Greenskeepers: Salary, career path, job outlook, education and more
Greenskeepers maintain golf courses. Their work is similar to that of groundskeepers, but they also periodically relocate holes on putting greens and maintain benches and tee markers along the course and provide more intense turf maintenance. In addition, greenskeepers keep canopies, benches, and tee markers repaired and freshly painted.
- Education Required
- Although most grounds maintenance jobs have no education requirements, some employers may require formal education or certification in areas such as landscape design, horticulture, or arboriculture.
- Training Required
- A short period of on-the-job training is usually enough to teach new hires the skills they need, which often include how to plant and maintain areas and how to use mowers, trimmers, leaf blowers, small tractors, and other equipment. Large institutional employers such as golf courses, university campuses, or municipalities may supplement on-the-job training with coursework in horticulture, arboriculture, urban forestry, insect and disease diagnosis, tree climbing, or small-engine repair.
- Job Outlook
-
The projected percent change in employment from 2016 to 2026: 10% (Faster than average)
(The average growth rate for all occupations is 7 percent.) - Advancement
- Grounds maintenance workers who have good communication skills may become crew leaders or advance into other supervisory positions. Becoming a manager or a landscape contractor may require some formal education and several years of related work experience. Some workers use their experience to start their own landscaping companies.
- Licenses/Certifications
- Most states require workers who apply pesticides and fertilizers to be licensed. Obtaining a license usually involves passing a test on the proper use and disposal of insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides.
- Median pay: How much do Grounds Maintenance Workers make?
- $26,830 Annual Salary
- $12.90 per hour
Careers for Grounds Maintenance Workers
- Arborists
- Certified pesticide applicators
- Fruit sprayers
- Golf course laborers
- Greenskeeper laborers
- Grounds caretakers
- Groundskeepers
- Groundskeeping workers
- Hedge trimmers
- Herbicide sprayers
- Landscape contractors
- Landscapers
- Landscaping workers
- Lawn care workers
- Lawn caretakers
- Lawn maintenance workers
- Lawn mowers
- Lawn service workers
- Orchard sprayers
- Pesticide handlers, sprayers, and applicators
- Pesticide handlers, sprayers, and applicators, vegetation
- Plant sprayers
- Pruners
- Shrub planters
- Sod layers
- Trail construction workers
- Trail maintenance workers
- Trailhead construction workers
- Trailhead maintenance workers
- Tree pruners
- Tree specialists
- Tree surgeons
- Tree trimmer helpers
- Tree trimmers
- Tree trimmers and pruners
- Weed sprayers