“What’s the most unusual or unexpected challenge you’ve encountered while maintaining the course?”
Without a doubt, Human Beings outside the fence!
(I am hoping others will also share their stories!)
All Turf Managers can talk to you about unusual situations with human beings from the outside of their business, but you never know what you will find these folks doing on your property. I will make it easy and just list some things that I have found or seen over the years.
- A young woman jogging on the golf course one morning with nothing on but a white tee shirt.
- A 15 foot tall zelkova tree planted in the middle of my first green.
- A car upside down on my men’s third tee.
- My 11th fairway with hundreds of divots where a large group of human beings were hitting golf balls back and forth all night.
- Defecation in cup liners.
- A couple naked having sex on a green. (Many times, not the same couple)
- A man kissing and embracing a female member of the club on the 5th tee as the sun was just starting to come up. He was not her husband or another member.
- About 20 kids having a beer party on a double green with coolers and a fire.
- Many many cars and motorcycles doing doughnuts on greens.
- People skinny dipping in the pool.
- Many four-letter words etched in greens or drawn in bunkers, WITH pictures.
- A tent with people camping behind the 17th green.
- Police were called and all members had to come in when a man appeared with a gun.
- Many people just jogging through on cart paths waving.
- People fishing in the pond in the flight path of golfers shots.
Think of these situations backwards. What needs to be done first to last? What is the most important task / to the least important? Do the best that you can, with who and what you have to work with, and call on reliable experts you may have on standby if necessary. KNOW what can wait until tomorrow, or a week from now. In other words, have your play sheets written up and posted… Just in case you are unavailable, get pulled away, or are in another situation. Have your number two and three backup personnel ready to take over and perform the plays! Keep the extended turf family you have within your business in mind, as they may be willing to help at any moment. We ALL know we are in this together!
I’ll stop here. The challenge is fixing what has been disturbed, costing time and labor!
PLEASE ADD TO THIS LIST AFTER READING!!!
Mark S. Merrick, CGCS Retired
Introducing ‘Merrick Mondays’, a segment where we hear from Mark Merrick, our resident brand Ambassador, Chief ‘Cool” Officer, and general source of wisdom and secrets of the universe, to spotlight a dose of interview-style content, weekly.