The Concept of Managing

I had the pleasure of talking with a long time friend and superintendent on the phone this past week. Not only is he a great grass grower, he really understands the industry as a whole. We get into some really good conversations about golf and the state of it. One thing we really got into recently was the idea of managing, and how mismanagement at golf clubs (private and public) seems to be more than the norm.

Our discussion first focused on his club, and how recently the employees were paying double the insurance premiums month after month, eventually notifying the GM of the issue. The GM’s response was, “What do you want me to do about it?” The same employees continued to show the GM their paystubs and he ignored the issue, until they went to the controller and the controller realized the error. Now it is important to say that the controller should have caught the error, but isn’t it the GM’s job to oversee the operation? This same club, before this previous GM, hired a GM who used to stock shelves at WalMart. No lie….and with no background of any kind in club management. He knew someone on the board. Simply put, he knew someone on the board.

I spoke of my experiences with him on the various GM’s I’ve had over the years, and at least half of the people who oversaw me didn’t have the necessary tools and background to be a GM. I’m still trying to figure out one of them who happened to be an assistant restaurant manager. To this day I am not sure how a restaurant manager has the capabilities to oversee an entire golf club, yet more and more of them get GM jobs. He lasted a little over two years at my club before being terminated.

Another club, whose superintendent was just fired this past year, hired a former restaurant manager as its GM. Here’s what happened there. His club decided to do an entire renovation of their golf course. New greens, bunkers, some re-routing, and a new driving range were on agenda and approved. During the budget process this GM lays out his budget, and in it, says they should have a full year of golfers and cart fees. Never mind that the golf course would be closed almost 8 months for the reconstruction and that no one would be able to play. The GM budgeted over 20000 rounds and revenue with it. The superintendent told me that he questioned the GM’s budget, saying there was no way they could do that kind of play with the course closed, but the GM told him they would and he forwarded the budget to the board. Board approval……..and a $600000 year end loss for the club. During the grow in the super ran out of water and he struggled to get his course grown in. Over his vacation he was told that he had been terminated, but the GM survived and is still there to this day. There is some doubt that the club will make through this year and will have to close in ‘09.

Golf seems to be an industry that thrives on people who aren’t qualified to be GM’s running clubs. I know the CMAA is a great organization and its membership is strong. I’m not knocking them at all. But it seems to me, the more I talk to people in this industry, the more I see that the wrong people are in charge. And ultimately the superintendents, golf pros, and other supervisors pay for their ineptness. With the economy in the state it is right now, their glaring weaknesses will show themselves in lost revenue, lost membership, and lost jobs for the people that work there. This is a time for strong leadership in golf, and at times, it seems to be lacking. For every good GM, there are, in my opinion, two horrible ones. And clubs continue to hire these people and get what they deserve. Sometimes they do it on the cheap, getting someone for next to nothing. But you get what you pay for. I hope for the sake of golf in the future that clubs look deeply at the people they put in charge of their facilities. Their livelihood and survival is at stake.

Divorce and the holidays

The holidays seem to always bring the good and bad out of life. One of the things it does is remind me of the "fun" times as it relates to my oldest son and my ex wife. I was previously married for almost 7 years and I have a 10 yr old son from the marriage. I had custody of my son and my ex wife has visitation. She and her new family live in Kansas (her husband is in the military and stationed there), and she and I were not the couple who'd get along after divorce. We are of the ones who frankly didn't like each other at the end and don't particularly care for each other afterwards. There was a lot of really bad stuff the first couple of years after the divorce. I have remarried, and I have a 5 yr old son with my second wife. As I said, she has remarried and has two new sons of her own, plus a step daughter.

So here come the holidays, and this year is her year to have our son for the holidays. I won't lie, it takes away from Christmas for me. My son lives with us and spends 95% of his time with us, but because of this my ex wife gets her time with him. We have split Christmas' the last three years, and I hated not having him Christmas morning. It just freakn blows. I thoroughly enjoy watching his face light up as he heads to the tree to open presents. So now we wait until he comes back on the 28th to celebrate Christmas. But it's just not the same. He has almost gotten over believing in Santa (I think this is the end of it), so I don't get to enjoy the 'Santa" feeling one last time.

We used to go the distance with Christmas. Put out cookies and milk, leave a note for our son in the morning so he thinks that Santa ate everything and left a note. I guess we are at the end of that rope. It is the spirit in our kids that makes Christmas what it is, and with our youngest son being autistic, this is probably it. Next Christmas it just won't be the same, and I for one, will miss it. I consider myself a sentimental fool, and this is one of the last innocent kid moments. I'll miss my son this Christmas, but I'll miss his innocence more. One has memories though.......:)

11 Days Post Op

WOW, what a difference a week makes. I've come to realize that a tonsillectomy at 38 yrs old is nothing to sneeze about. First of all, I had such issues with the meds that I had to go back into the hospital this past Tuesday for severe dehydration. I took three IVs of fluids and was released on Wednesday morning. Needless to say, I feel GREAT now. Once I rehydrated, I felt so much better. I started eating again Wednesday and have been since then. I still am avoiding any foods that are hard to swallow (chips, nuts, popcorn, etc.), and after the followup this Wednesday I should be good to go.

Funny thing about surgery is the recovery time. I went to the store today to get groceries with my youngest son and by the time I got done and got home, I was SHOT. Felt like I had just done 45 minutes of cardio. Funny really. Maybe losing 11# didn't help either, but it did help my ego a little. My belt was a little bit looser this week, so I guess it isn't all bad. I guess it does take time for the body to recoup, but I am still surprised at my lack of conditioning for anything right now.

