Many are wondering why the golf course is not open when it has been so nice.
I am here to offer an explanation.

First and foremost this weather has been unreal, some may say nothing short of a miracle while others are upset that it eliminated the spring skiing season. Regardless of your opinion one thing is for certain, this has never happened before. The old ‘record’ highs for this time of year were around 49 degrees, we just had a stretch of 5 days above 80 and that followed a week of 60 to 70 degree temperatures. The snow is gone.
With that being said this early summer weather (which started before actual winter was over) was not in our plans.

When we create a yearly budget for the golf course we set start dates for all of our employees. Those dates are based on historical timeframes of when the snow melts and when we need to begin work in the field. This early melt down has us a month ahead of our budgeted plan. Bringing back a full crew of employees this time of year would cripple our budgeted plan and be a financial setback for the entire year. History has proven to us that we loose money when we open early as our expenses exceed our additional income this time of year.
Your dues structure is based off these annual expenses so we like to keep them under control to keep your dues as low as they are.

The Proshop is not open and our professional staff is not even on payroll yet. Marc is on his most deserved vacation before the crazy season starts and will be back next week. When the Proshop is not open the golf course is not open, that is our control center.
On Marc’s return from vacation he will be picking up our used yearly supply of range balls (to eliminate shipping costs) from Crystal Downs. We only have a few hours worth of balls right now because so many balls are lost or taken over the season.
The good news is our mats are in and the range will be open next Wednesday. I think you will all really like out new mats - they are so dense, a regular tee can be held up in the mat surface.

Being the only grounds employee in the winter I must carefully schedule out all of the equipment prep work. I do this to ensure I can get to all of it. I prioritize based on what we need first in the spring. All of our equipment must have yearly preventative maintenance performed to it over the fall, winter or early spring. This month is when I put all of our mowing reels back onto the machinery because they were removed for grinding and rebuilding. It is also when I start to charge all of the batteries, clean terminals and start the equipment. All of this is still being completed. I have to work fast because the weather has jump started the turf and we need to start mowing very soon.

My new Assistant Andy is being thrown into the fire. It was my plan to do some proper training with him this month before the crew comes back but instead we are working our tails off together to get things ready. I had to call long time employee Clayton back several weeks early to help us along. Greywalls Assistant Mike is scheduled to begin next week so that should help also.

The course will open earlier than usual; it is our job to be fiscally responsible about it.
We will all be golfing soon!