Organization and Training

How I Organized My Maintenance Operation

• The first step in getting organized is to create a “Calendar of Maintenance”. This is a very detailed list of all major maintenance practices over a full year period. First make individual month-by-month lists. They can overlap months if timing isn’t an issue. Use it weekly. Update this list every year. i.e.April: Pre-emerge 150 acres, complete March aerification, begin injecting wetting agent, prep. greens aerifiers, aerify bent tees first, run Graden on fairways, fill sink holes on stacked rock, update hazard stakes, algae control in ponds, prep. green fans, roll greens every Friday and put out ice machine.
• Update your irrigation as builts, or make some, and make good ones. This way you’ll know where every head, gate valve, green gate, mainline gate and drains valve are located. Go ahead and put all of your yardage numbers on the as built, as well. You can do the same for drainage as builts.
• Create lists of where your entire fairway and cart path drains are so the new guy can find them when they get clogged after a big storm. You can also make lists of where bunker rakes go and how many per bunker. Use list when cleaning rakes. Lists can also show where hot spots on greens are, where a crew needs to trim and where the tee maintenance guy needs to move tee blocks.
• In my quest for future problems, I made an irrigation failure response procedure that can also be used for training purposes. I created a spray technician checklist for use before, during and after each pesticide sprays.
• You can create a spreadsheet that automatically calculates the amount of fertilizer applied per tee, green, fairway and/or rough area, all on one sheet. Then you just enter the formulation or amount of N and it does the rest!
• Does anyone ever create bid sheets for chemicals and fertilizers and mail them out to all of your favorite vendors. Saves you time in the summer.
• I make up my own pesticide tests, much like the one the state uses and administer them to my applicators to see if they are ready for next spring.
• By the way, I hope that you all have hour meters on every piece of equipment and use a label maker to show hours when next maintenance is due.
• By the way, you need to keep track of your equipment. Make a log for each piece of equipment and the track maintenance done. When you buy new equipment, number the equipment, date of purchase, serial number, cost and expected replacement date. You can then use this spreadsheet in the future to make forecasts on what equipment will need replacement and why.