The proper maintenance of golf courses, especially young golf courses, is probably the biggest challenge facing any golf club. In most cases, the annual cost of maintenance approximates to the entire annual subscription, thereby placing enormous pressure on golf committees to successfully meet the challenges presented. Budget overruns, administration costs, staff training schedules are all attendant problems familiar to most golf clubs. These can pose problems for committees operating on a voluntary basis.

Declan Branigan Design, through involvement with committees, have long identified these problems and have successfully put forward the novel concept of contract maintenance to overcome them.

Some of the benefits deriving from contract maintenance are:

• The cost of maintenance for 12 months is known from the outset, making financial management easier.
• Costly administration is avoided as all invoicing, wages, labour relations etc are somebody else's responsibility
• The professional staff are in place under the supervision of the principal of our company, a third level lecturer in golf course maintenance
• All aspects of maintenance, from soil testing and disease prevention to cutting heights are the responsibility of Declan Branigan Design and this obviates the need to employ agronomists to advise on matters of detail.
• Savings accruing from discounts available to Declan Branigan Design are passed on to the client making contract maintenance cost effective.