COURSE + GROUNDS
SAFETYin NUMBERS Detailed recordkeeping, return on investment, and preparation are keys to making sound equipmentfinancing decisions. By Betsy Gilliland, Contributing Editor
GOLF COURSE SUPERINTENDENTS RELY ON their maintenance equipment to perform in the field. For optimum results, they need to determine what they need, when they need it, and the jobs they need the equipment to perform. First, however, they must make their equipment acquisition decisions pay off by determining the best way to finance the fleets at their golf courses—and to get the most value from their choices. FINANCIAL STABILITY The golf course maintenance department at The Club at Nevillewood in Presto, Pa., a suburb of Pittsburgh, has $2 million worth of equipment in its inventory and a yearly lease budget of $130,000. “We have lease payments in our operating budget. That helps us know what our cash flow will be for equipment replacement,” says the club’s Golf Course Superintendent, Ken Flisek, CGCS. Lease terms vary for the 18-hole Nevillewood property, and at the end of each budget year, a few leases will expire. When the property purchases 38
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$250,000 or so worth of equipment, it spreads out the payments across four years. “Some are even payments over 48 months,” says Flisek. “Some companies will let you double up payments for the six months that revenue is coming in. We do what is best for our cash flow. “All of our leases,” he adds, “are capital leases, with a $1 buyout.” Nevillewood generally replaces 10 percent of its equipment every year, Flisek says. “We try to do a large package every three or four years, where we could get a quantity discount on some of the equipment we would buy in a four-year lease with a $1 buyout,” he adds. DIY FINANCING Most of the equipment at Quail Ridge Country Club, the 36-hole facility in Boynton Beach, Fla., (“Quail Ridge CC Spreads Its Wings,” C+RB, March 2019), is on a five-year lease plan. The property typically purchases equipment that it expects to last seven years or more. www.clubandresortbusiness.com
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