fr en en en en en en en en en en en en en en ms ms ms ms id en ms it ms ms ms en en ms nl ms en en en en en en en en id en en en en en id sv ms id id id ms en hbs_lat en id id fi ms id id id en nb de en fa fi id id ms ceb en en en en en en en en en en en en en en id id ms id id id en id id ms id pl en en tr en ms ms ms sv nb id nb nb en it ms ms hbs_lat ms en en en ms id ms id en en ms en en id war tr it id id ms en id en en pl en en en fr ms en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en pt ca en es es en tr en en en en es en ne en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en en fr ms en en en en en en en en pt en en en en en en en en en
The Consultant « Turf Matters
The Site To Go To For All Your Turf Matters
Increase productivity, cut labour. Try the AM61A
Get your Trees from this nursery
Enter your email address to follow this site and receive notifications by email.
Rumput di padang bola Malaysia
Kita Kasi itu Rumput.
Pengetahuan Sedikit atau Silap?
Kenapa padang golf Malaysia lebih baik dari padang bolanya? Bhg 1
Sprinkler: di luar atau dalam padang?
Sod kawasan botak: Memperbaik atau Membazir?
Lockdown: Apa nak buat pada rumput anda.
The Top Ten List
Hias-atas Utk Atasi Air
Falsafah Penyelenggaraan Padang Golf
Who Pays My/Your Salary?
Visit Malaysian Golf 2020
Beza ‘Hollow’ & ‘Solid’ Tine
Maklumat yang terkandung di dalam laman web ini adalah di beri tanpa sebarang waranti atau gerenti, samada di lafazkan atau ditafsirkan. Saya tidak memikul sebarang tanggungjawab untuk sebarang risiko berkenaan kesesuaian atau ketepatan maklumat dalam laman web ini. Saya tidak akan, dalam sebarang keadaan, bertanggungjawab untuk sebarang kerosakkan secara khusus, tak langsung atau diakibatkan oleh tindakan yang diambil atau tidak diambil dengan bergantung atau berdasarkan kepada maklumat di dalam laman web ini.
The information in this web site is provided without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied. I do not accept any responsibility for any risks concerning the suitability and accuracy of information in this site. I will in no event be liable for any special, indirect or consequential damages or any damages whatsoever, whether in an action of contract, negligence or other action, arising out of or in connection with reliance on or the use of any information in this site.
Pakar Rumput by Normas Yakin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
© Normas Yakin and Pakar Rumput, 2012. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site's author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Normas Yakin and Pakar Rumput with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Posted by mynormas on May 24, 2016
I was with a client Golf Course Superintendent (CS) and he was telling me about a golfer that was gushing about the improvements in his course and wonders how the CS could manage such work in a short time during one of Malaysia’s hottest weather period ever. The superintendent said “I told him that now, we have a consultant who…” I held up my hand “No, you were 70% of it” I said “You, and your people did all of the work. We had a discussion, yes, but you did the work. I have clubs that I have consulted for much longer and there was no difference, sometimes their condition got worse”
The CS blinked. “How could that be?” he asked.
“Well, not all superintendents are willing to listen. There are those who felt that a consultant was forced on them when they don’t need one. I have a superintendent who will do the opposite of my recommendations and there was one who would deliberately take my recommendations to extremes” I continued to give him two specific examples of the incidents.
Unfortunately for the golf course, when the CS did the opposite of my recommendations, it back-fired and as for the part where a superintendent took my recommendation to the extreme, I was lucky that in my report I showed pictures of two other clubs that received the same recommendation with good result because it was done with common sense.
I just could not bring myself to put those kind of things in my report or mention it to the management. In one club when the GM – who was a friend – asked my opinion about a CS related to one of the cases I spoke of earlier.  I told him “I think he should be promoted, either to be a club manager or perhaps laterally as operations manager”
“He is loyal, qualified, has good relations with golfers and perhaps he has been in one position too long, exposing him to other jobs may improve his morale and perhaps even open a brand new career path for him”
I told my client CS “Some days I just want to resign from being their consultant. It has come to a stage where it can be embarrassing to admit I consulted for them. The incidents I quoted were for the things that I can follow up on but what about stuff that I can’t?  Like fertilising or chemical applications?”
There are of course, other clubs that can be a challenge too, for example clubs that has a case of ‘the improvement lust is strong but the financial flesh is weak’. Watching TV turns them on but they have no money for Viagra (for the clubs that are in that position usually are at an old, Viagra-needing age already). So they hire someone who can give suggestions that they can’t act on. Honestly, I usually stay on at these clubs because the CSs there are usually hard-working and full of initiative.
Then there are clubs where the management are perhaps are not clear on what they want. “I want to improve my golf course” they said “Sure” I replied and a couple of months later they’ll say “My fairways are still wet”. I said “Your fairways are wet during the rainy season and we can only work on them when they’re dry, in the meantime, we work on your greens”. “But my greens are fine” one particular boss said. So I showed him the before and after pictures of the greens because somehow the young CS managed to improve the greens in just two months.
The only club – so far – that I have refused to work as a consultant for is a club that the GM would continuously reduce the cutting height after I have asked that they be raised because of health issues. When explained, he would feign understanding and agreement but it would happen again within an hour of me leaving the club. I was engaged under a friend’s company so I told the friend; “Sorry, I’m busy and can’t cope”.
There are also some superintendents who don’t like to be friends (tongue in cheek) with me. Whenever I go to a club, whether at the invite of the management or as a customer, I do my best to contact the superintendent beforehand but I don’t know everyone and some superintendents live like hermits with no friends in the industry or not a member of the association so I don’t know who they are in which case I usually tell the management to ‘make sure the superintendent know I am coming’. Once or twice the management will be red-faced to explain the absence of the superintendent “I met him this morning!” was one reply I got; there was one ‘Emergency Leave’ and a recent ‘Very Busy’.
In general, it has always been a good experience, I enjoy the work though yesterday my wife said that soon, maybe I should look for a permanent job without so much of traveling because “… you are not getting any younger”. Hard to argue with that, the traveling is the toughest part of this job.
When I first started this consultant business a friend remarked “I have always imagined you as a consultant” I wasn’t that surprised and asked why, assuming the answer to be my knowledge, experience and luck in working for big or award-winning clubs.”Because you are always smiling and approachable”
This entry was posted on May 24, 2016 at 10:15 am and is filed under Golf Course, Golf Course Superintendents. Tagged: golf course, golf course maintenance, golf course superintendent. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Leave a Reply Cancel reply
Enter your comment here...
Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:
Email (required) (Address never made public)
You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out /  Change )
You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out /  Change )
You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out /  Change )
Notify me of new comments via email.
Notify me of new posts via email.
Create a website or blog at WordPress.com
Join 2,402 other followers
Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.