North Carolina superintendent swaps out Toro walkers for Jacobsen ECLIPSE 322 riders and sees incredible results.
Lake Hickory Country Club At-A-Glance |
| Year Opened: 1923 Superintendent: Jeff Clemmons Number of Holes: 36 Turf: Tifway 419 Bermuda on the fairways and Penn G2 creeping bentgrass on the greens Equipment: Jacobsen ECLIPSE riding greens mowers (2), Jacobsen LF570 fairway mowers (3) |
Jeff Clemmons, Superintendent - Lake Hickory Country Club
Jeff Clemmons has been the superintendent at Lake Hickory Country Club in Hickory, North Carolina for 11 years. More than a year ago, Jeff met with club management about adding to his eight-man team.
Like so many other private courses, Lake Hickory simply didn’t have the budget to add more salaries. Currently at about 850, the club has seen its share of peaks and valleys in membership the past few years.
After learning he would have to make do with his existing team, Jeff knew it was time to get creative. At 36 holes, it was challenging to get all the grass mowed every day, let alone finding time for additional projects.
Jeff decided the best way to maximize manpower would be to switch from walk-mowing greens to riding. “I’d send out six guys to mow greens in the morning and by the time we got to fairways and tees, we’d start running into golfers,” said Clemmons. “Even though I knew riding would instantly give us more productivity, I also knew it wouldn’t be easy to convince club management.”
Lake Hickory Country Club
Jeff did extensive research on riding greens mowers to help make his case. “I knew the first question management would ask was about hydraulics on the greens,” said Clemmons. “That’s one of the reasons I suggested Jacobsen’s ECLIPSE 322 riding greens mower – it’s the only machine on the market that is 100% hydraulic free.”
“I also knew quality-of-cut would be a big issue with management as well. Our local Jacobsen dealer, Tri-State Pump, who’s been providing us excellent service, brought out an ECLIPSE 322 to demo. “Because of the more aggressive cut of the Jacobsen cutting units, we actually raised our height-of-cut (HOC) from .140 to .150 and mowed the practice green. Even with the higher HOC, we still got grass in the baskets – I attribute that to the cleaner cut you get with the Jacobsen cutting units. The pro and club manager met us out on the green and were very impressed with the quality-of-cut and the ball roll. They were also excited to learn that we could use the frequency-of-clip (FOC) settings on the ECLIPSE 322 to get more consistent results day-to-day.”
But for Jeff and the management team at Lake Hickory Country Club, the decision really came down to manpower. “Now, I send two guys on the ECLIPSE 322s to mow greens in the morning and five to mow everything else. Everything but the rough is done by noon and we’re now able to work on other course projects that had been on hold.”
When Lake Hickory’s management learned that the manpower savings would equate to more rolling, they were immediately sold on the Jacobsen ECLIPSE 322.
An ECLIPSE 322 cutting a green at Lake Hickory Country Club
With walk mowers, Jeff never had time to roll greens. “We were only able to roll once a week,” said Clemmons. “The time savings we get from the ECLIPSE 322 allows us to roll three times a week. We sometimes skip a mow and roll instead. As a result, the greens are more consistent than ever and we continue to get positive comments from management, our pro and members.”
“Some superintendents might worry that going from walking to riding might sacrifice quality-of-cut, but from my experience, I would say it’s the same, if not better.” – Jeff Clemmons
The ECLIPSE 322 also has big fans in the maintenance facility. “With the Toro units, we were changing bedknives every six weeks. With six of those units, that eats up a lot of time and cost,” said Clemmons. “With the ECLIPSE 322, our bedknives lasted one full mowing season. Our head technician was elated to say the least.”
“For us, ECLIPSE 322 was a win-win for everyone because we are able to do more with less and we didn’t sacrifice anything. In fact, the turf actually looks better,” said Clemmons.
“Some superintendents might worry that going from walking to riding might sacrifice quality-of-cut, but from my experience, I would say it’s the same if not better.”