The dangers of comparisons

Judge Smails: Ty, what did you shoot today?
Ty Webb: Oh, Judge, I don't keep score.
Judge Smails: Then how do you measure yourself with other golfers?
Ty Webb: By height.

This is one of my favorite quotes from Caddyshack & how appropriate right now. Everybody is not happy with what Mother Nature has done to their turf & wants to know how they compare. Unfortunately, this takes away from the focus what needs to be done & how quickly can we stop the bleeding & get the patient back on his feet.

Here are some comments I've heard this summer (& the flawed reasoning behind it).

Golfer to Golf Course Superintendent
"This is the worst course in the area" (I just played your course recently & it looks nothing like the other golf course I played the member/guest at in early June)

Owners/Members to Golf Course Superintendent
"This is the worst this course has ever looked" (Having the worst summer in 20 years, the fact that the maintenance budget has been cut, you have less people than before, we've never done the capital improvement we all agreed needed to be done, etc cannot be an excuse for the way the golf course looks)

Golf Course Superintendent to Traveling sales rep
"How does my course compare to the others you've seen?" (Should we look better based on other courses with different budgets, grass types, amount of labor, age, products used, employee compensation levels, etc?)

The one thing universal: no two situations are the same. The focus should be on knowing the weaknesses of your site* & allocating the tools to optimize the resources best. If soil structure is the problem, don't spend anymore money in N-P-K fertilizer next year. If water movement is the problem, don't waste time looking at different fungicides. Because if this year teaches us anything; we now know the weaknesses of the programs & properties we deal with everyday.

IN SUMMARY
Identify your challenges
Prioritize your efforts to solve those challenges
Implement & Communicate the plan.

Let me help you in anyway I can & good luck!

LIST OF POTENTIAL WEAKNESSES (Please feel free to add on. Remember every course is different)
* quality of initial construction
* irrigation systems that have gone done at the worst times