Electric Equipment Initiative Rolls On

Several years ago we began a program utilizing fully electric equipment on our golf course that we called the Electric Equipment Initiative.  We needed a new mower for the clubhouse grounds recently, so sticking with our philosophy of reducing fuel use and carbon emissions, we purchased the EGO Lithium-ion battery powered mower from The Home Depot.

The EGO mower is a fully electric 21inch self propelled mower powered by a 56 volt lithium-ion rechargeable battery that will run for about one hour and will fully recharge in an hour.  The biggest question we had was, Would the mower have enough power to mow around the entire clubhouse on a single charge?  We are pleased to say that the mower has enough power to do the job and then some.

The EGO mower is great.  It is quiet so we are not disrupting golfers, guests, or clubhouse employees while we are mowing around the clubhouse.  It is lightweight so we really don't even have to use the self propel function if we don't want to.  It continues to help us save fuel, eliminate the possible environmental contamination with oils or fluids and eliminates the emission of harmful carbon emissions.  It looks really cool as well...it has headlights so we can silently mow in the dark if we choose.

The EGO mower, since it doesn't have any fluids or gas in it to spill out, can be stored in almost any position.  The mower folds up easily to about the size of a 50 pound bag of seed and can be stored out of the way, up against a wall to save space.

The purchase of this fully electric push mower brings our electric equipment project "full circle".  After all. it was an electric lawnmower used by Ms. Lori Munkeboe's neighbor early on a weekend morning that got the conversation about utilizing fully electric equipment on our golf course started.  This mower is just another great addition to our fleet and we hope to add more electric elements to our toolbox in the future.

We are excited and honored to be able to detail the history and success of our Electric Equipment Initiative in this month's Golf Course Management magazine in an article "Can You Hear Me Now?" starting on page 46.  I have had the pleasure of telling our story to several organizations across the country over the past several years and I hope this article will be able to reach many more and get them thinking about the advantages of using fully electric equipment to maintain their golf course.  This was a fun article to write and I have to say thanks to everyone who helped me complete this article and get it in print.

If you have any questions about using electric equipment on your course, or possibly, at your home please let me know.  If I can be of any assistance I will gladly answer any questions that I can.

Light Up The Night

Each year I have the pleasure of volunteering at East Lake Golf Club for the TOUR Championship and each year I come away with new ideas and new techniques to make my course better.  This year was no exception and one of the new ideas that I came away with was the addition of LED light bars to some of our equipment.  When you have to begin preparing the golf course before the sun comes up then sometimes you have to find a way to...light up the night.

We begin our work day at 6:00, and sometimes earlier, so finding a way to add needed lighting to our equipment was a must.  After a quick search on the wonderful internet we found these LED light bars.  Mitch and Bill spent a couple of rainy days working to install them.  On our Toro top dresser we installed this 34" LED light bar facing forward.

This is a 24" LED light bar that was placed on the side of the roll cage of the topdresser to light up where the sand is being applied to the greens.  This will help so we don't wind up skipping or overlapping topdressing sand on the greens.

With the lights installed we can now light up the entire green and see exactly where we are going and where we have been.

Mitch and Bill also installed a 24" light bar on my cart to see how it was worked and I have to say it works great.  Time will tell if it drains the batteries any faster than the standard equipped lights of the Carry All but we are only using them for such a short period of time I doubt it will be an issue.

Here is a shot of the putting green being lit up with the LED bar from by cart and it will allow us to see everything on the green early in the morning.

Thanks to Jason at East Lake for showing me this great and very economical tip to make our course better.

Latest and Greatest in Sprayer Technology



I got the opportunity today to demo the next greatest thing in chemical application and environmental protection.  What I am talking about is the Star Command Spray System from Smithco.  A couple of weeks ago I saw an advertisement on TurfNet for it and thought it was too good to be true, but it's not.  Jeff Wells with Ladd's brought the sprayer by today and I have not seen anything this promising in a long time.  If you haven't seen the new Star Command Spray System video then you need to watch it.

After watching the unit spraying and seeing the nozzles turn on and off individually and without having to control any particular nozzle I can easily see how this technology would save on chemical and fertilizer costs, save time, and insure the proper amount of product, at the proper rate, is being applied. 

The magic is in the GPS controlled Star Command module which allows the operator to spray at different speeds and different carrier volumes without having to change nozzles.  All settings are controlled from the command module which tracks the application area showing sprayed areas in one color and non-sprayed or "missed" areas in another.  Once the perimeter is logged into the computer the operator doesn't have to worry about turning nozzles on or off; it's done automatically.  Readouts can be sent to your computer or downloaded for time and product records and the drift control allows the operator to adjust the water volume on the fly to maintain an accurate spray pattern.  The GPS can turn nozzles on and off within one inch of the area and the program can save your different areas from application to application.

One of the best features of this technology is that it can be outfitted on any brand of sprayer which makes it even that much more appealing.  I'm not speaking about this unit to try to help sell any sprayers but rather how much safer it would be for the environment and the resources it could save.  If you get a chance, look at this new technology.  I think it could pay for itself in product and time savings very quickly.  Going to have to get one of these.

Dakota Turf Tender Demo Day

Nate Brewinsky of Dakota Equipment brought by thier Dakota Turf Tender 440 material handler this morning for a demonstration. Amazing piece of equipment that I am very interested in. I have used the Dakota Turf Tender 410 to topdress my greens for years and love it so I wanted to see the 440 in action. We will be able to use the 440 to effeciently and productively topdress tees and fairways, haul sand out to the 410 when topdressing greens to speed up the process, and, what I am most interested in the machine for, will be able to haul sand to our rebuilt bunkers. Having the 440 will save us a ton of time and manpower, not to mention our backs when we need to add sand to the bunkers. I was most surprised by the amount of sand that the 440 held and how quickly it dispensed the sand into the bunker using the 13 foot long conveyer. I loved the sheild at the end of the conveyer which made it very easy to disperse the sand over the floor of the bunker without piling it up and having to shovel all the sand out. Great piece of equipment that will do wonders to continue to improve the golf course.

Nate also demonstrated the fairway topdressing feature of the 440 Turf Tender on our 18th fairway.  The hopper on the 440 holds approxiamately 5 times the volume of our 410 so he was able to topdress the entire fairway, about 2.5 acres, with one hopper full of sand.  Very smooth spread and absolutely not tracking or wheel ruts due to the floatation tires and the flexible axle.

Moving toward the next level

We recently added four walk behind greens mowers to our equipment fleet.  I can't wait until the spring to start using these units.  The addition of these mowers will allow us to provide a better putting surface with smoother and faster greens.  It will also reduce the compation to the greens and eliminate any tire burns on the surrounds currently caused by the use of our riding triplex mowers.  It will take some adjustment in our mowing patterns but I feel it will help us produce a better product for our golfers.  Special thanks to Commissioner Fyke, Asst. Commissioner Lyon and Mr. Webb for helping us to move Harrison Bay toward the next level in golf courses.