Word from around the Golfdom

July is a pivotal month for many golf courses across the nation. It’s also a month I find myself on the phone a lot. ¶ From my home office in Eudora, Kan., I can’t see what my readers are experiencing at their facilities. So I typically go through my contacts and dial up about a dozen guys on a Friday morning, and leave voicemails. My network is kind enough to call back, typically before the end of the day.

The question I ask is a simple one; “What’s it like being a superintendent in July of 2014?” And then I listen. Here is what some of my network reported back.

A superintendent in Pittsburg told me this was their best July in 30 years, weather-wise. Ideal temperatures, ‘sufficient’ rainfall, low humidity. Life was good, it sounded like, which was music to my ears.

He did report that he was having troubles finding good help, both crewmembers and assistants. He also told me he was offering ‘top dollar’ for an assistant, but the applicants he was getting didn’t pass the muster. (If you’re a talented assistant looking to relocate to the Pittsburgh area and want to know my source, my contact info is below.)

A funny story he told me about one laborer: He was training him on dragging hoses around the course. It was the second green they had stopped at, and he was showing him how he wanted the hose unloaded. The laborer looked at him and said, ‘Yeah, I’m not doing that.’ Confused, he looked at the guy to see what he meant. ‘I quit,’ the guy said, flatly. So he drove him back to the maintenance facility, dropped him off at his vehicle, never to be seen again.

Down in Florida, a contact tells me labor is also a problem, but it’s because of a lack of money in the labor budget. The reason? Obamacare.

“I don’t even understand Obamacare, but it’s hurting my course,” he said. “It’s hitting my labor budget, and it’s also hitting my herbicide/fungicide budget. This isn’t the kind of stuff I was hoping to deal with when I got into this business. I just want to grow grass!”

Down in Georgia, a normally positive superintendent surprised me with a lot of negativity. The reason? A longtime co-worker had just been unceremoniously dumped. Now he is the longest tenured employee at the facility. Does the bull’s-eye land on him by default, he wondered?

His other complaints: high sod prices with a lack of availability, budget cuts and foreclosures. Sounds like a bummer summer.

How are things on the West Coast? I was surprised to learn, when reaching an old friend in California, that he had recently lost his job. “I think it was political,” he said, noting he had already found a new job, but not as a superintendent.

Aside from that shock, he told me what I already knew: the drought in California is the No. 1 topic of conversation out that way. “If you don’t have reclaimed or recycled water, you’re in trouble,” he said. “Courses are letting areas brown-out. Everyone is watching every drop of water. There better not be any overspray onto a cart path or a parking lot.”

Most of this information was posted to Twitter as I received it. Follow us @Golfdom to get the most current information from the magazine.

And I’d love to know what is going on in your neck of the woods as well. My email address is below. Drop me a note and tell me what it’s like being a superintendent in August of 2014. I’m always looking to grow my network.

Not your typical column from me this month… this one is all over the place. But that’s also where we want to hear from — all over the place.

Photo: freedigitalphotos.net / patpitchaya