This is the second of four blog messages on this subject; before reading the blog message below, readers should go back to the last blog message (4/14/11) and re-read it, or read it for the first time.

The multi-course contract setting is the perfect employment environment for golf course superintendents.

How ready is the world of the golf course superintendent to accept this premise? Not very because the justified bad image the contract companies earned in the past still lingers; i.e., no effort has been made to educate the industry to the unique benefits that “established” contract companies provide to both superintendents and their employer golf courses today; for example:

Superintendent Benefits

• The opportunity to extend careers beyond the traditional superintendents’ level up through the salaried ranks of company management (area director, regional director, national director and ultimately to the CEO position itself).
• Salary protected (tied to revenues, etc.) guaranteed employment; i.e., in the rare circumstance where a job must be sacrificed, superintendents will be relocated at comparable jobs within the company.



• Compensation and budget support similar to stand alone golf course operations.
• Annual independent staff evaluation programs to establish basis for assistants’ and superintendents’ career advancement.
• Guaranteed industry-standard retirement/401k planning.
• Bonus payments for professional achievement; i.e., being elected to GCSAA and chapter Boards, CGCS status, published articles, community service, Audubon Society participation and so on.
• Reporting routinely to an echelon of proven company professionals vis-à-vis reporting to less informed politically driven general managers and committee members.
• Immediate crisis management support via established company regional and national directors that the USGA Green Section and the consulting community can not compete with; i.e., there is no better “safety net.”



• Superior educational training and communications focus directed toward in-house administrations, members/players, local media, local community and staff.
• Maximum continued educational opportunity; i.e., via GCSAA (earning CEU credits), Chapter, commercial company and in-house contract company programming.
• Human resource support available as needed; i.e.; for legal, outreach, family planning, career planning purposes and the like.

Superintendents employed by the leading contract companies for the first time in the years ahead will think they have died and gone to heaven.

The next blog will present the benefits that accrue to golf clubs/courses when they affiliate with multi-course contract
companies.

The best-kept secret throughout golf is how monumentally effective multi-course contract companies are today…

…because they are committed to the highest degree of maintenance standards and practices that effectively maximize both golf course maintenance operations and superintendents’ careers.

This is quite a turn-around from some 15 years ago when contract companies were looked upon as the scourge of the industry because of the backlash that resulted when it was noted that they too often used unethical practices to undercut and take jobs away from working superintendents.

While there was some truth to this charge back then, not so today where established multi-course companies set new standards of ethical practice throughout their operations thereby emboldening themselves to pursue/set new standards of excellence for their client courses and the superintendents working at these golf courses.

Defining Terms

Before going further, it is necessary to identify the two types of multi-course contract companies operating today (there are 100+) because while they appear to be similar and both can deliver quality performance  – there is an inherent difference between them worth noting. For example:

A. Multi-Course Management Companies: Manage every operation throughout a golf course property; i.e., the golf course, clubhouse operations (food & beverage, member development, etc.), tennis and pool programs and whatever else there is – where the golf course superintendent reports either to a general manager placed by the contract company, or directly to the contract company itself.

Billy Casper Golf is an example of a well-established contract management company.

B. Multi-Course Maintenance Companies: Manage golf course maintenance programs only within a golf course property – where the golf course superintendent answers directly to the contract company whose sole intent is to provide the full support superintendents need to deliver the highest quality golf courses and to advance their careers while so doing.

ValleyCrest Golf Course Maintenance is an example of a valued contract maintenance company.

Ted Horton (Senior Consulting Superintendent for ValleyCrest) advises that the mutual business strategy for the core of established contract maintenance companies is:

1. To provide complete customer/client course satisfaction as measured annually by independent survey companies.
2. To be the preferred employer of choice by providing golf course superintendents with competitive: wages; budget opportunities; career long range planning counseling; internship support; and counseling assistance for individual superintendent’s creative development projects.
3. To ensure appropriate contract company profitability.

Where proven golf course superintendents once refused to consider working for multi-course contract companies – this clearly is not the case now.

My next blog message will focus on the specific benefits that accrue to golf courses and superintendents that affiliate with established multi-course contract companies. Stay tuned because you will be educated re: what precedent-setting career advancement opportunities exist today – even in a bad economy.