The Business in Turf: An Inside Look

A breakdown of a superintendent's operating budget.

Oct 31, 2022

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Hey Golfers —

I spoke with several superintendents over the past week about the business and money on the turf and maintenance side of running golf courses.

It was a wide-ranging group — I spoke with a superintendent at a municipal golf course, a superintendent from a resort golf course, superintendents from private golf courses, and the team from Liberty National.

Let’s start with the operating budgets.

Most superintendents shared their operating budgets ranging from $500,000 to $1,500,000 annually.

A consistent theme was labor expense. Labor ranged from 50 - 70% of their total budgets. In one case — it was closer to 80% once you factor in benefits.

Remember that this labor expense isn’t calculated as a percentage of gross sales but as a percentage of the turf and maintenance operating budget. Regardless — running a golf course is an extremely labor-intensive business.

The remainder of the budget breakdown depends on where you are located geographically.

Jared Stanek — the Director of Agronomy at Toscana Country Club in the Palm Springs area, shared this tweet below. Water and seed are his top two line items in his budget. While most golf courses will have these as line items, they likely wouldn’t be in the top five most expensive items in a budget.

Jared Stanek @WyoJared

@DoerflerJared For a desert superintendent: 1. Water 2. Seed 3. Equipment Leases 4. Electricity 5. Fertilizer/Chems 6. Fuel All of the above have increased dramatically over the past 3 years, while dues or fees struggle to keep pace.

The second most common line item in a budget is chemicals and fertilizers — coming in at 12 - 15% of the golf course operating budget.

The rest of the budget?

Fuel
Seed
Water
Electricity
Equipment and Repair

Here is what a golf course with a $1.3 million turf and maintenance operating budget looks like.

From a labor standpoint:

Head Superintendent
Two Assistant Superintendents
Three Full-Time Employees
One Mechanic
Eleven Part-Time Employees

Based on the information I gathered — here is what an example budget could look like.

Most everyone I spoke with shared two concerns.

Price Increases
Labor

While most of the world is dealing with both of those items — golf courses have their perspective.

In most cases — fertilizer has gone up around 40% annually, and chemicals have gone up about 15% in the last year.

While seed may be a lower line item on most budgets — one superintendent told me seed is three times higher than it was two years ago.

Bottom line — golf course costs have exceeded the inflation rate last year, and it is starting to squeeze the operating margin. Golf courses are raising prices where they can — on golf cart rentals and membership fees.

Labor is a two-sided issue.

Golf courses are competing for labor with industries they hadn’t competed with in the past, like convenience stores and manufacturing organizations.

Labor used to be plentiful in the turf and maintenance side of golf. But other industries are paying more and taking some of that labor away — causing golf courses to increase labor. In my opinion — this is positive for the industry long-term but has caused somewhat of a short-term shock.

The second component of the labor issue is the lack of superintendents. Golf was generally on the decline from the mid-2000s to the pandemic. With golf booming and setting record numbers in various categories in the last couple of years — it has put golf courses in a difficult position. Not too dissimilar to the current Head Pro situation.

One superintendent I spoke with attended a major four-year university for his turf degree — he graduated ten years ago with 20 students. Today, that program only has four students enrolled.

Superintendents are getting creative in attracting talent to their teams. Some golf courses are paying employees to get their turf degrees. Liberty National spends time on its intern program — they bring in four per year and are always looking for talent.

For reference — here is a look at salaries.

The GCSAA conducted a compensation survey a little over a year ago. Here is a look at the average salaries.

Head Superintendent — $97,000
Assistant Superintendent — $48,000

In my conversations, you clearly understand one thing in the superintendent community: camaraderie.

When Liberty National has a PGA Tour event — they bring in 70 - 80 volunteers during the week. Tony Finau’s win at the Northern Trust resulted in a Monday finish. Which is a strain on a golf course — those volunteers went home and had to return to their regular jobs. Two neighboring golf clubs sent over 20 employees to prepare the course for the final round. Turf crews always seem to want to help their neighbor and competitor.

Superintendents have sophisticated jobs.