Stuck in the middle

I consider our team here at Golfdom HQ lucky — we cover an industry rich in interesting topics, colorful people and of course, beautiful scenery. While the industry has been in turbulent waters for a decade, I’m thankful to be in this business. If North Coast Media Editorial Director Marty Whitford ever asked me to trade places with him and take over his publication, Pest Management Professional magazine, I would have to challenge him to a death match.

I would lose — he was in the Navy, after all — but it gives you an idea about how much I cherish my job and enjoy this industry.

Yet this issue was a challenge (but not to the death, I don’t think. I’ll only know if I ever live to read this in physical print.) The cover story, part two of our three-part “Labor Pains” series, started out as a story on H2-B labor. Then it evolved, or devolved maybe, into something broader.

In part one of the series, published in April, we focused on the plight of the assistant superintendent. All of our sources seemed to be on the same page for that one — assistants are underpaid and overworked, and a gradual change needs to come about or else we’re going to lose these people to other industries.

In August we’ll publish the third and final part of the series. The focus on that installment will be on some outside-the-box thinking to overcome the dwindling labor pool. I won’t give too much away, but let’s just say we want to end on a high note, a hopeful note.

Which brings me back to this middle part of the series. Like a middle child, this one struggled finding it’s identity. If this were the original Star Wars trilogy, this story is our “Empire Strikes Back” — a lot of the good guys getting their butts kicked, but still hopeful despite the ominous outlook.

A lot of superintendents we talked to for the story aren’t quoted. Many of the interviews were informal conversations, just trying to learn about the difficulties that superintendents, who already are behind-the-scenes people, are experiencing behind the scenes with labor.

One of those calls was to my friend Robert Guerra, superintendent at Reunion Resort in Orlando, where we host the annual Golfdom Summit. Robert provided some useful insight to the story (you’ll see him quoted in the story), but the best thing he brought was the simple reassurance that this is a top-of-mind topic with our readers, worthy of a cover story, even if there are more questions than there are answers.

In two months we’ll share our final installment of the series. That story will have some of the answers we found while speaking to people from around the country. If you have some thoughts on how golf maintenance can resolve its labor issues, please reach out to us and share some of those insights.

As you’ll see in this month’s Starter feature, the annual Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association awards were recently held in Tampa, Fla. The Golfdom team and our sister publication, Landscape Management, had a really good showing. I’m always nervous about how we’ll do at these awards. I knew it must have gone well when, once the program was over, the bartender handed me a beer and said, “Wow… you were up there (accepting awards) a lot!”

Thank you to my team: Pete Seltzer, Grant B. Gannon, Kelly Limpert, Ed Hiscock, Clark Throssell and all the contributors. But also, thanks to you, the reader, for helping guide us each and every year. From talking with you at regional conferences, the national Golf Industry Show or just taking our calls — reader insight is what keeps Golfdom strong.

So, to you, the reader: Keep up the good work. Let’s do it again next year.