I’ve been working on golf courses for 27 years. Every winter, without fail, I am asked the
same question when I tell some people what I do for a living: “what do you do
in the winter?” If I were not in this
industry I would have trouble imagining what is done on a snow and ice covered
huge plot of land. After all, no one in
Michigan is mowing their lawn or planting flower beds during those cold months
Following are some examples of the off-season work that is
paramount to the success of a golf course…
Mechanic, Dave Yeager, is hard at work overhauling the entire fleet of equipment. He has quite the
winter work load. Over one hundred
machines get overhauled and tuned up from December 1st to the
beginning of April. Dave prides himself
as a problem solver… he often, in the winter, implements new ideas and
techniques to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of daily work at the
UMGC.
Arborists, Dean Noworyta and Steve LeDuc, are sawing away. Every winter, there are many trees on the
course that demand attention. Some have
run their life course, some have diseases, some need dead growth pruning, some
are overgrown and their root systems are compromising the integrity of our
original 1930 greens. The trees that
require work are identified throughout the growing season, the information is compiled
and a master plan is set in place before the winter even hits. It seems like a brutal job but the project
is perfectly suited for the winter: frozen turf is beneficial because it allows
the use of large equipment and the felling of large trees (without destroying playing
surfaces.) Also, if anyone has ever been
a lumberjack before, you know that you sweat no matter the temperature and work
up quite the appetite (lumberjacks are known to burn up to 5000 calories a day).
Snow crew leader, Mark Richards, is in charge of snow
removal for the athletic campus. The
golf course is used throughout the winter in different capacities… as a parking
lot for games at Crisler Arena and as a space for meetings and events. It is also the new home of Event Management. The safety of our guests and employees is of
the upmost importance to the department.
That being said, snow removal is a consistent responsibility that
requires a lot of man power every week during the winter.
At the UMGC we have hundreds of golf carts—but none more
important than the maintenance fleet.
They take a beating every year hauling equipment and materials, pulling
trailers and driving over rough terrain.
On average, they get 3500 miles put on them every summer. They need body work and paint every
winter.
The Weisfeld Family Practice Center is one of the newest
buildings on athletic campus. It houses
the university Men’s and Women’s golf teams and is available to them year round
for training purposes. Every morning,
Greenskeeper Steve Plunkett, maintains the facility. This includes brushing, cleaning and rolling
the artificial turf in the indoor putting/chipping bay and making sure that the
student athletes can train in perfect conditions throughout the whole facility.
Just as the arrival of spring provides us with a
growing season and golfers, the winter brings with it the uninterrupted time
and project management that enables our course to be one of the leaders and
best! Our winter warriors, clad in
thermal wear and safety harnesses, smeared in mechanics grease prove that the
staff at the UMGC is always at home and working hard no matter what season it
is.