I head back on the road after the first of the year, so I am hopeful to lose the rest of the weight I gained with the job change back in the spring. I put on 15# this year, all GUT weight, and I wasn't happy with how the heck I looked. I was heavier than I have ever been in my life, so it is time to take some responsibility.

Tonsillectomy, deviated septum, and polyp removal in nose

The trifecta of surgeries if you will. I had all three of mine on December 10, 2008. The surgery itself went fine, but the ENT found some issues with both my tonsils and the polyp. The polyp was more of a growth, like a growth the size of a dime in diameter and as long as my pinkie. YIKES!!! So he had to cut more out of my nose than he thought. Secondly, because of my lifelong issue with tonsils, they were in worse shape than he thought. Scar tissue was in behind the tonsils, as well as the fact that they extended down my throat. So the ENT doc had to cut much more than he thought, including muscles in the throat. I came out of surgery well but I had trouble breathing, which they said was expected. I immediately told them that I wanted to spend the night, and the doctor had already said he knew I needed to.

I got no sleep the first night since my nose was packed with gauze from the septum repair and the growth removal. I got maybe an hour of sleep. The nurses and staff at the hospital were great, and they attended to all of my needs. I spent the night at the hospital and checked out the next morning.

What I've seen so far since I've been home..... 1)I HATE the saline nose rinses. I have to rinse out both sides of my nose with a saline solution. I fill up one side until it comes out the other side of my nose and then repeat. 3x/day, and it always gives me a headache afterwards. It is the only part of the meds I don't like. 2)Nighttime is the worst part of this. Since I am sleeping a little bit, I am not drinking any fluids and when I do wake up my throat is raw. So I drink some fluids and take the liquid vicodin and I am usually ok. 3)As long as I am on top of my fluids and meds, I feel ok, just very tired. I wonder why this hits adults so hard, but I feel just whipped. I got up for about 5 minutes and felt like I had walked 10 miles, so I laid back down. I guess it is safe to say rest is needed. My wife has been great taking care of me and my two boys are very concerned about me and are easy with me. Frankly I want to throw them around and have fun, but I know it will be a while. I actually ate some cold Mac N Cheese at lunch (about 6 or 7 bites) and I felt full. How funny!! Safe to say I am sure I'll lose some weight, but overall I just have accept the fact that a tonsillectomy and the other surgeries are not as routine for those of us over 21. I look forward to being able to get out of the house next week for a few minutes at best, and I hope to be back to normal around Christmas.

Surgery.......hopefully minor

So it seems my mom was right over 30 years ago. After numerous sore throats and bouts with strep, my mom begged my pediatrician to please ok the tonsillectomy. But he wouldn't. It was the later 70's and our doctor at the time said that the tonsils were too important and they didn't believe in taking them out. No matter how adamant my mom was, the doctor was more so. Now it is 2008....

Yeah the ENT doc said they needed to come out. He was around in the 70's, albeit a much younger doctor, and he said that they did indeed recommend not taking them out unless absolutely necessary. Well, he said my case should have been a necessary one, but both of my pediatrician have now passed, so here we are......

Surgery, December 10. Tonsillectomy, deviated septum repaired (who knew I couldn't breathe out of the one side of my nose, I thought that's how we were supposed to breathe), and a "growth" in my nasal cavity that needs to be removed. Fun stuff, and it looks that it will be 2-3 weeks before I can resume my full eating habits. I should drop some weight too, and by the looks of my gut now, I need to. Since I switched jobs I've added almost 15#. YIKES!!!!

I'm just glad I am finally here. I've waited 2 months for this, and I'm tired of feeling crappy. So hopefully I'll have an update soon afterward this week, and hopefully nothing out of the ordinary.

Random thoughts......

I bit the proverbial bullet and decided it was time to start a blog. Professional or personal, I really don't know where this thing will go, but that is what is great about blogs. They can go just about anywhere. I have written for more than a few trade journals in my life, but I think this may be the first time I write "uncensored". I'm not saying I have written "blue" in the past, but what I have written sometimes didn't make the cut. Understandably, sometimes it wasn't a great article, or sometimes it was just what someone else had written a couple months' prior. But now I am free to write away, so I will. Beware!!!!!

You know, I have now been away from my life in golf maintenance now for the over 8 months. It seems like an eternity ago since I last sat on a spray rig, scouted disease on a green, or wondered how in the hell we'd get the place mowed with people out sick. But I have come up with a list of things that I miss and that I don't, and this in no way is a shot at the incredible professionals who are superintendents. It is just my way at looking back at 17 years in this industry.

WHAT I MISS
Sunrises and sunsets
Running a Cushman through a sprinkler mist with my sons in the hot afternoons
Spraying (I loved spraying, it meant I was doing something important to help my turf, or in some cases, hinder my turf)
Fertilizing (another favorite)
Crew comradery
Fridays at 7pm
Instant gratification
Using my mind to figure out what ails my greens
Other superintendents who helped at a moment's notice

WHAT I DON'T MISS
330AM
1000PM
Irrigation leaks at midnight
Stuck heads
Equipment breakdowns
Scalped turf from poor judgments
Employee issues
Dragging hose
Mother Nature winning everytimee
Working every Sunday for 17 years
Greens committee meetings
Idiots on green committees

There, just a few. There are times, like at a one day conference I attended yesterday, where I missed being a superintendent. Seeing old friends and talking shop.......but one of my colleagues at Grigg, Gordon Kaufmann, PhD, said something to me a couple of weeks ago that summed up my new life in golf. With Grigg has come a better quality of life for me and my family. In the end, that's what really matters, and it is nice being a dad and husband again to my family.