GOLF COURSE MAINTENANCE MACHINERY
INVESTMENT UPDATE
Dear Member / Property Owner,
As previously announced, maintaining with the commitment of course investment, the Club had committed to a further investment of €630,000 for the purchase of a new fleet of state of the art golf course maintenance machinery to aide golf course superintendent Zach LaPorte and his team in maintaining the Indiana course to the highest of standards.
The technological advances that have taken place within the machinery industry, utilised for golf course maintenance, allows Desert Springs to both be at the forefront of this innovation and to benefit from it.
Further improved maintenance of the golf course, efficiency of time, reduction in machinery down time and maintenance repairs, and improved quality of the playing surfaces, are just a few examples of the benefits afforded by the new machinery.
As advised in my Newsletter of August 2022, the first tranche of machinery that had been delivered has been out working on the course, with the requisite benefits already visible.
I wish to provide you with an update on further machinery from our order that has now arrived, albeit there are still additional machines scheduled to be delivered over the next months to complete our order.
The last of the electric utility vehicles has arrived, resulting in a total of 7 electric vehicles in the new fleet.
Two gasoline utility vehicles have also arrived. We purchased these two gas powered vehicles for one reason, when we topdress greens and fairways vehicles must be used to drag brushes and mats for very long periods of continuous time. The electric vehicles simply do not have the autonomy to complete these tasks, therefore the decision was made to incorporate these two vehicles.
Pedestrian Manual Mowers
Three of the new pedestrian manual mowers have arrived and will be used for cutting the tees, greens collars and approach.
These mowers are similar in design to the mowers we use on the greens with two exceptions, the first is that they have a fixed head/reel that will give a higher quality cut, which is better designed for use on paspalum turfgrass. The second is the width of the mower which is wider than the typical greens mower. When cutting surfaces that are undulated like greens, a narrower cutting unit is needed to prevent scalping of the turf. With flat surfaces like tees, a fixed wider mower is preferred.
A small vehicle mounted topdresser has been added to the fleet. This topdresser has a rear spinning brush that distributes the sand directly straight down and behind the vehicle. This is the perfect tool for topdressing our small circular tees in a quick and efficient manner that historically was completed either by hand or with a walk behind topdresser. With the pending arrival of the new large fairway topdresser with a conveyor belt for easy offloading, topdressing the tees should take our maintenance team a tenth of the time that it currently does.
The investment within these machines and the remaining units still to arrive will have a positive impact on both the on-going health and quality of the turfgrass, as well as and more importantly to the ever-improving playability of the Indiana course for our members and visiting guests.
You will be able to keep up to date with the full tournament and social calendar, format and any additions, information of how to enter, and much more, by visiting either our official website www.desertspringsresort.es or by contacting the Resort Reception at Desert Springs.
We and the staff at Desert Springs are looking forward to seeing you on the Indiana course in the near future.
As always, please remember to fix your ball marks and replace your divots.
Kind regards,
Zachary LaPorte
Golf Course Superintendent
New additions to the Golf Course Maintenance Machinery Fleet
Utility Vehicles
Pedestrian Manual Mowers
Small Vehicle Mounted Topdreeser
