Director of Golf Operations

THE CUTTING EDGE

OF GOLF COURSE MAINTENANCE

Jeff Hochman

Director of Golf Operations

Brian Whitlark, Senior consulting agronomist, West Region Most homeowners who have a lawn cut their grass with a rotary mower that has one or two revolving blades. Typical cutting height for a lawn is around 2-3 inches and you probably have to mow about once per week when the grass is growing. You fill the mower with gas, check the oil every now and then, and maybe even give it a wash occasionally. Some may have pivoted to battery-powered mowers and need to replace the battery every year or so. When it’s all said and done, most home lawn mowers do not require a great deal of maintenance and probably receive even less than they need, but what if you were trying to maintain the grass on a golf course? Extremely sharp, finely tuned mowing equipment is paramount to maintain golf course turf at a high level and mower technology is constantly evolving. Here is a brief glimpse into the mower technology used on golf courses, what’s required to keep them performing well, and how you can help make life a little easier for golf course equipment managers. Golf course mowing equipment is much more

Keeping golf course mowers cutting their best requires constant adjustments and repairs performed by highly skilled staff.

complex and expensive than most people think. A walking greens mower will run about $10,000 while a riding greens mower will cost roughly $40,000. A mower for fairways costs about $70,000! You may be surprised to hear that mowers used to cut putting greens are used nearly every day during the growing season and are adjusted every time they are used! The mowers used on greens, tees and fairways don’t use a rotary blade like your home lawnmower, they use spinning reels that can have between seven and 15 individual blades on them. The reels spin at a high rate of speed and cut the grass by shearing it between the reel and a sharp piece of metal called a bedknife. These components must be checked daily to yield the best quality of cut and to avoid damaging the turf. Golf courses will use greens mowers about 1,000 hours per year and the useful life of a greens mower is only about 4,000 hours, so the turnover is high. A fulltime equipment manager is common at most courses and many employ a second or third mechanic. At every golf course, the people responsible for mower maintenance have their hands full keeping up with everything from daily adjustments to the endless repairs needed over the course of a season. Without their constant efforts, playing conditions and turf health would suffer. Golfers can help the cause by taking a few basic steps to reduce the risk of damage to mowers. Large sand particles splashed onto greens from bunker shots or tracked onto the green by golf shoes damage mowers. Brushing away clumps of sand on the green with your putter or knocking sand off your shoes before walking on the putting surface can make a big difference – just don’t bang your ankle with the sand wedge, that really hurts. Broken tees on teeing grounds also damage mowers and golfers can do their part by picking up and disposing of their own broken tees and a couple of others that might be laying around. Finally, overfilling divots on tees and fairways damages mowers when they run over the sand and it grinds through the reels. Golfers can help by tapping down divot mix so that it’s level with the surrounding turf and not raised above it. The value of a golf course equipment fleet often exceeds $1 million and these machines are directly responsible for the playing conditions we enjoy. We can all help to extend the life of the mowers and keep them cutting their best by practicing good course etiquette and cleaning up after ourselves and others.