
What is involved in golf course maintenance?
Golf course maintenance is more complicated than mowing a lawn and turning on the sprinklers at night. In this guide, we’ll review important aspects of golf course maintenance, the chemicals greenskeepers use to treat turf, and the risks of falling behind on preventive maintenance (PM) tasks. We’ll begin by defining golf course maintenance.
What is the glossary of golf course terms?
Our glossary of golf course terms is one part of our larger Glossary of Golf Terms. If you need the definition of golf course term, we explain terms relating to architecture, maintenance, turfgrasses, course setup and other areas. The grid that appears first includes terms for which we have more in-depth definitions.
Are people in charge of golf course maintenance grumpy?
It’s no wonder that people in charge of golf course maintenance can sometimes get a little grumpy when they see players not being nice to “their” course.
Who are the staff at a private golf club?
There can be a number of 'officials' at a golf club, the list below gives you an indication of the personnel who help to run a golf club. The Secretary, or more commonly now known as the Manager, of a Private Golf club is the most senior of the full time professional staff employed by the club.

What do you call someone who maintains a golf course?
A golf course superintendent (or greenkeeper) is a person responsible for the care and upkeep of a golf course or a sport turf playing surface.
What do you call a golf course manager?
Golf course superintendent is also known as groundskeepers; their primary responsibility is to manage the labor, time, materials, and financial resources necessary to care for the turfgrass and golf course grounds.
What is a golf course worker called?
PGA teaching professionals are sometimes called assistants and work underneath the head pro. Many of them teach, work in the golf shop and coordinate golf course events and tournaments. These staffers are many times certified PGA professionals or in the PGA apprentice program.
What do golf groundskeepers do?
Golf course groundskeepers work with the course managers and professional landscapers to grow healthy grass and reseed and repair damaged grass. They use a variety of machinery to mow the grass to the required heights and eliminate weeds. They also apply pesticides to prevent bugs and weeds from growing in the grass.
What does a golf course marshal do?
Marshals are responsible for monitoring the pace of play, remind groups that fall out of position of ways to speed up pace, ensuring the golf course policies and dress code are followed in addition to providing guests high quality customer service.
What does a golf caddy do?
The biggest duty as a caddie is to carry the golf bag for the golfer. This involves not just carrying the clubs but handing the golfer the requested club when they're ready to use it. You will need to put the clubs back in the bag once the golfer is finished with their shot.
What is a golf cart girl called?
The best thing is a cool refreshing beverage and it's the job of the golf course beverage cart attendant to serve you. A golf course beverage cart attendant, commonly referred to as the beer cart driver, delivers drinks and snacks to golfers.
How do you become a groundskeeper in golf?
There are many routes into a career in greenkeeping. You might start with an apprenticeship, on-the-job training or you might undertake a full time college course. Each Golf Club has its own recruitment process, ranging from a single interview to a series of interviews and assessments.
How do you become a general manager of a golf course?
Career RequirementsStep 1: Obtain a Bachelor's Degree. Individuals may want to pursue a professional bachelor's degree in golf course management to improve their opportunities for employment and advancement. ... Step 2: Get Work Experience in Golf Course Operations. ... Step 3: Seek Management Positions.
What is the job description for a landscaper?
Duties include applying fertilizers, maintaining landscape design features, removing weeds/dead plant material and overseeing repairs as needed. The ideal candidate must be creative, have excellent problem-solving skills and organizational abilities to ensure the growth of plants in our landscaping business.
What do grounds crew do?
Primary responsibilities Manage all field prep including, but not limited to, turf management, fertilization, and disease control, edging, mound and plate prep, warning track maintenance, and infield playing surface maintenance. playability and player safety.
What does a pro shop attendant do?
The Pro Shop Attendant ensures inside components of golf operations is facilitated. This specifically relates to customer check in, customer booking, pro shop cleanliness, along with other responsibilities to maintain a professional Pro Shop. Meets and greets all guests in a friendly, courteous and professional manner.
What does a golf club manager do?
