Golfdom Files: ‘Super sheds’ for course maintenance

Photo: Golfdom Archives

Looking ahead to next month’s Golf Industry Show (GIS), it’s easy to be hypnotized by the shiny new equipment and all the latest technology that’s designed to help superintendents keep their golf courses in perfect condition. Golfdom features professional-grade gear in “The Shop” every month, and this month, in addition to “The Shop,” we offer the latest equipment from 14 golf industry innovators in our GIS preview.

Purchasing aside, there’s always the thorny issue of where you’ll store that new equipment. In the January 1967 issue of Golfdom — the Convention Preview issue — Verne Floyd took a look at two golf course maintenance sheds. One of those sheds formerly had been a large dairy barn. In comparison, Floyd details a modern maintenance building for the time, complete with insulation and infrared heaters. How would your facility stack up against the golf course sheds of the ’60s?

As golf course construction nears completion, the problem of where to properly keep maintenance equipment and supplies generally is debated over and over. Extra expense is usually the main topic.

In some cases, the selection of maintenance buildings is planned in advance, as at Wilmington Country Club in Delaware. A spacious barn stood on the nearby Henry DuPont property that fit in well for access to all 36 holes of the golf course. Harry McSloy, superintendent at Wilmington CC, says that the large barn now offers ample space for his operations there. First floor dimensions of the old but solid structure measure around 180 feet x 40 feet. In separately walled sections of the first floor, equipment for everyday use is kept, and here also are located the shop, soil storage, fertilizer and superintendent’s office. The most active area of the former dairy barn is where the cows were milked. Here, on a concrete floor, are the greenmowers, oil and grease, shop and plenty of room where 25 men eat lunch. In the silo, McSloy stores his chemicals.

On the second floor, which is ground level at the back of the barn, large equipment such as fairway mowers and most other tractor-towed accessories, sprinklers and pipe are kept.

The maintenance building facility at Wilmington CC complements the surrounding area, whereas many other fine courses plant trees and shrubbery in an attempt to hide their inadequate golf course maintenance headquarters.

In contrast, a modern structure designed to fill the needs of today’s golf course may be seen at Cavalry Country Club, located in Manlius, N.Y.

Tom Bowen, superintendent, describes his new maintenance building as the envy of many of his golf superintendent pals in central New York state.

A fireproof structure of Republic Steel Trusspan, the building is 140 feet long and 30 feet wide. Six bays 20 feet x 30 feet each shelter the equipment and departmentalize the operation.

Six overhead doors 10 feet x 12 feet are at the front, with four at rear, permitting access from either side of the building to four bays. Windows are located in each floor at head level. With 10 steel girders per bay, the roof can support any possible snowfall. Clearance height of the interior is 14 feet. It is equipped with steel sash windows throughout, with fluorescent lighting adequate for night work. Much of the building is insulated and has infrared heaters.

The floor of the building at Cavalry CC is concrete. Three rooms, 10 feet x 10 feet each, at one end serve for office, utility and storage, locker and toilet.

Superintendent Bowen is proud of his maintenance building, just as he is proud that the outstanding Cavalry CC golf course was opened one week less than a year after construction started.