Don't take offense to the title of this post since it is really meant as a message to my future self but feel free to read on. I've spent the last 4 or 5 work days compiling information and trying to look for trends or ideas that allow me to be more exacting in budgeting. Although I can go back over ten years with respect to how many hours we spend performing all the maintenance on the the course, I only really began tracking fuel and equipment cost within the last 4 years so any conclusion I arrive at obviously require more than a bit of "extrapolation/interpretation". That being said there is still some useful info.
Hours spend working on the course (not including me or the mechanic) are entered daily by staff into a spreadsheet. Of the total hours entered 56% can be attributed to 7 routine tasks: daily set-up of the course, bunkers, mowing fwys, mowing G's, rolling G's, mowing tees and collars, and mowing rough. In the following chart the big piece of pie represents the seven jobs while the rest of the pieces show how the remaining 44% of the staffs time is divided up.
All the goofy little labels in the legend at the bottom of the chart are some of the job categories staff use when assigning hours they work. When I am trying to glean information, any information, I focus on the categories that make up the large piece of the pie. Here's what I've learned:
- Fairways: We have 2 machines and in 2010 we ran both about 46% of the time and one machine 54%. On average, staff spent 5 hours/day mowing. In 2013 we ran 2 machines 27% of the time and one machine 63% and spent 4.5 hours/day mowing. The obvious trend here is less mowing which translates into less money spend on staffing and fuel (with less operating time it should mean less repairs but that's not necessarily true because of the mowers age)
- Tees and Collars: In 2010 staff spent an average of 4.43 hours per day mowing T&C for a total of 237 hours. In 2013 it took an average of 2.95 hours per day for a total of 192 hours over the entire season. Again, a declining trend. Instead of mowing both tees and collars 3 days a week we only mow collars 3 times and tees 2 times which saved slightly on both fuel and staffing
- Rough: In 2010 the average hours per day spent mowing rough was 5.43 while in 2013 the average was 3.98. Unfortunately, a slight labour savings (and maybe repair costs) was offset by the increased fuel costs (we used the bigger machine more this year and it cost more to run) and the fact we mowed rough 20 more days in 2013 than 2010. The more days mowed relates to the amount of grass this year and also to the extra cut we brought in this year to lower the rough around the greens. Although the trend was for less hours mowing per day the cost of rough mowing actually is on the rise.
- Greens Rolling: Greens were rolled 50% more this year than in past years. In general, with respect to the greens we did nothing different compared to last year but there were fewer speed complaints so from an anecdotal stand point rolling may have had a benefit on playing conditions. Obviously, the trend here is increasing in labour, fuel, and maintenance.
- Greens: Not much change here over the past 4 years with a slight increase in costs due to labour. Long ago we began making use of the triplex as a cost savings measure with the greens being mowed about 50% of the time with triplex and 50% with walkers. In the future the only savings here would be to go to 100% triplex. However, we would have to take a close look since we only have one triplex mower and going that route would require purchasing a second mower. That initial capital cost may take some time to be offset by labour savings.
- Bunkers: The total hours spent raking bunkers in 2010 was 902 and on average staff spent 2.5 hours/day raking all the bunkers. We use to hand rake with 3 people and 25% of the time 1 guy would just touch up bunkers. In 2013 we still hand rake and spend 2.3 hours per day for a total of 519 hours but now 67% of the time one guy does all the raking. For the past couple years now we've only hand raked half the bunkers each day and touched up the rest. Bunkers are expensive and aside from free labour or completely eliminating the bunkers I don't see any practical way to save more money.
- Daily Set Up: This is another job that has seen only a slight increase in cost and most of that is labour related. The importance of this job is to not only create variety in how the course plays but also to distribute wear which is extremely important. This is another job where I don't see any practical way to save money.
