IN THEIR OWN WORDS
Lighter Units and Smaller Reels Reap
Big Benefits at Winchester
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Jacobsen
SLF-1880 |
Charlotte, N.C. (November 14, 2008) — Donald Ross is among the most celebrated and revered golf course designers on the planet, and for good reason. While best known for his work at Pinehurst No. 2, Oak Hills, Seminole and several prominent others, Ross left behind 413 golf courses with his characteristic sloping fairways, contoured greens and punishing approaches when he died in 1948. One of the many remaining gems that constitutes his lasting legacy has managed to survive the test of time and over a century of play from New England's top golfers just seven miles north of Boston at Winchester Country Club.
"The course dates back to the original Ross design in 1902," explains Dennis Houle, Winchester's golf course superintendent for the past five years. "It's had some work done over the years, but it is still pretty close to the same hilly, rolling layout that it started with more than 100 years ago, and our players love it."
Until 2004, Houle and his maintenance team used an existing fleet of larger fairway units to mow the dips, hills and difficult lines still intact from Ross' original vision. Houle made the decision to start systematically changing out the fleet of what he calls the "tanks" for smaller, lighter and more maneuverable units that were better suited to handle Winchester's terrain.
"We liked the setup of the triplex mowers with the 22-inch reels and their ability to follow contours, but we're a busy course and it would be impossible to mow our fairways on a regular basis with three-reel machines," Houle said.
Together with management, Houle made the decision to switch out one of his larger mowers each year to the smaller, lighter SLF-1880™ from Jacobsen. Four years into the experiment, Houle and his crew couldn't be more pleased with the quality-of-cut and the precision they are now getting from the fleet of four super-lightweight fairway units.
"The smaller unit with the smaller reels really gets in and out of these undulations a lot better than even some of the triplexes we have, and there is no comparison between the cut you get with the SLF-1880 and those larger units," he said. "The larger reels roll over the top of some of the small depressions – what we call ‘birdbaths‘ if you don't hit them just right – and it was a less consistent cut overall."
Winchester still keeps a few of the larger units in the garage for some applications like mowing after topdressing and for the first few times out in the spring when acorns and twigs are abundant.
"Once we get into the day-to-day operation, those 1880s are all we run," Houle said. "We collect clippings all the time, and there is a marked difference in the amount of bentgrass we pick up with these 1880s than what we see with the larger units. In terms of cut, clippings and after-cut-appearance, there really is a visible difference."
Ross designs are well known for their contours, slopes and domes, making straight-line tracking a necessity for courses like Winchester. Lighter machines like the Jacobsen SLF-1880 are able to track straighter over hills and bumps, simply because they are not prone to slide on a slope where larger mowers might.
After 17 years as a superintendent and an assistant in the golf course industry on three different courses, Houle has had plenty of opportunity to evaluate different types of turf equipment. For his purposes at Winchester Country Club, he's found the SLF-1880 to be a perfect fit.
"Compared to anything else I've used on fairways, I would say the 1880 is probably the best unit I've run," he said. "It gets in and out of the undulations better than some triplexes and in terms of following a contour, nothing else even comes close."
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| Two SLF-1880s were included in the package of Jacobsen equipment sent to Briarwood Golf Club. A versatile AR-3 trim mower will help Briarwood provide members with first-class playing conditions. |
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Briarwood Goes Orange with TurfWerks
Charlotte, N.C. (December 11, 2008) — When Briarwood Golf Club in Ankeny, Iowa, decided it was time for change, club ownership knew that Josh Shull and TurfWerks were the people to talk to.
Until recently, Briarwood Golf Club had been a public course, widely acclaimed for its great layout, playing conditions, customer service and low rates.
But earlier in 2008 the Newman Golf Group decided to transform the four-star rated course into a first-class private club. This transformation meant a new clubhouse, new investment and new equipment to get the course in top shape.
Newman Golf turned to Shull and TurfWerks, who they had worked with on two additional courses in the area, to supply Briarwood immediately with all-new Jacobsen equipment to replace the entire fleet of older, aging machines.
"They were in dire straits with their old fleet, and they needed new equipment to start using in the fall to help attract new membership," Shull said.
"We sat down with the management and the superintendent, and we were able to work out an agreement that was financially agreeable, giving them new greens, tee, fairway and trim mowers along with a couple utility vehicles to get started with right away," he added.
In all, the equipment package included, four Greens King™ IVs, two SLF-1880s, an AR-3™, two Turf Trucksters® and three Haulers.
"The superintendent preferred to go with Jacobsen from the start, and the relationship that we've developed with the course from smaller deals over the past few years helped them understand the kind of service and support that we provide," Shull said.
Briarwood Golf Club will fully convert to a private club in the spring of 2009, and through Josh Shull and TurfWerks, they now have a new fleet of equipment on their course with the ability to make it a truly first-class facility.
For more information on Jacobsen and the company's expansive international dealer network, visit www.jacobsen.com or call 1.888.922.TURF.
Old Friend Calls on Jacobsen in Singapore
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| The crew at Sentosa Golf Club get the greens ready for the Barclays Singapore Open. |
Charlotte, N.C. (December 2, 2008) — Sentosa Golf Club is the most exclusive course in all of Singapore, and is the home of the Asian Tour's Barclays Singapore Open. With total prize money for this year's event exceeding $5 million U.S. dollars, some of the best golfers in the world set their sights on this event at Sentosa from November 13-16.
As the superintendent of Sentosa Golf Club, long-time Jacobsen user and friend Gregg Swanson, CGCS, decided that he needed new equipment to get his course ready for the caliber of championship play necessary for such a prestigious event. Swanson ordered six new Eclipse 122F walking greens mowers to compliment his current fleet, comprised in part of additional Jacobsen machines.
The units were delivered in October, three weeks prior to the start of the event, under the watchful eye of Glenn Wright, a technical training manager with Jacobsen Asia Pacific. Wright spent long hours at the course from the day the mowers arrived until the final round of the tournament to make sure they were cutting at their absolute best.
"I got to the golf course at 6 a.m. each morning," Wright said. "Long days indeed, but I was determined to make sure that the Eclipse units worked well, and the course was in amazing shape for the entire tournament."
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| Sentosa's greens were in great shapethroughout the tournament. |
Cutting at 2.8 mm for two weeks, the Eclipse 122Fs got the greens ready for international media coverage and some of the best players from Asia, Europe, Africa and North America.
The height-of-cut was dropped down to 2.5 mm and the frequency-of-clip was necessarily adjusted as well during the week prior to the start of the tournament, as Swanson had Sentosa's greens reading more than 11 feet on the Stimpmeter with Wright's help despite 14 inches of rain in the 10 days leading up to the start of the tournament.
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Six new Eclipse 122Fs were brought in by superintendent Gregg Swanson, CGCS, to prepare Sentosa for the world's best golfers. |
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Thanks in part to the incredible performance of the Eclipse 122Fs at Sentosa Golf Club and the persistent support of Glenn Wright, the Barclays Singapore Open was played under pristine course conditions and featured some of the most exciting professional golf played anywhere in the world this year.
For more information on Jacobsen and the company's expansive international dealer network, visit www.jacobsen.com or call 1.888.922.TURF
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