With the long, cool spring of 2023 coming to an end, I have begun to see signs of summer. Poa annua is finally beginning to recede in much of the Southeast, warm-season turfgrasses are beginning to grow and if any doubt remained, turf exposed to winter injury can finally be confirmed as dead or alive. I love the recent Green Section Record article "Targeted Maintenance" as I see many courses needing to add inputs or perform cultural practices to certain areas to promote recovery from the winter of 2023 and all the play we’ve seen. It will still take time for golf courses to recover from winter injury, especially after a cool spring, but soon enough we will be complaining about heat, humidity and keeping up with mowing.
When it comes to mowers, turfgrass equipment management is entering a new era of precision reel maintenance and quality of cut. Equipment managers are constantly honing their craft and raising turfgrass maintenance to new heights (pardon the pun). However, finding the staff to operate these finely tuned machines is still a challenge. For that reason, the future of golf course maintenance will likely include autonomous mowers.
As we reported last year, autonomous mowers on golf courses are becoming more commonplace. I have begun to see small, rotary-style autonomous mowers in my travels – especially on clubhouse lawns and roughs. I have even seen them maintaining lower heights of turfgrass like fairways and teeing grounds. If you are thinking about robot mowers, some things to consider are listed below.
Benefits:
Small cutting blades that are affordable and easy to change.
Ability to mow more regularly and at night.
Autonomous operation with minimal oversight required.
Safe, low-risk equipment with relatively low cost of purchase and operation.
Improved turfgrass quality due to more frequent mowing.
Challenges:
Blades must be changed frequently.
Installation of charging stations.
Inability to maintain low heights of cut – i.e., less than 0.5 inch.
Obstacles like tee markers, bunker rakes or curbs may be difficult for some units to detect and avoid.
Transporting the unit from one mowing area to another.
Small, rotary-style units are a great introduction to autonomous equipment and are relatively easy to set up, operate and maintain. Recent improvements in technology include the ability to control mowing boundaries from your phone, mowing in patterns, and receiving battery level or fault codes remotely. If you are interested in this technology, small autonomous mowers may be a great, low-risk opportunity for your golf course. I also see these as long-term solutions for improving conditions and reallocating labor. As always, superintendents, equipment managers and maintenance teams will find the best use for new technology.
Southeast Region Agronomists:
Chris Hartwiger, director, Agronomy – chartwiger@usga.org
Jordan Booth, Ph.D., director, USGA Course Consulting Service – jbooth@usga.org
John Rowland, Ph.D., agronomist – jrowland@usga.org