I’ve had a bunch of requests from folks to talk a bit about our fleet of equipment and how we utilize them. Spoiler alert – they are not all mowers! Before we get into it, let’s address the elephant in the room – mother nature. Yes, it is snowing again (superb). But fear not, it will be gone before we know it and the weather pattern looks to be shifting towards more springlike conditions. Moving right along….let’s meet the fleet!
Mowers
Toro 3150 (Delilah): Yes, we name all of our equipment….it’s bad luck if you don’t (I think). This is our primary triplex greens mower. Our primary reels are 11 blade, and we have 2 sets of backup or ‘sand’ reels. We slap those on after our regular light topdressing to preserve the life on our primary reels.
Toro 3100 (Adele): Our backup greens mower. When we verticut greens we send this unit out first to slice followed by the 3150 on cleanup duty.
Toro 5410 (Ilse): One of our 3 fairway units. Did you know we mow each of our fairways a minimum of 3 times each per week?
Jacobsen 4300 (PB Mcall): Another primary fairway unit. Funny name…I know. When the poa annua in the fairways has gone to seed in the spring the turf is thick and grows rapidly. PB Mcall = poa buster. This unit will mow anything. And is pretty much bullet proof.
Jacobsen SLF 1880 (Ingrid): A lighter weight, smaller fairway unit. She is down for repairs (new charge pump) at the moment.
Toro 3250 (Astrid): Triplex collar mower. She can get in and out of tight spaces. Also deployed on some of the smaller tee boxes on the course.
Toro 4500 (Matilda): Our biggest rotary rough mower. Matilda covers a lot of ground…quickly. Most of the time you will see Ali’s father Coach Carl operating that mower.
Toro 3500 (Annabel): Also called the ‘sidewinder’, the 3500 is a smaller triplex rough mower. She is a billy goat – capable of mowing on steep sidehills / creeks and getting in and out of tighter spaces.
Exmark Lazer Z (Sophie): A fixed deck zero turn mower. She takes care of the primary cut of rough (mowed shorter than the secondary rough)
Utility Vehicles
Toro Workman MD (Herbie): The smallest of our 3 utility vehicles, Herbie is most often used for landscaping work, but occasionally tows the greens roller.
Cushman Truckster (Helga): The eldest of our two Cushman trucksters – she setup as our dedicated spray rig and just had a new rear differential installed.
Cushman Truckster (Gertrude): Our primary workhouse. She tows the greens roller daily and handles smaller loads of material handling.
Daihatsu HiJet Hauler (Kobayashi): A 4-wheel drive material hauler with a large hydraulic dump bed. We can move a ton of material quickly.
Toro 5410 (Ilse)
Greens Equipment
Turfco Widespin (Nora): Our tow-behind sand topdressing unit. We use this piece of equipment regularly throughout the season to lightly top dress the greens to manage thatch accumulation and keep the greens smooth and fast.
Planet Air Walk Behind Aerator (Ella): An invaluable piece of equipment. It can be setup with coring tines or knives. We use her regularly throughout the season equipped with 1/8” knives to slice the greens with no disruption to play. This creates a denser canopy and root zone while allowing gas exchange and water transfer. We can core or knife all the greens in 2.5 hours.
Toro Greens Aerator (Bertha): Setup with traditional solid or coring tines for some of our end-of-season greens renovation.
DMI Speed Roller (Emilia): Our greens roller. Clutch and chain driven instead of hydraulics, this lightweight roller is deployed a minimum of 4x’s/week. Keeps greens smooth and fast while also preventing the disease dollar spot.
Fairway Freddie on the DMI Speed Roller (Emilia)
Tractors / Misc. (Sorry, no names for these hard working pieces)
Kioti LB3304: Small tractor with big dreams…complete with front end loader and quick attach backhoe
Ford 1320: Sports turf tires – we can cruise around the course with our fairway roller or towing the trailer without damaging the turf
Digger: Yeah, we just call it a digger. And boy does it dig. A unique piece with multiple buckets, turf tires, and is self propelled. great for dredging creeks.
Fairway / Tee roller: Towed behind the ford, we start eavery season with a solid roll /spike on all fairways and tees. Also seeds in large areas that may be thining.
That about covers it. We have worked very hard since buying the course to replace the old equipment while adding crucial pieces to enhance course conditions. A big thank you to Aaron Madison of Madison Turf and Nick from Reel Sharp for helping us acquire most of the fleet! There are certainly other pieces of maintenance equipment we have added – like Bernhard grinders to keep our gear sharpety-sharp – perhaps a shop tour sometime in the future.
One final item people ask about – the height of cut we use for different turf areas. Without getting into the ‘why’, here are our numbers:
Greens: depends on turf health/time of year – .136” for early season down to .120” once the greens are growing and healthy
Fairway: .67”
Primary Rough: 1.25”
Secondary Rough: 2.25”
That’s all for now! Catch you next week….when its sunny and 60!
Recent Comments