Lee Hancock is the General Manager and former Director of Agronomy at Prestonwood Country Club, in Cary, North Carolina.

Lee Hancock on the importance of being proactive in range maintenance:

We have 54 holes at Prestonwood Country Club, featuring a grass hitting area on our range, a short game area, and practice putting green. We’re an active facility – for example we host the SAS Championship on the PGA TOUR Champions and an HBCU event simultaneously, so it gets busy here often. Accordingly, to say our maintenance team has a lot to handle is an understatement. Throw on top of that noise restrictions that say we can’t do anything before 6 a.m. and it left us in a little bit of a conundrum nearly ten years ago: How do keep the range in great shape while also keeping the golf course in the best shape it can possibly be?

Lee Hancock on the business impact of being proactive in range maintenance:

About seven or eight years ago, we started noticing that by the weekend our range wasn’t looking how we would prefer it to. You can’t do maintenance one day a week (Mondays) and be set up for success. Additionally, because of the noise restrictions we can’t do it early in the mornings as we’d be depriving the golf course of its needed maintenance. So we devised a plan that entails attacking the Mondays, when the facility is either closed or after an outing has come through, and by closing for two hours, between 12:30pm and 2:30pm on Thursdays. That way we can fix the fields, replace divots, make the tee boxes the best they can and mow up against the edge of a pond that is right next to our range. That also gives us the time to work on our extensive teaching and short game area. Depending on the day and need there could be anywhere from 6-12 people working on the range. Has an occasional member been unhappy when they show up on a Thursday mid-afternoon looking to hit balls and find we’re closed? Of course, but they learn the pattern soon, and it has made such a difference for the quality of our range and for our instructors. So, if you’re struggling to get your practice facility to the level that you’d like it, take a look at your maintenance schedule. Inserting a closure could make all the difference.

If you would like to email the author of this Best Practice directly, please email lhancock@prestonwoodcc.com.