Superintendent's Forum

What is your favorite piece of jacobsen equipment?

Jeff Kent • Quail Hollow Club • Charlotte, North Carolina

THE GK 518™ WALKING GREENS MOWER.

“I like the GK 518 because it’s operator friendly and has a superior quality-ofcut,” Kent says. “We tried seven different mowers before going with the 518. I like the solid drum on the rear. It’s almost like we’re rolling the greens as we’re mowing. We single cut on a daily basis and do very little rolling. We stimped before we aerified, and the greens were between 10.6 and 11 feet on a regular basis.”

The staff uses solid rollers most of the time; however, a few mowers are equipped with grooved rollers and Jacobsen’s patented Turf Groomer™.

“When it’s hot and humid, it’s important to give the greens a little vertical mowing,” Kent says. “We were having problems with them and that’s why we selected the 518s. We’re mowing in two different directions, and this keeps the greens from getting puffy in summer. Unless we do that, the turf injures very easily from ball marks. It also keeps the texture good. We’re mowing, rolling and verticutting at the same time. We’re miles ahead.”

Quail Hollow was having other issues with greens. The edges were uneven, and Kent likened the situation to mowing over the Rocky Mountains.

“When the operator set the mower down, he was going over a hill before he got to the green because the collar was raised,” he explains. “The edges had to be smoothed out, and until that happened the 518 was the only mower we could use.”

 

Jim Scott • Edelweiss Chalet Country Club • New Glarus, Wisconsin

THE AR-5™ FINE-CUT ROTARY MOWER.

Scott had something of an epiphany last fall. There were serious issues with his aging equipment fleet, particularly the fairway mowers. He looked through the manual for the AR-5, which stated it cut as low as 3/4 inch, the height he was mowing fairways at the 18-hole semiprivate course. So, he decided to try it.

“When we started mowing fairways with the AR-5, people said they wished the conditions could be like that year-round,” he says. “We purchased two more last winter, and in spring the word in the pro shop was that we must have a new superintendent because the quality-of-cut in the fairways was so good. We have Poa annua/ bluegrass fairways and the AR-5s lift up every blade of grass. They’ve done a phenomenal job. We’ve got some pretty rough, contoured fairways and we haven’t had any scalping issues. I know what we’re doing goes against convention, but there is a reason the AR-5 was designed to cut at 3/4 inch — because it can be done.”

The AR-5s are all-around mowers at the club, cutting roughs, fairway collars and fairways. The crew raises or lowers the decks in 15 minutes.

“We used to struggle with it,” Scott says. “Changing the height-of-cut was taking us about 45 minutes. But the more we did it, the easier it got. There’s no magic procedure, shortcut or special tools; we do it by the book.”

Scott chose the AR-5 because of its versatility.

“We cut the entire rough in seven hours, change the deck height and mow all the fairways in 90 minutes,” he says. “The results have shown me the AR-5 is the way to go for us. I swear by them. I really do."

 

Mike Stamey • Maggie Valley Club • Maggie Valley, North Carolina

THE LF-3400™ FAIRWAY MOWER.

“We’ve had two LF-3400s for five years and haven’t had any problems,” Stamey says. “We put 3,000 hours on each of them and never replaced anything except the bedknife. The quality-of-cut is unreal and it’s easy to operate. Just touch a button to raise and lower the cutting units. With plenty of power, power steering and a good turning radius this mower handles like a baby, even on hills. Sometimes we don’t even have to use four-wheel-drive on steep slopes.

“The LF-3400 is the easiest mower to operate of any on the market,” he continues. “An operator can be on the machine for eight hours and not be really tired. On other mowers your arms are tired and you’re just worn out at the end of the day. On this Jacobsen machine the operator sits comfortably in the seat and the mower handles easily. It’s so operator-friendly that it almost operates itself. Just steer and the ride is smooth; the LF-3400 doesn’t bounce.”

For Stamey, the proof is in the performance.

“We had 70 inches of rain last year and had to mow wet many times,” he says. “The LF-3400s didn’t clump or track. I’ve had other sales representatives ask me what kind of fairway mowers we use. When I tell them it’s the LF-3400, they tell me they don’t need to talk to me about their mowers. Jacobsen’s hit a home run with this machine. It’s an all-around great mower — the best fairway mower on the market.”