Equipment Maintenance

One very important aspect of golf course maintenance that goes on behind the scene and most people do not think about is the maintenance of our equipment and most importantly the maintenance, adjusting, and grinding of our reels.  We are fortunate here at LGCC to have a very talented and hard working equipment technician in Al Grafton.

Al getting ready to grind a reel

Our mowers that mow the tall rough areas are normal rotary mowers that have a blade and cut just like your mowers on your home lawn.  All the rest of our mowers that cut to precision and are used on low mowing areas, like fairways, tees, approaches, collars, and greens, are reel type mowers that have a reel that comes around and forms a scissor action with a fixed bedknife.  These mowers cut just like a scissors and require daily adjustment, height of cut settings, and regular sharpening.  Just like a scissors that becomes loose, if our setting of reel to knife becomes loose then they will not cut as well.

Daily adjustment of a fairway mower

Quality of cut has many implications with course maintenance.  It effects the playability of the course, the ball roll, and most importantly the health of the turf.  A dull mower strips the leaf tissue instead of giving us a clean cut.  This stripping opens up the leaf tissue for disease, allows for a greater loss of water and wilt stress, decreases the health of the plant, and impacts the asthetics of a golf course.  Every single day and every single time a mower leaves the shop, it has been inspected and checked by Al to assure it is going to provide us a precise quality of cut to a very precise height of cut out on the golf course.