top conditions on a budget

G-Plex IIIs Excel on greens

A tribute to the great golf courses and clubs of the 1920s, College Fields, Okemos, Michigan, is characterized by rolling greens, impact bunkers and fairway surrounds. The course is the centerpiece of a planned community development that will include 286 home sites in six distinct areas.

When the course opened April 22, 2006, the maintenance staff headed out with a stiff challenge – deliver the best possible conditions with a limited amount of equipment.

“Every golf course is different,” director of operations Carey Mitchelson says. “Some guys start with $2 million of equipment and some start with $1,500. We started with $1,500. Golf is a very competitive market and we’re brand-new, but the goal was to try to make money our first year. That’s a daunting task because it takes most courses four to six years. From our standpoint, we’ve accomplished what we set out to do.”

Superintendent Greg Bishop offers a similar opinion.

“My budget is adequate,” he says, “but equipment is an issue. The ownership is respectful of our needs, but it just takes time. They have a larger picture with the development of home sites and the golf course.”

While obtaining equipment is a challenge, College Fields has a strong partner.

“Fortunately, we have friends that keep this place going,” Mitchelson says. “The guys at our local Jacobsen dealer, W.F. Miller Company, stepped up for us. They gave us the equipment we needed.

Superintendent Greg Bishop

We could only have one of each, so we needed a distributor who would back us up, try to keep each piece going all the time, and meet our financial restrictions. W.F. Miller has been great. I feel very comfortable going to them and describing our needs and limits. It’s worked out great for us.”

Overcome limitations
How does the maintenance staff overcome equipment limitations?

“The expectations for course conditions are high quality every day,” Bishop says. “I have enough staff, but there are times when additional equipment would improve our product and make us more efficient. There are 37 acres of fairway that are cut twice a week with one LF-3400.™ Greens are cut every day and double cut once or twice a week. Tees, collars and approaches are cut three times a week. We have 40 acres of rough to maintain with one mower, and we try to get around twice a week.”

Day-to-day, the staff does a tremendous job.

“With older equipment, the challenge is to take care of those pieces to relieve the significant amount of hours expected of our new inventory,” Bishop says. “For tasks requiring special equipment, we will rent or borrow the required machines.”

G-PLEX III IS EASY TO LOVE A host of exclusive ergonomic and mechanical features will have you counting the ways you love the Jacobsen G-Plex III. - The one-touch Comfort-Plus™ allows operators to control reels without removing their hands from the steering wheel. - The swing-out center reel makes maintenance a breeze. - Free-floating, steerable cutting heads move independently of the tractor, providing superior results, even on undulating terrain.

G-Plex IIIs deliver a high quality-of-cut
One area College Fields doesn’t cut corners is on greens. There are two brand new G-Plex IIIs™ with 11-blade reels that are used strictly on greens.

“The quality-of-cut with the G-Plex III is outstanding,” Bishop says. “We demo’d mowers from all the other manufacturers, and Jacobsen had the finest quality. We haven’t had any issues with them; the G-Plex III has a nice, even, consistent cut.”

Bishop finds the G-Plex III to be very user-friendly.

“The swing-out center reel makes it much easier to service the cutting unit,” he explains. “The reel mounting system is another outstanding feature, and we love the one touch lift/lower hand control on the steering column.”

Smooth transition
Bishop was hired as an assistant at College Fields three years ago. At the time, Mitchelson was superintendent overseeing his fifth grow-in. When he was promoted, Bishop was named superintendent.

“It was a smooth transition for me,” Bishop says. “I knew the course and had input as to how it is maintained. I have high expectations, but a lot of them I set myself. Because the course is new, we try to pump the fertility a little more to keep the young plants healthy and growing. We spray fungicides preventatively and apply fertilizer as needed. We topdress twice a month, backing off during July and August.”

Soil samples are taken on greens in mid-spring and fall.

“This summer we kept a close eye on the amount of water we used to hit the right levels to avoid disease,” Bishop says. “There was a hot spell in late July, and we increased the heightof- cut on the greens from .125 inch to .130 inch for a few weeks. It’s the first time I’ve done that and it seemed to help. The greens didn’t show the stress they did last year when we maintained them at a lower height.”

Find a niche
Fescue roughs and bunker surrounds elicit the strongest comments about College Fields. \“People always talk about the look of the course,” Mitchelson says. “The undulations on the greens are just about perfect for this style. It’s not an extremely long course, but with 37 acres of fairways it’s good target golf and the greens are good-sized. We have both a prairie style and woods, which appeal to golfers and homeowners.”