[Wade Whitehead]

Last month, I played Redlands Mesa for the first time.  I had a wonderful time.

In our afternoon round we played the back tees.  On a number of holes, this required climbing steps, which were composed primarily of natural stone (not poured concrete).  They were rugged.  I liked them.

On the 17th, we noticed a patch where folks had apparently scampered above the "back" tee; we climbed up to find a rough teebox (with no grass at all), which barely provided both of us room to tee up a golf ball and hit (which we did).

Afterwards, I realized: I cannot conceive how mowers and other machinery are taken to those tee boxes, short of being carried on the back of an associate.  On some isolated back teeboxes (like 11), I believe they could be pushed or driven up, though I generally failed to notice paths for doing so.  On many, though, there seemed to be no way up except for the staircase or steeper hillside.

Jim Engh and/or others, are certain teeboxes at Redlands Mesa inaccessible to pushed or driven equipment?  If so, how are they maintained?

Are there other courses with similarly severe features that require carrying equipment up stairs?

Just wondered.  Much of this was an afterthought, or I would have mapped and/or taking pictures during the round.

WW

[Kalen Braley]

I did a review of the course a couple of years back.

Feel free to use any of the pics....I loved the 17th btw, just an incredible golf hole.

http://golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,29627.0/

[Wade Whitehead]

Thanks, Kalen.  Your shot looking back at 17 tee shows exactly what I'm talking about.  How do they get mowers up there, and especially to the at-least-once-considered very top teeing ground?

WW

[Kalen Braley]

I'm guessing they just get a normal mower like what i use at home and with 2 guys take it up the steps?

Furthmore they would have to go up there twice per week to mow??  The pads are pretty small, doesn't seem terribly difficult.

[Jon Heise]

I played Kinsale CC near Columbus this year.  There's a par 3 with a little lake in the middle, cant remember the hole.  The maintenance guys were mowing the edges of this lake with a mower that looked like a floor wax machine.  They'd be standing in the dry land and mowing down close to the water.  It was small, circular, hand-held and kind of hovered I guess, definitely mowing the hard to reach parts of the rough.  Had never seen that before, they were pretty cool.

[Wade Whitehead]

I played Kinsale CC near Columbus this year.  There's a par 3 with a little lake in the middle, cant remember the hole.  The maintenance guys were mowing the edges of this lake with a mower that looked like a floor wax machine.  They'd be standing in the dry land and mowing down close to the water.  It was small, circular, hand-held and kind of hovered I guess, definitely mowing the hard to reach parts of the rough.  Had never seen that before, they were pretty cool.

Supers will advise more adequately than I, but: Hover mowers are, indeed, used widely at courses that cut grass down to the waters edge.  They can, I think even dip into the water if needed.  See 12 at Augusta, correct?

WW

[K. Krahenbuhl]

I played Kinsale CC near Columbus this year.  There's a par 3 with a little lake in the middle, cant remember the hole.  The maintenance guys were mowing the edges of this lake with a mower that looked like a floor wax machine.  They'd be standing in the dry land and mowing down close to the water.  It was small, circular, hand-held and kind of hovered I guess, definitely mowing the hard to reach parts of the rough.  Had never seen that before, they were pretty cool.

Supers will advise more adequately than I, but: Hover mowers are, indeed, used widely at courses that cut grass down to the waters edge.  They can, I think even dip into the water if needed.  See 12 at Augusta, correct?

WW

I've often seen them used around bunkers as well.

[Anthony_Nysse]

I played Kinsale CC near Columbus this year.  There's a par 3 with a little lake in the middle, cant remember the hole.  The maintenance guys were mowing the edges of this lake with a mower that looked like a floor wax machine.  They'd be standing in the dry land and mowing down close to the water.  It was small, circular, hand-held and kind of hovered I guess, definitely mowing the hard to reach parts of the rough.  Had never seen that before, they were pretty cool.

Supers will advise more adequately than I, but: Hover mowers are, indeed, used widely at courses that cut grass down to the waters edge.  They can, I think even dip into the water if needed.  See 12 at Augusta, correct?

WW

The machine is called a flymow and the crew was flymowing.

Tony Nysse
Pine Tree GC
Boynton Beach, FL

[Matt_Cohn]

I played Kinsale CC near Columbus this year.  There's a par 3 with a little lake in the middle, cant remember the hole.  The maintenance guys were mowing the edges of this lake with a mower that looked like a floor wax machine.  They'd be standing in the dry land and mowing down close to the water.  It was small, circular, hand-held and kind of hovered I guess, definitely mowing the hard to reach parts of the rough.  Had never seen that before, they were pretty cool.

Supers will advise more adequately than I, but: Hover mowers are, indeed, used widely at courses that cut grass down to the waters edge.  They can, I think even dip into the water if needed.  See 12 at Augusta, correct?

WW

The machine is called a flymow and the crew was flymowing.

Tony Nysse
Pine Tree GC
Boynton Beach, FL

If I remember correctly, at PGA West some of the slopes are so tall and steep that the crew had to tie a long rope to the flymower handle and pull it up and down that way from the top of the hill.

[Tom_Doak]

There was a tee on the Mountain Course at LaQuinta where they just left an old reel push mower up there and cut it by hand every few days.  In other such places I've seen astroturf tees.  Best hole with an astro turf tee -- the sixth at New South Wales.

[Andrew Hastie]

When I last played NSW a couple of years ago the 6th Tee had gone back to grass.

[Niall C]

There was a tee on the Mountain Course at LaQuinta where they just left an old reel push mower up there and cut it by hand every few days.  In other such places I've seen astroturf tees.  Best hole with an astro turf tee -- the sixth at New South Wales.

Astro turf tee - 2nd at Aberdour

[TEPaul]

wwhitehead:

One of the best educations I've ever had about how maintenance crews get around golf courses (with their machinery etc) is the years of officiating I've done. When one officiates it is always necessary to get from one part of a golf course to another quite quickly and if one can find some of the lanes and access paths that maintenance uses that golfers rarely if ever see or are even aware of then one begins to understand. The flip side of this is it is just amazing how fast one can cover the holes of a golf course (particularly the greens if one is doing something like testing pin positions) if they do not travel along the hole sequence or progression that golfers do when they play a golf course!

[Wade Whitehead]

One of the best educations I've ever had about how maintenance crews get around golf courses (with their machinery etc) is the years of officiating I've done. When one officiates it is always necessary to get from one part of a golf course to another quite quickly and if one can find some of the lanes and access paths that maintenance uses that golfers rarely if ever see or are even aware of then one begins to understand. The flip side of this is it is just amazing how fast one can cover the holes of a golf course (particularly the greens if one is doing something like testing pin positions) if they do not travel along the hole sequence or progression that golfers do when they play a golf course!

Yes.  I'm always interested in those back roads and hidden paths.  Cleverly placed, they're never noticed by the player.  I discovered their use in my days of coaching golf, when I needed to be on many parts of the course at once, similar, in some ways, to how an official might need to navigate.

I still remember someone hitting it way left on 11 at Augusta a couple of years ago and ending up on a maintenance path in the woods.  Els maybe?

I'm still wondering, though, how those darn back tees at Redlands Mesa get cut!

WW

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