Caring for a golf course is a 365-day-a-year proposition. That includes the holiday season. As Jim Sprankle says, “The grass doesn’t know it’s a holiday.”
Sprankle is the head superintendent at the Loxahatchee Club in Jupiter, Fla. The private facility was completed in 1985 and Jack Nicklaus considers it one of his best design efforts.
The peak season at the club begins after New Year’s Day, but the club is open for business through the Christmas holidays except for Christmas Day itself. Sprankle, who has been at Loxahatchee since 2007, must make sure he has sufficient staff on hand while still allowing his crew some personal and family time.
“I try to give the staff their time off prior to January 1st,” he says. “If they want to take time off around Thanksgiving or Christmas, we let them do that (but) on January 1st we have our entire staff available.”
To be sure he has sufficient manpower on hand, Sprankle allows a maximum of two staffers to take vacation at any one time, for a maximum of two weeks at a time. Employees are encouraged to request time off as far in advance as possible, a month or two at minimum. The system ensures that sufficient staff will be available on any given day and also saves the workers, some of whom travel long distances for vacations, to save money by making travel plans in advance.
This approach is necessary because Sprankle’s staff numbers just 20, much smaller than many similar clubs. That includes himself plus two assistants and two mechanics. Of that number, a total of 15 do the nuts-and-bolts work on the golf course. There is no spray technician on staff; the assistant superintendents handle those responsibilities. Due to the long tenure of many employees, one or two employees are on vacation at any given time, meaning Sprankle is working with a crew of 13 or so.
Over the Thanksgiving weekend, the crew worked half days, meaning two days of work was accomplished over four calendar days. Because Christmas Day falls on a Friday this year, Sprankle anticipates having a similar schedule in place for that weekend, barring unforeseen circumstances such as weather issues. The club was deluged by heavy rain during the first week of December.
On New Year’s weekend, the crew is scheduled to work until 3 p.m. on New Year’s Eve. The crew will then mow until 9:30 a.m. on each of the following three days. New Year’s Day is considered a paid holiday, so Sprankle must be conscious of his overtime budget.
“On Christmas Day, the grass continues to grow,” he says. “If you’re not around, it doesn’t matter. We come back and go all out to try to get back in shape. Then you have another holiday with New Year’s Eve on the 31st and New Year’s Day is Friday. So you’re looking at a Thursday-Friday-Saturday-Sunday with not a lot of work getting done for two weeks in a row.”
The bottom line is Sprankle and his team must plan well in advance to make sure they accomplish everything they need to and then some during non-holiday weeks to make up for the time they lose on holiday weekends. The issue is complicated by the fact that the club will shut down in early May for a regrassing; the members at Loxahatchee will be looking to play as much golf as possible prior to that. It’s up to Sprankle and his team to have the golf course ready for them.
“We don’t have the luxury of the grass slowing down in our location,” he says.
Rick Woelfel is a writer based in Willow Grove, Pa., and is a frequent GCI contributor.
