the weather messing with you? Answer: almost every damn day! How are the golfers treating you? Any problems with them? We actually had a lady in our Tuesday ladies league tell my assistant we should not be working on Tuesdays because, well, you know. The crew was up for grabs upon hearing we will be off on Tuesdays in the future. How about the people at the clubhouse? How much does the Pro Shop mess with you? How about your members? They love everything you do right? How about the government? Any issues there? What about your irrigation system? That always operates as intended. Heads never stick, the central always runs and nothing ever gets into the system to clog things up, right? The equipment always runs like a champ. It always starts, never gets bashed up because your employees are so good and never, ever does a reel hit a rock or a hydraulic hose fails the day before your biggest tournament of the year. You aren’t even safe in your office. The computer is always messing with you, the printer as well. Even the X$@*%ing desk
drawer handle seems justified to join the fray every once in a while. It’s like when will it end? Well, it will end one of two ways. It will end when they escort you out the door for upsetting a customer for the last time, or when they pull the sheet over your stiff rigor-mortise laden body if you are not able to sufficiently realize that that is what your job is all about and you need to find ways to deal with the fact that everything is trying to mess with you. The better you understand this, the less likely you will become a grumpy old golf course superintendent. There are plenty of remedies I suppose, starting with deep breaths, rides on the cart to even seeing a shrink, but ultimately, just rolling with the punches, talking things out with a peer or taking a step back to realize it really isn’t that bad will usually do the trick. If you believe in advertising, keep a box of snickers bars in the desk drawer. It will make it all better. Provided you can get the X$@%ing thing open. Page 59 Page 59