Demoing Equipment

I am sure that everyone of you has some sort of toy, gadget, car or some other item that you cannot wait for the newest edition or model to be released so that you can demo it or purchase it. On the golf course it's equipment; most importantly mowers. We are very fortunate here at Augusta Country Club that we lease almost all of our equipment. At the end of our lease we get brand new state of the art equipment that has all the new bells and whistles. Even if we are not in the market for a specific type of mower, sprayer or any other type of machine that would be put to use on a golf course, we still like to demo them. This way we can see what is out there and how these types of machines could possibly benefit the golf course in the future. During the past week we have been demoing a John Deere walking flex mower. We currently only have walking mowers with fixed heads. The difference between a flex head and fixed head mower is the flex mowers reels are not attached to the actual mower, where as with a fixed head mower the reels are attached to the mower. The benefit to using a flex mower is that it will flex with the contours and undulations of a green. With a fixed head mower it does not flex with all contours and undulations, thus causing the mower to dig into the green ever so slightly on some slopes and mounds leaving behind scalped turf.

This is a flex mower. If you look closely you will notice that a chain attaches the reel to the mower.

This is a fixed mower. Notice that reel is attached to the mower.