Ride on mowers

One of the interesting stats which invariably got wheeled out when The Open Championship is played at St Andrews is how many miles the guys cutting the greens have to walk to double cut the greens. The reason being that with such massive double greens the figures are eyewatering and would make blisters throb and Fitbits explode!

However, this year was different. The greens of the Old Course were not hand mown at all. Greens triples were used – something that would until been seen as sacrilegious at a members’ club for Captain’s Day.

Is this a sign that standards are slipping at the Home of Golf?

Not at all. Anyone who witnessed the quality of the putting surfaces at St Andrews and the yards of putts that were holed, not least by eventual champion, Cameron Smith, can vouch for the fact that the greens were as good, or better, than they have ever been.

Go on one week, and the first regular DP Tour event since The Open, and Hillside GC Course Manager, Chris Ball, was also using triples to cut his greens for the Cazoo Classic. Aren’t the modern day Tour pros so spoilt by being able to play such wonderful courses on a weekly basis?

Yet again, dozens of long putts were holed, and the surfaces could have been mistaken for billiard tables.

So, what has changed?

Well, a number of things. You can point to the quality of the equipment which now makes a greens triple a viable alternative to a top quality hand mower. But also from a sustainability and practicality standpoint a triple mower can carrying out the task in a fraction of the time freeing up manpower to tackle other course management tasks.

“Our greens are huge, particularly the double greens, and total two and a half hectares. It takes 12 members of staff to hand cut them once and we will be double cutting them for The Open,” said Gordon McKee, Course Manager, speaking to Turf Matters for our Open preview.

“To get that done in the time available each day would have meant going to silly numbers in terms of manpower and machinery.

“We at St Andrews have always been conscious of sustainability and the environment and working with our machinery partners in Toro and the R&A this approach is a message we are trying to get out.

“There are sustainable ways in which you can maintain your golf course, not just for Major tournaments, but for any Club Championship or Captain’s Day at clubs around the world,” said Gordon.

For Chris at Hillside there was another reason that he felt came greens triples an advantage.

“Every operator has a different style of cutting a green. This means that there are different weights and pressures going through the machine and on to the sward. Triple mowers mean that there is much greater consistency when it comes to cutting,” explained Chris.

The greens triple revolution comes on the back on the development of hybrid or fully electric machines which make cutting of greens in residential areas much more acceptable from a noise perspective while, as Gordon at St Andrews suggested, ticking so

many more sustainability boxes. Toro electric triple at St Andrews