One thing I've learned is this subject always seems to bring out some naysayers. When I posted about it on Tommy's site, I was pretty much taken to task by a super who felt like using a large gang mower was a huge backward step for golf course management. My view on the subject is obviously different then his, but I also acknowledge that everyone does it a little differently, or very differently, and I'm not trying to change the world.
My basic philosophy is, we spend way to much time and money mowing grass. I believe golfers care about conditions, and more specifically, they care about the lies they get on the course. As long as that lie is good, they don't care what mower was used or what fertilizer was sprayed, or how far apart the irrigation heads are.....
At Tony's club, they are not going to use gang mowers. At the clubs Pat plays at, they are not going to use gang mowers. I'm perfectly OK with that as they have members, BODs, green committees, and highly trained superintendents who know what they want to do and how to do it. That's great.
But, they are many thousands of courses around the world that do not have the resources to mow like they do at Pat's clubs. And for those clubs, with limited manpower and limited resources for equipment and equipment repair costs, proper use of a gang mower should be a real consideration.
If we grade mowing on a scale of 1-10, and we assume the turf is properly managed, the best lightweight fwy mowers will have a quality of cut we might rate at an 8, with only higher ratings being possible by smaller reeled machines that only the highest budgeted courses could afford. With proper turf management and a well cared for gang unit, I believe you could be in the 6-7 range on that scale. And I believe that level would be more then acceptable to the vast majority of players.
At most mid level clubs, multiple machines are sent out to mow. You might have a triplex mow tees and collars, possibly approaches as well, and five gang light weight fwy units mow the fwys. On a typical mowing day you might have 3-5 machines headed out, more for clubs that try to get all the mowing done ahead of play. If you look at the image below, you might have a trim type mower, either a triplex or lightweight fwy unit mow the perimeter of the fwy and pick up the tight ares around the bunkers and around the green, the areas in blue. A larger 7-9 gang pull behind unit then can pick up the majority of the golf hole, the green area. This is where you pick up efficiency. The argument I've heard against this is "you have to send out more then one machine", except most courses are already sending out multiple machines and this approach, done right, will reduce the number of machines and men mowing. They are other agruments as well like " you can't cut in tight areas"...things like that, but that is over come by utilizing the samller machines to do what they do best and using big boy to do what he does best and that is getting the large turf areas mowed as quickly and efficiently as possible.
It is a real alternative for courses that have to be concerned with operational costs.
