Maintenance costs of Links courses

andyoz

Probably discussed here already but...

After my first years membership of a links course in Donegal, it struck me it seems cheaper to mainatain a links course compared to parkland. Bunkers need less TLC, fairways grass cutting/watering is less intensive.

Are links courses more likely to survive the crisis than others and is golf going full circle and coming back to links..

carlspackler

andyoz wrote: »

Probably discussed here already but...

After my first years membership of a links course in Donegal, it struck me it seems cheaper to mainatain a links course compared to parkland. Bunkers need less TLC, fairways grass cutting/watering is less intensive.

Are links courses more likely to survive the crisis than others and is golf going full circle and coming back to links..

In theory, links golf courses should be more sustainable than parkland. After all a parkland course has been manufactured whereas a links has for the most part, formed naturally.

Generally speaking though, Links courses are maintained to a higher standard than parkland courses in this country.


This extra level of maintenance involves more staff, which is where most expense is accrued.

thewobbler

Generally speaking though, Links courses are maintained to a higher standard than parkland courses in this country.

As generalisations go, this one sweeps like Mary Poppins on speed.

andyoz

It's all the exepnses such as water costs, diesel costs for the fairway mowers, etc. They are all creeping up and it appears to me a links course is less affected by cutbacks in this compared to a manicured parkland course.

I just find it interesting if golf is starting to go full circle which seems to happen in all areas of life.

carlspackler

thewobbler wrote: »

As generalisations go, this one sweeps like Mary Poppins on speed.

As someone involved in Green keeping, I think I'm well placed to make this assertion.


If you want a little further proof, check out the golf digest Ireland rankings. How many of the courses in the top 20 are parkland courses? The answer is 4.

Aesop

I think courses that will struggle in coming years are ones that have invested large amounts of money in the good times and now have large debts to pay off in the bad times which has little to do with the course type. I think all courses will struggle to keep annual maintenance costs at bay but in fairness while some things are going up in price (diesel) some things are actually decreasing in cost (cost of labour, building materials). On the other hand some links courses could have serious problems that require huge investment e.g. sea erosion, while at the same time not having as many foreign (American) golfers paying very expensive green fees as before. Also some of our coastal areas are sparsely populated so maintaining a regular playing membership is difficult. Long story short links courses may look like they have cheaper overheads they will have other financial difficulties which I would say are even more difficult than maintenance costs to overcome. You can cut back on maintenance costs, you can't overcome the fact that the sea wants it's land back.

As for people returning to links? I don't think they ever left. Most golfers I know would love to play links regularly but for reasons of cost or more often geography just don't have the choice. The nature of links courses will be that there will always be more demand than supply hence the abundance of €150 plus greens fees being charged by links courses. I don't think the demand has increased significantly recently? If anything links green fees have probably moderated slightly in recent years.

david

carlspackler wrote: »

As someone involved in Green keeping, I think I'm well placed to make this assertion.


If you want a little further proof, check out the golf digest Ireland rankings. How many of the courses in the top 20 are parkland courses? The answer is 4.

Condition is well down the list of what makes a good golf course. What about Layout, Value, Difficulty, Location, Facilities?

Also the closest thing I've seen to impartial course ratings would be 'Hooked' by Kevin Markham. Don't for a second think that any magazine selling advertisement space is going to put out an unbiased Top 100 list . There were a lot of unexpected entries in that list.

carlspackler

david wrote: »

Condition is well down the list of what makes a good golf course. What about Layout, Value, Difficulty, Location, Facilities?

Also the closest thing I've seen to impartial course ratings would be 'Hooked' by Kevin Markham. Don't for a second think that any magazine selling advertisement space is going to put out an unbiased Top 100 list . There were a lot of unexpected entries in that list.

Macreddin is a fantastic course, a course I know well and love playing. I myself have worked on both links and parkland courses and would take working on a parkland over a links.

However, I'm not blinkered enough to believe that even the best parkland's can compete with Royal county Down, Royal Portrush, Ballybunion or Portmarnock. Thats location, condition, difficulty, facilities, layout. They can easily beat them for value though.

thewobbler

Carlspeckler, I really don't want to dismiss your opinion, but the reason why links courses dominate the top 20 is because they're links courses. Most of the assessors favour links golf, it's that simple. It's got sod all to do with condition

carlspackler

thewobbler wrote: »

Carlspeckler, I really don't want to dismiss your opinion, but the reason why links courses dominate the top 20 is because they're links courses. Most of the assessors favour links golf, it's that simple. It's got sod all to do with condition

Well if that is true, it still doesn't mean that, in general, links courses are maintained to a higher standard.

Without getting into the green keeping side of why that's so, from my experience as a golfer, I haven't seen a parkland course that could compete with, say, Portmarnock, for playing surfaces and bunkering.

You may say conditioning doesn't matter but the most talked about topic on golf courses is the quality and speed of the greens. Followed closely by the playability of the bunkers.