Golf Course: Managing Performance Standards

A fundamental requirement in the use of performance standards is to manage a golf surface holistically.

It is important to understand the impact and influence changes to maintenance practices can have on the individual standards and how these might also influence, negatively or positively, the parameters of other standards. Cherry picking standards to measure and assess to arrive at an overall quality rating much higher than is representative on the ground is just cheating yourself and others and does not lead to the effective management of a golf course and builds-up problems which will typically require very expensive solutions, and which would not have arisen if managed effectively in the first place.

The use of performance standards in golf course management appears to be limited, primarily focused on green speed, as well as trueness of a green. (Linde D, Mitchell A. Hannan B. Comparing three methods to measure putting green trueness. Int Turfgrass Soc Res J. 2017; 13:264-274.)

Research has also identified that in one survey 54% of respondents indicated that quality standards would be beneficial in contrast to 31% who thought they would be either undesirable or very undesirable. (Brown S, Fry J. Golf course condition and playability beyond the greens. Int Turfgrass Soc Res J. 2022; 14:40–46.)

This relative lack of applied performance standards for golf course management may be more reflective of private golf courses than municipal courses because in response to the Local Government Act 1988, local authorities were required to provide services on the basis of competitive tendering, with many specifications including a varying range of performance standards within their specifications as a way of objectively determining the quality and cost-effectiveness of the service provided by the success tenderer, whether this was a private contractor or in-house contracting service.

Considering the size and value of golf management it is surprising that performance standards have not been more widely implemented as this better informs on inputs needed and the effectiveness and efficiency of the inputs to achieve outcomes that can be objectively measured.

Best use of resources is an important aspect of good management so without an objective measure of this in relation to outcomes, it is questionable how managers who do not utilise performance standards can fully justify resources used, as well as other statements such as progress towards sustainability, when reporting to golf management committees.

Most other sports surfaces, including support from the relevant Governing Bodies of Sport, have utilised performance standards in turf management since the 1990s, so the golf industry is able to identify how best to better utilise performance standards in the management of a golf course.

The approaches and surrounds to golf greens would be a sub-category of greens, or a separate category, with similar or intermediate parameters to that of a golf green and fairway.