The whiteboard in the sheds
Six o'clock, the greens team gathers in the sheds. The course manager writes the jobs on the whiteboard: cut greens, cut tees on the front nine, rake bunkers, change holes, strim around the pond on the fourteenth. People pick up keys and head out.
At eight the office rings. There is a society teeing off from the tenth at nine, and the mower on the tenth green will be in the way. Nobody in the sheds knew. The next day the club captain asks why the fairways were cut in the middle of the monthly medal. On Friday the manager wants to know when the ninth green was last verti-cut, and it is a question of checking a notebook, if anyone wrote it down.
Why greenkeeping and the tee sheet do not talk
The tee sheet belongs to the office and the pro shop. The greens team rarely has access, or if they do, it is a login on the office computer. So the team plans without knowing the golf that day, and the golf is booked without knowing the maintenance planned.
Jobs that repeat on a cycle, like verti-cutting, top-dressing, changing holes or cutting rough, are tracked from memory or a paper diary. When staff change, the history goes with them.
And there is little record of what was done where. When members complain, or when the committee asks about the course budget, the manager is working from recollection.
What that costs
| Problem | Effect |
|---|---|
| Team does not see early starts | Machinery in play, complaints from golfers |
| Cycle jobs tracked from memory | Tasks missed or done too soon |
| No record of work done | Hard to answer the committee or members |
| Staff absent at short notice | Jobs dropped with no one noticing |
| Office unaware of course work | Members booked straight into maintenance |
We give no advice on how to look after turf. That is the course manager's craft. What we build is the planning and record-keeping around it.
How we connect the greens team to the course bookings
- A daily plan screen for the sheds, on a wall screen or tablet, showing the tee sheet by time and starting tee, with competitions, societies and shotgun starts marked.
- The manager builds the day's jobs from a list of standard tasks and assigns them to staff and machines. The plan suggests an order that keeps ahead of the first groups, which the manager can change.
- Cycle tasks, such as hole changes or top-dressing, are set with the interval the manager chooses, so they appear on the plan when due and show what was last done.
- Staff mark jobs done on a phone, with an optional note or photo. Where the club wants it, the location is recorded, so there is a history by hole.
- When the office blocks tee times for course work, it shows on the greens plan, and the other way around: the manager can request a block from the plan.
- A simple history lets the manager answer when a green was last treated or a bunker was last rebuilt, and produce a summary for the committee.
Specialist turf management software exists, and if yours already covers task records, we connect the tee sheet to it rather than duplicating it.
A morning with the new plan
At six the team looks at the screen. There is a shotgun start at ten and a society from the first tee at eight. The plan sends the greens mowers to the first and tenth first, then the back nine. Hole changes are due today and appear on the list. A member of staff calls in sick, and the manager moves their jobs with a tap. By nine, the office can see which holes are finished.
- The team plans with the golf in view
- Cycle jobs appear when they are due
- A record of work done by hole
- Office and sheds working from the same picture
Signs the greens plan needs joining up
- Jobs are planned on a whiteboard each morning.
- The greens team finds out about early starts from golfers.
- Cycle tasks are tracked in a notebook or from memory.
- You cannot easily say when a particular job was last done.
- Members complain about machinery during competitions.