Blog Post

Recruiting

The recruitment of seasonal staff is one of the largest and most important endeavours tackled in the off season by the Turf Care Department.  The Assistant Superintendents spend a significant amount of time ensuring the proper people are brought on board to provide the best possible playing conditions at Priddis Greens.  As part of the department’s strategic goals there is a commitment to invest resources towards recruiting, interviewing, and training our team in preparation for the season.  The process begins in mid-January with a letter to all personnel from the previous year inviting them back.  Once we have established who is returning we focus our attention on acquiring new employees. There are many avenues used to meet the department’s requirement of 60 seasonal staff.  Some of which include referrals from our staff and membership, job opportunity websites, newspaper help wanted ads, and university career placement centers.  The Turf Care Department received over 70 applications to fill 16 positions of various capacities.  The pool drawn from was made up of excellent candidates with 6 new employees having previous golf course experience.

The Turf Care Department is fortunate this year to have a return rate of 74% for full-time seasonal employees and 68% for part-time.  The success achieved with such a large return rate can be directly attributed to the great working environment and the culture that has been fostered over the years in our department.  Those who have worked in Turf Care enjoy coming back year after year because of this focus put on the workplace.  Some have been returning for a few years while others are being recognized for 15-20 years of service.

Another key to staff retention is a development program in place with our part-time employees.  They are mainly comprised of high school students and the program sees them move up the ranks to full-time employment once they enter their university years.  We call them the Farm Team, very similar to that of a hockey team.  This allows us to groom them while they are young and prepare them for full-time responsibilities down the road.  There are currently 7 members of our full-time crew that are graduates of this program.

Course Update

It should be no surprise to any of us that Mother Nature has once again delayed the arrival of spring.  The Turf Care Team is still working hard in preparing the golf courses despite the 4 inches of snow received earlier this week.  Although there is not much Turf Care can do to the turf at this point, the crew continues to stay busy. 

There is a push to move snow with the tractor mounted snow blowers from the shaded sides of holes into the trees.  This helps facilitate drying out the turf in areas that would normally hang wet or hold the snow due to the low sun angles.

Turf Care staff are taking advantage of this poor weather by making progress with our tree management program.  Daily there are two chainsaws continuing the removal of dead and dying trees on the 36-hole property.  There is a crew working alongside them picking-up the logs and chipping all the branches as they go. You will be informed on a weekly basis as to when there is firewood available in the compound. 

Time is also being spent in the shop building golf course accessories that have recently arrived from our suppliers.  From benches to ballwashers, additions to the course both new and old are getting the once over to ensure they are ready for the upcoming season.

New Turf Care Twitter Feed

Please follow @PGTurfCare on Twitter for all the latest updates on conditions and other information regarding day to day golf course operations at Priddis Greens.