Maintenance crew right of way Cancel The title field is required!

1. Becwar Benjamin G

   
   5/16/2014 11:05 AM

   I seem to remember a picture of a sign that was posted on the first tee box of a golf course that stated that the golf course maintenance crew always had the right of way. I am trying to find that picture again. For some reason I want to say the sign was at Bandon Dunes??
   If anyone has a sign stating this or something similar could you please post it, I would like to see an example of it, I have convinced my BOD to put a sign up (not that it will solve the problem but hopefully it will give us something to help the cause).
   
   Thanks,
   Grant

   
   
   
   
2. David Brandenburg

   

   3 posts
   
   5/17/2014 10:05 AM

   Grant, With due respect to your facilities goals and guidelines we take the opposite approach here. We tell the maintenance staff "The customer is paying you to wait for them. you do not pay the customer".
   
   Of course there is no reason to ever hit at a employee working on a hole but we would rather the employee got out of the way.

   
   
   
   
3. Larry Allan

   

   0 posts
   
   5/18/2014 11:05 AM

   Hi Grant, I think the poster you are looking for is an Australian thing. I couldn't find it but found something similar which I have attached. Look at # 3

   
   
   
   
4. Becwar Benjamin G

   
   5/19/2014 8:05 AM

   It has always been and will continue to be preached to the maintenance crew that they need to clear fwy, green ect. when golfers are approaching. The idea of some sort of sign posted on the first tee is just a reminder (specifically for one or two groups that tee off first thing in the morning and play 18 holes in right around 2hrs.) that the maintenance staff is going as fast as they can, if you happen to catch the guy cutting the cup on the 17th or 18th green that you need to let him finish his job instead of just hitting into the green when his back is turned towards you and yelling fore one second before the ball would hit him. Or another example is that if the fwy mower knows he has only one half of a pass left to finish that fwy he should be allowed 20-30 seconds to finish then he will leave. not allowing that 20-30 seconds could cost him 5+ minutes in the long run if a ball happened to land directly in that last pass, he would then as instructed move out of the way and let the players have there space to play the hole out.
   That said, its not intended to let a rough mower completely finish mowing a hole while making the customers wait for him on the tee box.
   I've personally had to bail off my fwy mower cause I was going to get hit, I had just about 60ft left on a pass when the guy decided he would hit right into me, and had my bucket I carry while changing cups hit that was just a few feet from me in the last 2 weeks(both by the same group of golfers) not to mention the guy weed eating bunker edges that didn't see the golfers yet when they decided to hit up and nailed him in the side of the head.
   In no other business I can think of does the owner/owners of the company have any less regard for their own employees safety than in the golf maintenance business.
   Many accidents can be avoided if golfers were just a little more patient. That's all we are trying to do.

   
   
   
   
5. James Smith

   

   112 posts
   
   5/29/2014 10:05 AM

   Sounds like you need to talk to these groups yourself. placing a sing down will not change their attitudes.
   
   There should be an expected time of play for your course. this works both ways in playing too long and playing too fast. If anyone tees off before our first 7am tee time our course workers has complete right of way. If a twosome is playing too fast and catch up to my workers on the backside they have two choices; wait until we are done or skip the hole! In my 20 years at my club I have effectively talked to most everyone that falls into these issues and made sure they understood their options. While we are closed on Mondays I do not run any members off that come out to play as long as they do not interfere with our operations. The one on one talks to these people worked wonders. I simply explained what my crews goals are and that we are positioned to complete our rounds for every golfer that uses tee times correctly. They all understand and I generally do not have any issues with them.
   
   A two hour round is way out of the normal time and needs to be addressed. because of their quick play they are endangering your crew members and that is unacceptable. Maybe a word to them about being more understanding of your crew in conjunction with a work to your crew about allowing these groups to pass through as quickly as possible can solve the issues.

   
   
   
   
6. Nicholas Daak

   

   3 posts
   
   10/13/2014 7:10 PM

   We used to have a problem with walkers coming out and playing at sun up. As far as I know they never payed their green fees and would finish 9 holes before the clubhouse opened. I then decided to set the irrigation time on the first tee to shut off about 10 min before first scheduled tee time. We no longer had free walk ons and it gave us plenty of time to do what we needed to do in front of the first groups.