Tournament standards, every round

one of carolina's top golf courses chooses jacobsen's eclipse for better cut and easy operation

The championship 18-hole course at Highlands Falls Country Club, tucked away among the Great Smoky Mountains in Highlands, N.C, has evolved over the past 46 years into a hidden gem that Golfweek describes as one of the most distinguished courses in the Southeast. Opened in 1962 and redesigned by Joe Lee in the early 1980s to meet USGA specifications, the member-owned Highlands Falls course features 6,130 yards of breathtaking mountain views, pristine fairways and some of the finest greens found anywhere on the East Coast.

Fred Gehrisch, a certified golf course superintendent (CGCS) beginning his tenth year in the position, says his maintenance team goes to work with the same goal in mind day in and day out to provide members with a course that plays up to tournament standards, every round. Because of this commitment to quality, Gehrisch and the rest of the Highlands Falls maintenance staff have built a reputation for their course as one of the finest in the state. As a result of the premium his club puts on maintaining the absolute finest playing conditions possible, Gehrisch decided to give the new Eclipse 122™ walking greens mower a try when he heard about Jacobsen’s newest technological innovation. He tried it, loved it and never looked back.

In the fall of 2007, after testing a couple of Eclipse 122s on his course, Gehrisch was immediately sold. “The quality-of-cut that you get from the Eclipse is absolutely the best on the market right now, without exception,” he says. “The members noticed the differences in the greens and wanted to know what I was doing. After hearing those kinds of responses from the members, getting the four Eclipse mowers we ordered this fall was a no-brainer,” Gehrisch says. The only thing that slightly worried Gehrisch about the Eclipse was the reaction he’d get from his crew. The walking greens mower uses more advanced technology than other mowers the crew was used to, and while operation of the Eclipse is designed to be simpler, Gehrisch was not sure how fast they would be able to get acclimated to the
new system. “I thought the training might be a little difficult, but the guys picked it up quicker than any other new mower we’ve ever used here,” he says. “They liked not having to engage the reel and the drive system separately and having only one switch to control them both makes training easy and keeps operation pretty simple.”

The Eclipse walking greens mower line was designed to give superintendents and turf managers more control over their cut. With independent, adjustable settings for reel speed, mow speed and frequency of clip, the Eclipse is adaptable to any course and any condition. This unique level of control gives professionals the ability to set their greens mowers for the best results on their own course -- a feature Gehrisch is enjoying at Highlands Falls. “Our mowers are set to get almost a double cut on every pass,” he explains. “We are getting a better cut on our greens with the Eclipse than we have with any mower I’ve used in the past.”

Even with the new technology, everyday maintenance of the mowers has not been an object of concern for most courses using the Eclipse, including Highlands Falls. “The Eclipse 122s are really pretty easy to work on,” Gehrisch says. “Our mechanic has never been the type to be afraid of new technology and he hasn’t had any trouble from a maintenance perspective at all.” Gehrisch ordered his fleet of Eclipse mowers with the quiet Gen-Set gas powered generators. An all-electric, silent battery power source is also available on all models for courses that operate under decibel level restrictions and cater to other noise considerations. “The Eclipse 122 gives the finest quality-of-cut in the business, bar none,” Gehrisch says. “I have no doubt that as more superintendents try it, they’re going to be impressed by the new technology. I really could see it capturing the market for walking greens mowers. The quality-of-cut is just that much better.”