Closing the golf course one day a week Cancel The title field is required!

1. Chad Thummel

   

   0 posts
   
   3/4/2014 2:03 PM

   My golf board has poised the question of closing the golf course on Monday. We have not been ever been closed except for greens aerification. I know the reasons for closing from a maintenance aspect is obvious but how is the best way to approach this with membership.
   
   
   Thanks,
   
   Chad Thummel
   Ward County Golf Course
   Monahans, Tx
   432-448-4686

   
   
   
   
2. Keith Pegg

   

   0 posts
   
   3/4/2014 5:03 PM

   Chad Thummel said: My golf board has poised the question of closing the golf course on Monday. We have not been ever been closed except for greens aerification. I know the reasons for closing from a maintenance aspect is obvious but how is the best way to approach this with membership.
   
   
   Thanks,
   
   Chad Thummel
   Ward County Golf Course
   Monahans, Tx
   432-448-4686

   
   
   
   Chad,
   Ask why and ask who came up with the idea? Do you need this and do you have enough staff to make a real show of improvements on Monday? I guess it could be a good thing but also could backfire; a lot of retired people that play most days might not like this. I had a Golf Pro many years ago that was always trying to get this, He would push board members to close Mondays behind my back and saying this was for course maintenance, but in the real world he wanted Mondays off for himself and his staff. In 20 years we never closed Mondays but opened late at 9:00AM and never once had a problem. Club house was closed and Pro-shop open. Monday golfers were always my friendliest golfers, the kind the step off and let us work by. (It was a private club).
   Keith Pegg
   Zama Japan

   
   
   
   
3. Patrick Reinhardt

   

   0 posts
   
   3/5/2014 9:03 AM

   Mondays provide a great time to have outside groups rent the golf course for outings and fundraisers. It can be a pretty good profit source during certain times of the year. We would always do our outings in the afternoons, giving us the morning to complete whatever maintenance we wanted. Then, afternoons during the outing were spent doing clubhouse and driving range/practice tee work. It let us perform maintenance in many areas without having to interrupt golfers, or worry about things going on at the club. It also gave us a chance to get out and do many jobs that might get slowed up because of play, like flymowing bunkers, performing fertilizer applications, topdressing greens, etc.

   
   
   
   
4. Larry Allan

   

   0 posts
   
   3/6/2014 8:03 AM

   We did a compromise thing on Mondays. Normally we have an outside tourney shot gun at 1 pm. In the morning the members have a gun at 8 AM. The way we worked it was to jam the morning shotgun onto one 9. We would start topdressing and Plant Airing on the unused 9 at 6 am. By the time we completed the front 9 the back 9 had seen the golfers pass through and we just continued until finished. It worked well. We had no interference from golfer and they had no interference from maintenance

   
   
   
   
5. James Smith

   

   113 posts
   
   3/6/2014 8:03 AM

   Two opposite suggestions wow!
   
   Just kidding, We are closed on Mondays at my club but I allow our members to come out and play if they are walking or have their own private cart. I do however let them know that under no circumstances will my crew get out of their way when they are playing. They either have to wait until the employee is finished or go to the next hole. I have never had a complaint about my policy.
   
   My club tried the open Monday thing for a short while but to be honest the Pro did not want to be opened anyway so he never made a serious effort to get the members to ocme out and play.
   
   It does not affect us either way. We get the same amount of work done whether or not we are open for play. I would be careful of allowing the Pro to tell people it is a maintenance issue. That completely throws the blame to your department and the Pro gets a day off.
   
   If the Pro is calling to be closed then let him give a better reason then maintenance duties. I would not allow that to be the reason and would tell him so. He could easily use past history numbers to prove whether or not it pays to be open. It is a lot easier from our position to ask for a certain number of Mondays to be closed for Aerifying, fertilizing, or spraying but lets be honest we generally do not have to be closed every Monday.

   
   
   
   
6. Smith Kerry L

   
   3/6/2014 10:03 AM

   To me it all has to do with the number of rounds. If you get 20-25,000 rounds no big deal. If you get 40-50,000 rounds the course needs to "rest" for a day a week. JMO.

   
   
   
   
7. Robert Crockett

   

   4 posts
   
   3/6/2014 10:03 AM

   Chad Thummel said: My golf board has poised the question of closing the golf course on Monday. We have not been ever been closed except for greens aerification. I know the reasons for closing from a maintenance aspect is obvious but how is the best way to approach this with membership.
   
   
   Thanks,
   
   Chad Thummel
   Ward County Golf Course
   Monahans, Tx
   432-448-4686

   
   Chad we open @12pm on Mondays during the season. April1st thru Sept. After the season ends we're open on Mondays.

   
   
   
   
8. Schlagetter David B

   
   3/6/2014 1:03 PM

   Chad:
   
   Don't let the people communicating the decision advertise the course will be closed for the convenience of the maintenance department. The closing MUST be communicated as a benefit to the entire facility and to the golfers themselves.
   
   Dave Schlagetter