Golf Course Management 101

"Why The Decision to Repower Your Fleet is the Right Decision "

A large part of effective golf course management is understanding the balance between updating equipment and minimizing costs. The fact that golf course management equipment eventually wears out is simply a truth that must be dealt with.  No matter what degree of maintenance or quality of work is put into preserving the equipment you only end up delaying the inevitable.  Therefore the real goal here should be to delay the inevitable as long as possible to help minimize the cost of entirely replacing your current equipment with new equipment. Delaying the inevitable is more easily said than done, after all it can take a lot of work to properly maintain and upgrade equipment; there are however very good reasons to try and use equipment for as long as possible before replacing it.

Often times your golf course management equipment is physically sound, but just needs a new motor.  The motor after all is the heart of the machine, and is the piece that works the hardest and therefore it is not unreasonable to expect it to be the first thing that goes.  Instead of replacing the entire piece of machinery why not instead simply replace the motor with a repowered small engine.  Naturally the cost savings here speak for themselves.  Instead of purchasing an entirely new golf cart or other piece of machinery, you can purchase new small engines or a small engine rebuild kit to update the existing engine.  Choosing to update existing quality equipment instead of purchasing an entirely new one means that you will not only save money on the entire project, but you will also be making environmentally conscious decisions.

For instance when you choose to use repowered small engines in your golf course management equipment you will not only be saving money, but you will also be increasing their fuel efficiency over the stock engine that was supplied in the original piece of machinery. Because repowered small engines are newer, and often times produced to higher specifications than original motors you’ll find that the fuel efficiency of a repowered motor trumps that of an original stock motor thus saving you money in the long run on the cost of fuel; and as an added benefit you will be doing a good deed for the environment by both consuming less fuel, and producing less carbon dioxide emissions.

Some business people tend to forget that there is more to running a business than just respecting the bottom line.  They feel that there is no more important metric for judging their success then by evaluating this spending verse earnings ratio.  This is unfortunate, because there are so many more subtle nuances to running a business.  Of course managing expenditures is a huge part of running a business, but showing a responsible attitude towards the community in which your business resides is also a large part of being both a good neighbor and a good business person. 

Using repowered small engine kits or replacement engines helps to show that your golf course is interested in protecting both the beauty of your neighborhood, as well as the resident’s overall health; after all greenhouse gases are not just harmful on the global scale, they are also harmful on the local scale. Having fuel wasting golf course management equipment will affect the air quality around the entire neighborhood over time and you may soon find residents upset with the golf course.

Therefore why not take a more proactive approach and start by being a responsible neighbor and choosing environmentally responsible fuel efficient repowered small engine kits and replacement engines. No matter how you look at it your bonuses will be threefold, not only will you be saving money on fuel, but you’ll also be saving money on the cost of replacing equipment, as well as generating goodwill within a neighborhood for showcasing your environmentally friendly golf course management style. Though it is difficult to place a hard figure on this type of intangible investment in the community, it is generally better to play it safe and generate as much goodwill as possible before burning in a community bridges.