"Sending Off Party"

Yesterday I bought the crew pizza for lunch as a treat to show them how much they are appreciated.  Also it was the last day for 3 full time employees, so I wanted to send them off on a positive note.  Due to budget constraints I am forced to lay off Jorge, Raul, and Franco until the beginning of March.  

JORGE

Jorge has been here for just over a year so he's a recent addition to our staff, although he has many years of experience working on golf courses.  He is a very hard worker and we will miss him. 

RAUL

FRANCO

Franco and Raul have been working with us for the last 13 years so saying "good by" to them is like loosing a part of your family.  Their commitment and dedication to our operation and this Club is exemplary.  My hope is that yesterday's "good bye" was really just a "see'ya later" and that next years operating budget will be able to support their employment again with "full time" status. 

As you look outside today, it's clear that we are now in the off season.  Considering inclement weather and our reduced staff size, golf course conditioning becomes more of "do it when we can", instead of "do it because we can".   Mowing rough or fairways is difficult since it involves the use of big equipment.  We can usually do those things when we get at least 48 hours of no rainfall, so you can expect that to get done at least once every couple weeks.  We mow greens and tees by hand so we can almost do that anytime it's not frozen.  Raking bunkers is rarely a good use of labor this time of year but at least once a week we need to blow out the debris in them which means they will also get raked that often.  We have several projects we want to complete this winter so our hope is to set aside time to get those done while not compromising the quality of our putting greens.  This is always a challenge as Mother Nature is now in control and everything we do is determined by weather.  Please keep that in mind if you get the opportunity to play some golf this winter.