A Golf Club Manager manages a business that predominantly seeks to attract and retain customers who wish to play golf on an occasional, monthly or weekly basis, paying anything from a one off, daily rate all the way through to an annual membership fee.
How do you become a GM of a golf course?
Many golf course GMs have bachelor's degrees in business management, hospitality or administration, and some have pursued courses of study specifically in managing golf courses, including courses in finance and/or accounting.
What does a golf operations manager do?
Plans, promotes and directs all golf activities including daily management responsibilities. Prepares annual and monthly budgets for golf operations; takes corrective actions as necessary to help assure that budget goals are attained.
What is a golf professional?
Golf Professional Job Description. Golf professionals, commonly called golf pros, are members of the Professional Golfers' Association. Most golf pros coach individuals and small groups to help them improve their technique. They oversee and implement golf workshops, summer camps for children and golf tournaments.
Why do golfers hire caddies?
Golfers hire caddies to carry their golf bags and perform basic tasks. Caddies assist their golfers by handing them clubs as needed and storing them back in the bag after shots. Before each hole, a caddy must clean the golfer’s ball and clean the clubs throughout a game.
How does a caddy work?
Using an automatic rangefinder, a caddy calculates the distance between a ball in play and the green. Caddies who don't carry rangefinders calculate the distance mathematically, using distance markers located along fairways. At the green, a caddy must remove and replace the flag stick as the golfers make their putts.
How much do golf caddies make?
According to the ZipRecruiter career website, golf caddies earn an average annual salary of around $35,000.
How many hours do golf course divers spend underwater?
Golf course divers descend into the murky waters of ponds to retrieve golf balls. Equipped with scuba gear, divers spend up to 10 hours per day underwater. Divers usually work in teams of three or four people, swimming across the bottom to collect balls by hand.
What happens when a golfer lands a ball in a sand trap?
If a golfer lands a ball in a sand trap, the caddy must rake the sand after the shot to restore an even surface. When a golfer creates a divot in the fairway when taking a shot, the caddy must repair the green and plug the patch of grass. 00:00. 00:00 09:16. GO LIVE.
What does a greenskeeper do?
Greenskeepers maintain greens, fairways, roughs, and sand and water traps. They install and repair course fixtures, such as tee markers and benches, and at times move holes on greens . Greenskeepers prune hedges, trim trees and tend flowerbeds.
Who oversees the entire operations of a golf course?
The person who oversees the entire operations of the golf course is the general manager. He hires and manages staff, oversees the budget and implements marketing plans. At some courses, the general manager is also a PGA teaching professional. According to a number of job websites, as of 2010, a golf course manager's salary generally ranges ...
What is a staff professional in golf?
Staff Professional. PGA teaching professionals are sometimes called assistants and work underneath the head pro. Many of them teach, work in the golf shop and coordinate golf course events and tournaments. These staffers are many times certified PGA professionals or in the PGA apprentice program.
What is the job of a caddy master?
That person is the caddy master. His biggest job is to manage the course caddies, coordinate their work schedules and develop training programs for the caddies.
What are the jobs at golf courses?
There are a variety of possible jobs at golf courses, ranging from golf instructor to sales clerk to the laborers who cut the fairways and greens.
What is a head pro in golf?
Head Golf Professional. The golf course's head pro usually oversees the golf shop operations and the golf teaching staff. She is almost always a certified class-A PGA professional and generally has been an assistant professional or a staff teaching professional at a golf course or driving range. According to the PGA of America, as ...
What is a golf food and beverage manager?
The food and beverage manager oversees dining and food budgets, orders needed supplies, manages food staff and helps to coordinate special course events , such as golf outings. She may also work as a sales associate to help promote the golf course's dining or banquet facilities.
How do rangers manage golf?
Rangers manage play around the golf course by keeping tabs on pace-of-play and helping assist players with such things as misplaced clubs or a lost ball. Many starters and rangers are paid on an hourly scale.
What is the name of the grass that runs through a golf course?
