially for those of us in the Turf Care profession. When meeting someone new, exchanging questions about careers is often an easy way to generate a conversation. The most frequent question we hear following anything to do with working on a golf course is, "What do you do in the Winter?" I find it interesting that this is usually the first thing most people think about. Why wouldn't people ask about the job itself? Why do they want to know what we do when the course is closed? Maybe it is because some of the things we do in the winter are actually pretty interesting too.

Quinton working on a Sidewinder Reel

During the the growing season, our Turf Care Centre is going full throttle and many things get put by the wayside until we have more time to work on them. Equipment is needed on a daily basis and any down time caused by a breakdown puts us behind the 8 ball so to speak. We do everything possible to fix the equipment properly, but must also keep in mind that it probably needs to go back out tomorrow. So often we leave the big jobs for the winter. Striping down engines and hydraulics, replacing electrical components, ripping out bearings, building and fabricating parts to make other jobs easier or more efficient. Quinton, our mechanic, takes great pride in grinding the reels, bed knives and rotary blades to a scientific precision in the winter, preparing them to get the best results next season.


We also go over last years budget numbers, looking at everything from labour, to chemicals, hydro, equipment parts etc.We look at where we can make improvements for next year and put together a comprehensive budget. Financial responsibility is obviously an important part of the job, especially in this day and age.


A great deal of this time is also spent planning and revising. Going over employee schedules to maximize outputs, putting together fertility plans and using what information we can collect to predict what inputs we will need in the spring. We monitor the course conditions underneath snow and ice. Taking samples of the turf to see how it responds indoors (simulated spring.) If we see growth we know we are okay; if they struggle, we know we are going to have our work cut out for us and can plan accordingly. Sometimes it may be necessary to remove snow and ice at certain times of the winter, a very labour intensive task, made all the more difficult as most Turf Care Teams are laid off for the winter.

Turf Samples taken Jan 27/2014

Turf Samples, Feb 5th

 

2 inch ice depth, low spot 11th Fairway, Jan 27th

Of course, as with any job, we take holidays. Summer holidays are nice, but we are usually too busy to leave for extended periods of time while the grass is growing. Winter offers us a chance to go somewhere warm, or just spend time with our family and friends, a part of life that we don't get to enjoy as much in the growing season. Some courses will also bank hours during the summer instead of taking overtime pay. We try and use these up in the winter, as we don't need to be at the course every day for 8 hours.

Another big part of winter is our continuing education. As professionals we seek to be on the cutting edge, or at least know where the cutting edge is (pun intended). We are always wanting to learn new and alternative ways of doing things. We attend Turf Conferences and seminars, which help us gain valuable knowledge and skills. Networking with other professionals at these events is also key. Learning about our colleagues practices and the different things they do at their course can help provide a different perspective. The industry is actually quite small, and most people are open to sharing their ideas with each other, something that is unique from many other businesses. With modern technology and the explosion of social media, networking has become even more valuable, a great tool that many Superintendents are embracing.

I sometimes hear grumblings from golfers about why the course employs people through the winter. Wouldn't the Club save money if they didn't have to pay someone in the winter? While this may be true in the very short term, after a few years I believe that this would actually cause the reverse effect. The topics discussed above can help prove the value of employing people through the winter. Not only would it be hard to attract someone who is a professional, someone who has invested in an education, someone who is qualified and will work their hardest for the Club; but to keep someone around year after year when they are forced to find other employment for the winter, or go on employment insurance, would be very difficult to say the least. In many ways the the winter season can be just as important for the golf course as the summer.

So the next time you meet someone who works on a golf course, you may have some insight as to what they do in the winter and why they do it. Sometimes it is quite interesting, sometimes... not so much. We have been know to take extended coffee breaks during the winter, but as you can see, we do a great deal while the course is closed, probably more than you thought.