You get in at the crack of dawn, the first mower is already off the trailer, and somebody has asked where the bunker rake is. A day with no plan turns into a day of answering questions. A ten-minute plan stops most of that.
This page sets out how a working greenkeeper can plan the day, whatever tools you use: paper, whiteboard, spreadsheet or an app.
Start with what can't move
Before you hand out a single job, write down the fixed points. These decide everything else.
- Daily cutting: greens, tees, surrounds, as per your programme.
- Competitions, societies and any early tee times.
- Spraying or other work that depends on the weather window.
- Staff who are off, late in or leaving early.
Everything else fits around these. If you start with the nice-to-have jobs, the essentials get squeezed.
Check the weather and the course before you plan
Look at the forecast for the whole shift, not just the first hour. Wind decides whether you can spray. Rain decides whether you can get machines on the wet areas. Frost decides when you can start.
Then walk or drive the course. Ten minutes on the ground tells you more than any list: storm damage, a burst pipe, a vandalised flag, a wet patch you didn't expect. Write down what you find as jobs.
Split the jobs the way your team actually works
Match the job to the person, not just the machine. Think about:
- Who is trained and signed off on which machine.
- Who works well together and who needs a second pair of eyes.
- Who is better kept off a job that needs a steady hand late in the day.
Keep each person's list short enough to finish. A list of twelve things that can't be done in a shift just teaches people to ignore the list.
Put the order of work in writing
Give each job a clear place in the day: first, before play, after play, if time allows. "If time allows" jobs are the ones to drop when something goes wrong, so mark them properly.
Where one job blocks another, say so. Mowing a green before it has been rolled or hand-watered, or setting out a cup before the cut, are easy ways to waste an hour.
Brief the team in two minutes
A plan nobody has seen isn't a plan. Gather the team, or send it to their phones, and cover the same three things every day:
- What is on the course today (play, events, hazards).
- Who is doing what.
- Anything that has changed since yesterday.
Ask if anyone has a problem with their list before they leave the shed. It's far cheaper to move a job at seven than at eleven.
Check the machines before they leave the shed
A mower that fails halfway through a green costs you the green and the machine. A quick pre-start check, done by whoever is using it, catches the loose bolt or the leaking hose before it becomes a job. Record the check so faults don't get lost between shifts.
Close the loop at the end of the day
At the end of the shift, note what got done, what didn't, and why. Carry the unfinished jobs into tomorrow rather than losing them. Photograph anything you'll want to refer back to: a damaged area, a repair, a fault.
That record is also useful when the committee asks what the team has been doing, or when you need to remember what was done to a particular area last month.
Where a digital planner helps
Paper and a whiteboard work fine for a small team. They get harder when the plan changes mid-morning, when you want to send it to people's phones, or when you want a record of what was done.
TurfWise has a free day planner, built by a working greenkeeper who is still a course manager. The Core plan is free forever for one course and up to 6 people, with no card and no trial clock. It includes the day planner, team briefings, team chat, job capture with photos, and machine faults and service history. The phone app is coming soon. Core shows the latest 90 days of records, and your records are kept.
You don't need to use it to use the method above. But if you want the plan, the briefing and the record in one place, it's there.