Bermudagrasses have thicker blades than bentgrass, resulting in a grainier appearance to putting surfaces. Burn: A creek, stream or small river that runs through a golf course; the term is most common in Great Britain.
What is a water hole in golf?
Water Hole: Any hole on a golf course that includes a water hazard on or alongside the hole (in a position where the water can come into play).
What causes a putt to move in the direction of the grain?
If the grain is running across the line of the putt, it can cause the putt to move in the direction of the grain. Grass Bunker: A depression or hollowed-out area on the golf course that is filled with grass (usually in the form of thick rough) rather than sand.
What is a cup in golf?
Cup: The hole on the putting green or, in a more specific usage, the (usually plastic) liner-slash-receptacle sunk down into the hole on the putting green. Daily Fee Course: A golf course that is open to the public but is privately owned and operated (as opposed to a municipal course).
What is the second mowing in golf?
The second mowing is usually in a direction perpendicular to the first mowing. Double cutting is one way a golf course superintendant can increase the speed of the putting greens. Facing: A grassy incline up out of a bunker that slopes in the direction of a putting green.
What is a front nine hole?
Front Nine: The first nine holes of an 18-hole golf course (holes 1-9), or the first nine holes of a golfer's round.
What grasses are used in golf courses?
Some examples of cool-season grasses cited by the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America include colonial bentgrass, creeping bentgrass, Kentucky bluegrass, perennial ryegrass, fine fescue and tall fescue.
Quality Golf Course Maintenance Equipment
It never hurts to find ways to do your job better, whether it’s better techniques to save time or better golf course maintenance equipment to make things look beautiful and consistent, such as materials by TurfTime Equipment.
Golf Course Lawn Care Tips & Tricks
Along with the ability to access useful equipment like top dressers and groomers, people interested in better ways how to maintain a golf course can try some of these other strategies.

Overview
General Manager
- The person who oversees the entire operations of the golf course is the general manager. He hires and manages staff, oversees the budget and implements marketing plans. At some courses, the general manager is also a PGA teaching professional. According to a number of job websites, as of 2010, a golf course manager's salary generally ranges from $60...
Head Golf Professional
- The golf course's head pro usually oversees the golf shop operations and the golf teaching staff. She is almost always a certified class-A PGA professional and generally has been an assistant professional or a staff teaching professional at a golf course or driving range. According to the PGA of America, as of 2010, a head pro's yearly salary can range between $35,000 and $100,000.
Staff Professional
- PGA teaching professionals are sometimes called assistants and work underneath the head pro. Many of them teach, work in the golf shop and coordinate golf course events and tournaments. These staffers are many times certified PGA professionals or in the PGA apprentice program. Job websites estimate annual pay at between $25,000 and $60,000 as of 2010.
Course Superintendent
- To become a golf course superintendent, or head greenskeeper, you must have an education in agronomy or turfgrass management. The job is to take care of all the different varieties of grasses, trees and shrubs on the golf course, to manage the landscape crew and to handle the obstacles (heavy rains, storms, obsessive heat) Mother Nature may bring. The superintendent al…
Caddy Master
- Mainly at private golf clubs, someone is needed to oversee caddy operations, train caddies and coordinate caddy work. That person is the caddy master. His biggest job is to manage the course caddies, coordinate their work schedules and develop training programs for the caddies. According to sports and recreation job websites, a caddy master can make between $20,000 an…
Starters and Rangers
- To help manage tee times and player start times, and to help facilitate play around the course, golf clubs hire starters and rangers. The starter is the first tee's gatekeeper, managing the tee times as players begin their rounds. This position requires organizational skills and a personable demeanor, as starters welcome golfers to the course. Rangers manage play around the golf cou…
Food and Beverage Manager
- If the golf course has dining, bar or banquet facilities, there is likely a position for someone to manage this part of the golf club's operations. The food and beverage manager oversees dining and food budgets, orders needed supplies, manages food staff and helps to coordinate special course events, such as golf outings. She may also work as a sales associate to help promote th…