June 2015 Hole Notes Magazine

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More importantly, I am curious to see how golf will respond and react to the ever-more challenging issue of labor for golf course maintenance. There has been a great deal of chatter in 2015 regarding the recruitment and retention of quality employees for golf course maintenance. Club superintendents are finding it very difficult to find employees that will start out in the business like many of us did, where we started at minimum wage and moved up the ranks with meager increases along the way.

where clubs are being forced to pay more money for seasonal employees, with the idea of higher wages leading to high quality employees with less attrition. Seems like a pretty good recipe to me, but what impact will this have on the game of golf?

With labor typically comprising anywhere from 55-70% of a maintenance budget, rising hourly rates will most certainly have an impact on greens fees and member dues. Sadly, the courses that take it in the shorts are the mom and pop venues where many young people are first introduced to the game. With golf course Today, we are learning that many closures forecast for another 150folks simply do not want to work 165 facilities in 2015, reality sets that hard for $9.50 an hour. in when the community course When Burger King is advertising just can’t make it anymore and for $10.50 as a starting wage, how the doors are closed. attractive do we look when we ask people to wake up at 4:30am, Analysts say that this correction work their tails off until 2pm, and is needed to make the industry then do it all over again? There healthy once again; but one has is a shift beginning to take place to question the validity of that

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June 2015 Hole Notes Magazine by Minnesota Golf Course Superintendents Association - Issuu