Sit. Stay…I said stay!

Working on a golf course outside in the turf department has been one of the greatest experiences of my life. I’ve learned more than just how to take care of grass, it has also given me lessons for life, and how to handle certain things. Yet one of the largest challenges for a golf course superintendent is hiring and keeping staff for an entire season.

The hours that go along with working in the turfgrass industry are a turnoff to a lot of people. 4:30am, 5:00am, those aren’t really attractive times to be showing up for work. The majority of the staff that are hired to work turf are younger, stronger bodies that are usually in the 15-25 year old range of people. These aren’t the people that enjoy early hours, and after many nights of partying and trying to get to work on time and sober, they tend to realize that this may not be the job for them. Mid-season is the hardest time, because this is when staff have realized this is not the job for them, if that is how they feel, but no one is really in need of a job. Everyone looks for jobs at the same time, and it is hard to persuade someone to take a job that they are only going to be employed for a few months.

I think that if you can control yourself, know when you have to work and know when you can go out, you can still live a balanced life. I won’t lie and say I haven’t had a few hard mornings, but I have learned from my mistakes. Once I figured out how to balance my work life and my social life, I started to reap the rewards of working at 5:00am. Never before have I seen more beautiful sunrises than on a golf course.

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