No one can ever accuse Ross Miller of not being prepared.
With a global health crisis generating more questions than answers about the future, Miller and his team at the Country Club of Detroit have been ready since the early days of the pandemic.
He has structured the make-up of his crew and the times they work to minimize the spread and ensure the chain of command remains intact by keeping managers apart from each other physically. All while they are able to provide members with the conditions they expect at a 1912 Harry S. Colt design in Grosse Pointe Farms.
"Our biggest challenge has been maximizing employee safety, while also optimizing productivity and still focusing on maintaining a championship venue," Miller said. "The Country Club of Detroit is focused on these items through a multi-pronged attack."
That plan included developing contingencies in the event anyone on Miller's management team contracts the virus.
Our biggest challenge has been maximizing employee safety, while also optimizing productivity and still focusing on maintaining a championship venue.
Managing labor issues during the virus has been a challenge for many turf managers.
"Our biggest challenge over the past seven months has mainly been labor fluctuations," said Kevin Cooper, superintendent at Lochnivar Golf Club in Houston. "In the beginning of Covid, we adjusted our working crews and crew communication. Our morning meetings became a rolling start with minimizing large-group contact versus the break room meeting with 20-plus individuals all gathered inside. We now have a crew meeting on Monday outside, or inside the barn area dependent upon weather, to discuss the week ahead, issues, or basic reminders."
Through the first two months of the pandemic, minimal maintenance was being performed at Lochnivar, and Cooper and his team still playing a bit of catch-up. Managing conditions on the course while working to keep his team safe, Cooper segregated his crew into teams on staggering shifts to minimize unnecessary contact between employees.
"In the first few months we had minimal labor daily - seven to nine employees - on a rotating basis to make sure if anyone was sick we could quarantine a group, but not impacting maintaining the course," Cooper said. "By May we had brought everyone back on a daily basis, but were designating carts and assignments with restrictions in regards to interactions. Lunch breaks were broken down into groups with designated time allowing minimal individuals in the lunchroom, between groups the area is sanitized."
At the Country Club of Detroit, Miller's plan includes developing a chain of command in the event Miller, one of his assistants or his equipment manager contract the virus, a work schedule that breaks the crew into teams so as to mitigate the spread of the virus, staggered lunch times, equipping all members of the team with sanitizer spray and daily cleaning and sanitizing of the break room and locker room in the shop.
Specifically, Miller has created his own bubble of sorts with his crew, splitting them into two teams, with each working 10 hours a day four days a week. One works Sunday through Wednesday and another that works Wednesday through Saturday.
As we've learned the past seven months, stopping an invisible foe is easier said than done.
"We have had one team member test positive, we were able to contact trace within 24 hours, have any possible team members that came in contact with him get tested, and those two were negative," Miller said. "I would say we have been fortunate, but also vigilant. We have not only our team/department to worry about, but also other teams here, as well as our membership's safety as well."
Alan FitzGerald has had some labor challenges to overcome as well at LedgeRock Golf Club in Mohnton, Pennsylvania.
"I know this is an issue for everyone. We've done a lot over the last few years to build up our team and have been pretty successful," said Alan FitzGerald, superintendent at LedgeRock Golf Club in Mohnton, Pennsylvania. "I was extremely lucky to get three interns this year, but I had some guys not travel back due to Covid, so we ran four to five people short all year, once we ramped back up to normal."
Reduced labor, a cool spring that delayed green-up, reduced maintenance and fuel costs have FitzGerald way under budget for the year. How that number might affect next year's budget is a concern.
I truly feel bullish on this, how we have delineated things here has been a key part in our success thus far during this challenging season.
"This is more of a possible upcoming challenge. I am currently something like $150,000 under budget year-to-date. They were looking for me to get to that number for the budget this year but it wasn't possible," FitzGerald said.
"I have worked out it's indirectly due to Covid. We had a cool spring, so the turf didn't wake up until late, so we didn't need to mow etc., i.e., regular maintenance wasn't needed. Normally with a cool spring we would have the staff back anyway to complete projects, get a bunch of detail work etc. done so with Covid those jobs were not done and we ran with minimal staff for five to six weeks longer than normal. The effect was we weren't using equipment, so fuel costs were down, equipment repair and maintenance was down etc., so when I ran the numbers year-on-year and job-on-job this is where the savings came from. It just might be difficult to explain this come budget time for 2021."
Cooper has faced similar challenges at Lochnivar after falling behind early in the pandemic season, which coincided with the peak of the Houston golf season.
"Managing the expectations of the golf course for our clientele has and is still challenging as we did minimal maintenance at the beginning, while reducing most of our routine annual agronomics to minimize financial impact to the club," Cooper said. "We typically do not have Monday closures, but due to the staff issues and reducing our typical agronomic closures we lobbied for closed Mondays through September. We were granted the closure which allowed us to maintain the playing areas at our high standard. However, the extra outlying areas did get reduced maintenance, which we are now spending extra labor on getting those areas into acceptable form now that the turf is slowing down."
The key to getting through the past several months, Miller said, has been being as prepared (as much as possible, anyway), having a plan and sticking to it.
"I truly feel bullish on this, how we have delineated things here has been a key part in our success thus far during this challenging season," Miller said. "One of the inherent challenges with this schedule that becomes even more important than normal is communication. Establishing strong standard operating procedures for communication front-to-back and back-to-front have been key in our success."
